Yorkshire Screen Success Brings European Funding

They say that Scotland is going to have a year of it in 2014, what with the Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup and its Year of Homecoming, but Yorkshire is also showing that it can run a good race.

It is already going to be the setting for the Grand Depart, the start of the 2014 Tour De France, which is widely recognised as one of the premier world sporting events of the season, and now it is emerging that it has been successful in attracting an extra £7.5 million of funding from the European Regional Development Fund as a result of its recent high profile in the film and television world.

Screen Yorkshire reported that there had been a "real surge in film making" in the region over the past two years. It was hoping that the money would help attract more projects such as Peaky Blinders, Death Comes to Pemberley and Get Santa.         

The Great Train Robbery was moved to Yorkshire for filming purposes

Private investors are said to be willing to match the fund on a project-by-project basis.
Screen Yorkshire chief executive Sally Joynson said: "Two years ago we launched the Yorkshire Content Fund with an initial grant [of £7.5m] from Europe and it's been so successful that we've now been awarded this top-up grant. That's really in recognition of the fact that the region and Screen Yorkshire has managed to create some ideal conditions which have led to a real surge in filmmaking here. The whole point of this fund is demonstrating that you don't have to be based in London to build a successful career in filmmaking."

Screen Yorkshire's investments include TV dramas The Great Train Robbery and Jamaica Inn, which were partly filmed on location in Yorkshire.

                                               Learn more about the Yorkshire film success story