FILM MEETS FOOD AT ST GEORGE’S HALL

Tonight, Great British Menu rolls out their Movie Awards Banquet in the heart of Liverpool, with this series’ red carpet finale filmed at St George’s Hall, facilitated by Liverpool Film Office. Our region’s neo-classical gem is no stranger to the camera, featuring in blockbuster movies such as The Batman and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The winning chefs are preparing a Banquet to celebrate over 80 VIP guests specially invited from the world of British film – from BAFTA winners to Oscar winners, actors to directors, screenwriters to set decorators, costume designers to casting directors, stunt actors and more – keeping in line with Liverpool’s status as Britain’s most filmed city after London.

The finale banquet celebrating British moviemakers has a star-studded guestlist with acclaimed British actors Alison Steadman OBE, Sue Johnston, Lolly Adefope and this year’s BAFTA rising star actress Posy Sterling. Global industry winners are numerous:  triple Oscar winning make-up designer Mark Coulier, Oscar winning costume designer Lindy Hemming, Oscar winning composer Anne Dudley, plus Oscar winning set decorator and scouser Lee Sandales. There’s also BAFTA winning producer Alison Owen (Elizabeth), BAFTA nominated screenwriter from Liverpool Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Hilary & Jackie), awarded directors from Belfast Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Good Vibrations, Saipan), Welsh-Egyptian director Sally El-Hosaini (Netflix’s The Swimmers), veteran casting director of the last 13 James Bond films Debbie McWilliams and Liverpool poet and screenwriter of Yellow Submarine, Roger McGough. Representing the long film-making tradition of Liverpool which has the oldest film office in Europe, there were also local crew attending include producers, location managers, cam operators, plus proud members of the Liverpool Film Office team.

Andi Oliver, Presenter, said of the finale: “This is my 8th year on GBM and this year’s banquet menu is possibly the most refined, fascinating and exciting yet.  It’s the first time we’ve been to Liverpool for a banquet but it’s always been one of my favourite places. It was the perfect spot because it has such a rich heritage and connection to film making.”

This year’s 29-part Great British Menu competition on BBC Two has seen chefs creating original, innovative dishes themed on British movies from fantasy blockbusters like Harry Potter to romcoms like Bridget Jones, period dramas and classics like the Full Monty and Kes and Wallace and Gromit animations. Which dishes will grace the final Banquet menu to celebrate the UK’s film industry and which chef will be voted the ultimate award winner? It’s down to the movie legends to cast the final vote. All of the chefs want the top prize and the accolade of winning in the home of Britain’s oldest film office.

The Banquet Finale airs at 9pm on Friday 24th April on BBC 2 and iPlayer.

FACILTIES FRIDAY: THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND PRODUCTION!

Action Vehicle Services is a Knowsley‑based supplier of specialist vehicles for film and TV productions, founded in 2024 by Mark Cummings, an experienced by Action Vehicle Coordinator with over 16 years in the industry. 

Facilities Friday: Making the Imaginary Real

For our latest feature of Facilities Friday, we visited Karl Sharples of KSKS TV & Film in Fazakerley. 

A skilled craftsman and propmaker, with 20 years’ experience in welding, engineering and joinery, Karl describes his role as ‘making imaginary things real or real things fake!’ 

FACILTIES FRIDAY: BRINGING METALWORK TO THE REGION

Metalworker Harry Prescott of Proper Sets Limited has recently brought his craft, and young family, to the Wirral, joining a region he believes is full of opportunity for people working behind the scenes in Film and TV.

FACILTIES FRIDAY: MASTER CRAFTSMAN, BY ORDER OF THE PEAKY BLINDERS!

We spotlight C Relph Ltd, owned and run by Colin, a master craftsman with nearly four decades in set construction whose work has shaped some of the Northwest’s most distinctive productions – none more so than Peaky Blinders.

PEAKY BLINDERS: A LIVERPOOL HISTORY

POWIS STREET

The place where it all began! 

Birthplace of Ringo Starr, Toxteth’s ‘Welsh Streets’ also bore the crime-saga we know and love today, transforming into 1919 Birmingham’s inner-city slums in the very first scene of the show. Powis Street became ‘Watery Street’ for the first few seasons, its blackened, terrace-lined houses acting as the humble beginnings of the Peaky Blinders, home to the Shelby family home and their illegal betting shop. It was the site of iconic scenes throughout the series, like Campbell’s invasion of Small Heath in season 1 and Polly’s march hand-in-hand with the Shelby wives in season 3.  

Watery Lane’s impact went beyond just the screen too, with production bringing an increased interest to the Welsh Streets and the disrepair they had fallen under, eventually leading to refurbishment work beginning in 2017.  

ST GEORGE’S HALL

Our region’s magnificent example of neoclassical architecture is a must see for any Peaky Fan. It’s grand main hall is enough to take the breath away on its own, but pair that with the fact that it’s hosted some of the series most integral moments – like Grace’s death in season 3 and the fascist rally and failed assassination of Mosely in season 5 – it’s truly a sight to behold. The show didn’t only rely on the building’s grander parts either, with the dark, looming bowels of the hall the perfect setting for the Shelby’s (almost) execution that began season 4.  

Keen eye viewers will be able to see the outside of the hall in The Immortal Man, with the imposing Corinthian columns at the front and usually peaceful St John’s Gardens at the back of the building ladened with sand bags, fake smoke and rain machines as the exterior subbed in for a Birmingham going through the Blitz.  

Also featured in: House of Guinness, The Batman, Fantastic BeastS and Where to Find Them

STANLEY DOCK

Home of many a ‘Red Right Hand’ sound-tracked slow-motion walk, the city’s most famous dock gave us the backdrop for the tense showdown between the Peaky Blinders and Billy Kimber’s gang at the end of season 1, as well as the dingy alleyways around The Garrison pub seen throughout the series. Today’s it’s the place where Liverpool’s past and future sit side by side with one another, the sight’s foreboding, Grade 2 listed Tobacco Warehouse (the world’s largest brick building upon its completion in 1901) situated directly next to Everton’s brand-new Hill Dickinson stadium.   

Also featured in: Captain America: The First Avenger, House of Guinness, Sherlock Holmes  

FORMBY BEACH

One the show’s most memorable moments out of the smog of Small Heath, Tommy Shelby and Alfie Solomon’s ‘fatal’ beachside confrontation at the end of season 4 was filmed on Formby Beach, acting as a double for Margate. Owned and operated by the National Trust, when it’s not relied on for stand-offs, it offers a picturesque walk where the Mersey meets the Irish sea, rolling sand dunes and woodlands known for their Red Squirrel population. 

Also featured in: Chariots of Fire 

PORT SUNLIGHT

A picturesque Victorian bubble in the heart of the Wirral, complete with 900 Grade 2 listed buildings built in the late 1800s for the workers of the nearby Unilever factory. Now a model village filled with fresh cut lawns, cosy cafes and the world-class Lady Lever Art Gallery at its centre, it’s no wonder Aunt Polly was so happy with her birthday present in season 2, with the village hosting the Shelby matriarch’s new rural home.  

Also featured in: Tolkien, Midas Man, Chariots of Fire 

ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL

Standing 101 metres above ground and dominating the Liverpool skyline, the world’s longest and eighth largest church was the scene of reflection and tension throughout the Peaky Blinders series. It’s impressive stain glass windows offered a cinematic backdrop for Shelby’s times of worship in the Small Heath Catholic Church, and its quiet halls offering space for hushed meetings like Tommy and ‘Uncle’ Jack Nelson’s in season 6.   

Also featured in: Anne 

FACILTIES FRIDAY: THE QUIET BACKBONE OF PRODUCTION!

Direct Film has been a quiet backbone of the North West’s screen industry since the 90s, supplying the facilities that keep productions running long before most people even know a shoot is happening.

INTO THE LEAD: 2 BIRDS AND A PLAN

For our final look at the participants of Into The Lead, Screen Alliance North’s leadership programme for independent production companies across the North of England, we hear from Kate Robinson, founder of Liverpool-based production company 2Birds and a Camera.

INTO THE LEAD: BOOM POW!

We continue our look at Into The Lead, a new Screen Alliance North programme supporting and upskilling leaders of independent production companies across the North of England, with writer and producer Johanne McAndrew, founder of Boom Pow Productions.  

FACILTIES FRIDAY: BRINGING STYLE TO THE SCREEN

We spotlight Christine Clarke and behind Bijou & Vintage, a one‑woman costume supplier whose work –including for the recently released Netflix drama Run Away – has shaped the style of major productions across the Northwest and beyond. 

INTO THE LEAD: FROM LIVERPOOL TO THE WORLD

Continuing our series profiling participants of Into The Lead, Screen Alliance North’s leadership programme for independent production companies across the North of England, we hear from Sol Papadopoulos, co-director and founder of Liverpool-based Hurricane Films. 

INTO THE LEAD: COME INTO THE FOLD

Continuing our series spotlighting participants of Into The Lead, Screen Alliance North’s leadership programme for independent production companies across the North of England, we hear from Michelle Stein, co-founder of North West-based production company The Fold.

Liverpool Film Office backs two new Funded productions

Filming is now underway on A Town in Nova Scotia and Saviour, the latest productions to receive investment from the Film Office’s Liverpool City Region Production Fund, following its relaunch in Autumn 2025. 

INTO THE LEAD: EMPOWERING NORTHERN INDUSTRY LEADERS

Alongside our skills cohort, Screen Alliance North, we are proud to announce 17 northern scripted indie leaders for the latest skills programme.

Into the Lead is a new development programme for senior leaders working in independent production companies across the North of England, launched at an event recently in Leeds with 17 participants announced.   

Making up the cohort LCR-based production leaders Vaishalli Paatil from Photo Stories Ltd, Johanne McAndrew from Boom Pow Productions, Sol Papadopoulos from Hurricane Film, Kate Robinson from 2 Birds and a Camera, with Michelle Stein from The Fold also operating extensively in the region.

GOODBYE 2025, YOU’VE BEEN GREAT!

As the year we released our 35th anniversary showreel to the world draws to a close, we look back at the best bits that came to your screen from across Liverpool City Region over the past 12 months…

With Spring came a new Liverpool-set show perfect to sink your teeth into. Supported by LFO and the CA, BBC’s This City is Ours brought the next big scouse star to our attention as gangsters took over the city from Gateacre to Gaucho. Plus, Apple’s Fountain of Youth showcased John Kransinski and Natalie Portman as siblings starting their globe-trotting adventures in the Walker Art Gallery and Exchange Flags. 
 
A return to school on the Wirral with ITV’s G’wed 2 kicked off the summer months, and the heat was on for Idris Elba and John Cena in Amazon’s Heads of State, escaping from the Port of Liverpool building in one of this year’s most watched blockbusters.  

Autumn brought our docklands, great halls and Georgian Quarter into the stout-black world of Dublin’s most-prominent family in House of Guinness – our region once again transforming into a period setting. Channel 4’s Rose d’Or winner, The Jury: Murder Trial took viewers to St George’s Hall courts and the special 30th anniversary edition of Hollyoaks made one final, celebratory return to Liverpool’s most-beloved cul-de-sac.

Winter saw a farcical trip to the grandeur of Knowsley Hall with the release of Fackham Hall in cinemas – ending a jam-packed year on Merseyside and we’re excited to be back with what’s sure to be an even bigger 2026…