Sheffield: A Great Place to Make a Movie
I took a walking tour around Sheffield and Rotherham to see where your favourite films were filmed.
In April 1996, filming of The Full Monty took place around Sheffield.
Here, Gaz, Dave and Nathan find themselves stranded on a sinking car after trying to take away an iron girder.
The location for this scene was difficult to find owing to the canal in Attercliffe (a heavily industrialised area running between Sheffield and Rotherham) undergoing an extensive clean up in 2015. Bacon Lane Bridge has been suggested and it was here that I found a likely candidate for the scene.
The famous – but fictional – Millthorpe Working Men’s Club is the scene for the famous strip show. Lifestyle Furnishers near the Northern General Hospital served for exterior shots.
The interior scenes were filmed elsewhere, at Shiregreen Working Men’s Club, near the Concord Sports Centre.
The famous ‘Hot Stuff’ scene at the Job Centre was filmed at an actual Job Centre on West Street in the middle of the city.
Back in April 1996, the background was all fields. Not so much now.
Four Lions was filmed in May 2009.
A very short walk from the Job Centre on West Street is the Police Station on Snig Hill, the scene for Hassan Malik leaving the Conference Centre and being approached by Barry.
The building seems unchanged.
The base and safe house for the Four Lions:
This is a tailor’s shop in Tinsley, close to Meadowhall and in the shadow of the M1 viaduct.
Released in May 1995, so probably filmed in 1994, I.D. was filmed in various places, but some key scenes in Rotherham.
The iconic Tinsley Towers running by the M1 can be seen here. They were demolished in 2008.
They can also be seen in The Full Monty:
Former home of Rotherham United, Millmoor also served for some football scenes in I.D. This group of fans are coming up Millmoor Lane…
…and a scuffle ensues:
You can just about see the door to The Millmoor pub on the right of the picture. Here it is now:
Looking down Millmoor Lane now:
A violent, climatic scene was filmed in Rotherham market:
And finally, leaving Rotherham and Sheffield – and coming very much more contemporary – an episode of Atalanta was filmed in London. Released in March 2022, the episode The Old Man and the Tree was filmed in Islington.
Here, Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Earn (Donald Glover), and Van (Zazie Beetz) stroll around London looking for an exclusive and highly secretive party.
If you don’t know me, I am the author of ‘Reds and Rams: The History of the East Midlands Derby’ and ‘The History Boys: Thirty Iconic Forest Goals’ (both available in the Forest club shop). I have written pieces for Mundial magazine, Football Weekends magazine and edited two award-nominated fanzines.
If you do know me, I’m truly sorry.