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Northampton gets its moment in the spotlight

Chiwetel Ejiofor as drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots
  • Posted at 2:30pm
  • 31 December 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT
  • 2 comments

If, like me, you come from Northampton, you'll know that the town's links with the movies are few and far between. Marc Warren, star of TV's Hustle and a handful of feature films, was born there, as were Nanette Newman, who enjoyed a substantial big-screen run in the 1960s and 70s, and Joan Hickson, whose pre-Miss Marple career went back to the 1930s.

Meanwhile, legendary comics writer Alan Moore, who still lives in the town, has seen his work adapted into the likes of V for Vendetta and – coming soon – Watchmen. And (apart from an appearance in Tony Scott's The Hunger by Northampton Goth band Bauhaus) that's pretty much your lot.

It's not high up on any location scout's list, either. A chase sequence in the Bond movie Thunderball was shot at Silverstone racetrack in Northamptonshire, and Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire, played Mansfield Park in the 1999 film of Jane Austen's novel.

So imagine my excitement – and that of the entire town – when it was announced, in 2004, that part of Kinky Boots (Sunday 4 January BBC2) would be shot in Northampton!

This feel-good, Full Monty-style comedy – based on the true story of a shoe firm, WJ Brookes, that saw off closure by manufacturing boots for the fetish market – is set in Northampton, for years the shoemaking hub of England. This was our moment. Perhaps the film, starring Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nick Frost, would turn the place into a Mecca for movie fans.

As local newspaper the Chronicle & Echo enthused in 2005, "Kinky Boots is being heralded as the next Brit-flick to take box offices by storm all over the world."

Not quite. It actually grossed just over £3 million in the UK and a respectable $1.8 million in the US – and Ejiofor was nominated for a Golden Globe – but it didn't match The Full Monty (Tuesday 6 January Film4).

That was a shame, as I have a real soft spot for it, not least because Edgerton, an Aussie, makes such a noble attempt at the local accent – which is quite tricky. Mostly though, it's fun for me to play spot the location. Look, it's the pillars in front of All Saint's Church! My friend Kevin and I used to park there when we went into town. That terraced street looks just like the one my Nan and Pap lived in!

Presumably, New Yorkers have long since stopped playing this game, but you must allow the residents of a cinematically undistinguished East Midlands town their moment in the sun.

It won't happen again.

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Comments

  • Posted on 12 July 2009
  • at 1:28pm
  • by Emma

Alan Carr is also from Northampton and peter ebdon was born not far in Kettering. Also Thom Yorke lead singer in radiohead was born in Wellingborough.

  • Posted on 06 January 2009
  • at 2:45pm
  • by Joan Elliott

Jonathan Adams was also a well-known actor and artist from Northampton see www.jonathanadamsartwork.com

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