Huddersfield has again been handed a prime TV role.
Film crews have been in town for a major new BBC film.
BBC2 are working on Tubby and Enid, a new drama by Victoria Wood, starring Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball.
And many of the scenes are being shot at the imposing Huddersfield Town Hall.
Production vehicles lined the streets around the hall yesterday.
It is the latest in a series of visits to the town by film and production companies in recent months.
Scenes from Farnley Tyas will appear in a huge three-part series of a new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Jamaica Inn.
They were shot last summer and will be shown at Easter.
Farnley Tyas is also set to feature in the third series of BBC crime drama DCI Banks, starring Stephen Tompkinson.
And parts of Armitage Bridge Mills were used for filming of the gritty drama Peaky Blinders, focusing on gang warfare in the early 20th century.
The latest visit came yesterday as the BBC and Endor Productions began work on the 90-minute musical film for television.
Tubby And Enid is an adaptation of the BAFTA-winning writer Victoria Wood’s stage play That Day We Sang.
The television musical will star BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake, Another Year, Shakespeare In Love) and Olivier Award winner Michael Ball (Hairspray, Sweeney Todd).
Tubby And Enid features the iconic recording of Nymphs and Shepherds sung by the Manchester Children’s Choir in 1929.
One of those children, Jimmy, is shown preparing for the great day and then captured 40 years later as the choir get together for a reunion.
One of the ex-choir members is Tubby, a middle-aged insurance salesman, living alone after the death of his mother. Hearing the record for the first time in 40 years he gets a glimpse of the boy he was and the man he could be if he has the courage to change. At the same reunion is Enid, living in a safe narrow world of her own construction.
Victoria Wood said: “Tubby And Enid brings together everything I love most – singing, dancing, comedy, love and chips.
“A musical set in 1929 and 1969 complete with tap-dancing children, singing coalmen and possibly a tram, was always going to be a big undertaking. I’m very appreciative of the way everyone at the BBC has been so encouraging and supportive.
“Imelda and Michael are my dream team, superb professionals at the top of their game. I’m hoping to deliver something that will be a real treat for the audience.”
Janice Hadlow, BBC2 controller, said: “With a fantastic cast, and written and directed by the brilliant Victoria Wood, this promises to be a real treat for viewers.”
Producer Paul Frift said: “Musicals for television are rare – to make a musical with Victoria Wood, Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball is pure heaven.
“Tubby And Enid is a beautiful universal love story. We will all be in floods of tears before the end.”
