The BBC’s next big flagship drama, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, was filmed at locations across Yorkshire, including York. But does it really signal the rise of the region as a TV powerhouse? STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

CHANCES are you've never seen the statues at York Minster talking and moving. Not unless you'd had something very odd to eat first.

That is all going to change next month, when the BBC's latest flagship drama hits our screens.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Susanna Clarke – is set in an 'alternative' England at the start of the 19th century.

It is an England that has ceased to believe in 'practical magic': until the reclusive Mr Norrell of Hurtfew Abbey arranges for a little demonstration.

He stuns the city of York by causing statues at the Minster to speak and move about. It is a feat that catches the attention of the Government in London.

Mr Norrell is recruited to help in the war against Napoleon – and then he summons a fairy from an alternative world to help bring the beautiful Lady Pole back from the dead. Nothing in England is going to be quite the same again...

Susanna Clarke's novel was eerie and mysterious, steeped in the folk tales and legends that our country is so rich in.

The seven-part BBC adaptation, which receives its Yorkshire premiere in front of an invited audience in York on Wednesday before airing nationwide on BBC1 next month, promises much.

It has an all-star cast, including Eddie Marsan, Bertie Carvel and Samuel West, and a top-flight director in Peter Harness, who has worked on Wallander and Is Anybody There?

Best of all, from the point of Yorkshire viewers, much of it was filmed on location here in the White Rose county.

York Minster and St William's College in York were both used, as was Fountains Abbey, Temple Newsam Hall, Newburgh Priory, Oakwell Hall near Batley and Wentworth Woodhouse, the glorious, privately-owned 17th century palace at Wentworth near Rotherham. If nothing else, you'll be able to enjoy playing 'spot the location'.

There has been plenty of great TV drama filmed (partly at least) in Yorkshire in recent years: Emmerdale, of course, but also programmes like Death Comes to Pemberley, Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley, The Great Train Robbery and Red Riding. Children haven't been forgotten, either. Old Jack's Boat, starring Bernard Cribbins, was filmed almost entirely on location in Staithes.

So why this sudden interest in Yorkshire?

It is partly because of the sterling work that Screen Yorkshire has been doing in investing in quality drama and encouraging location scouts to think of Yorkshire first.

But there was also the small matter of the BBC – which commissioned and broadcast many of the programmes mentioned above – deciding to open a new, northern headquarters in Salford, greater Manchester.

Peter Salmon, the Burnley-born head of BBC England, says there is no doubt that decision has helped to shift the centre of gravity of TV production in the country.

York Press:
Peter Salmon

Ten years or so ago, there was a real sense that many TV licence payers in the north of England were a bit alienated by a BBC they perceived as being very London-based, he admits.

"But we noticed that whenever we set a big drama in the north of England, people in the north began to like the BBC a bit more."

It didn't take a genius to work out what the solution might be. If the BBC wanted to be a truly British broadcasting corporation, not a London one, it needed to shift some production away from the capital.

The BBC signalled its intention to move some jobs north to Manchester in 2004 – and the Salford Quays site was chosen in 2006.

In 2011, a significant number of BBC jobs were moved north to what became known as Media City: and in 2013 ITV also moved a substantial number of jobs to the site.

It has been a significant change. Slightly fewer than half of the BBC's 16,600-odd staff are now based in London. The remainder are dispersed around the country: with 3,000 in Salford alone.

Salford is now the BBC's second-biggest production centre, and the base for no fewer than 24 BBC departments: including BBC Sport, Children's BBC, Radio 5 Live and the BBC Philharmonic.

Mr Salmon himself isn't based there. As the BBC's 'Director, England', he doesn't really have an office, he says: he spends most of his time moving around from centre to centre. "I'm a bit peripatetic," he admits, speaking on the telephone from Birmingham.

But he has seen the impact the move to Salford has had on TV production in the north of England. There are those flagship BBC dramas, such as Last Tango, Happy Valley and Remember Me, he says: and also a wealth of children's TV that is now produced mainly in the North East: hugely popular shows such as Wolfblood and The Dumping Ground, based on Jaqueline Wilson's work and filmed around Jesmond.

There is no doubt that the north, and Yorkshire, have begun to find their voice represented on the BBC again.

The job is only half done, however, insists Sally Joynson of Screen Yorkshire.

York Press:
Sally Joynson 

Yes, the BBC's move north has helped shift the centre of gravity of TV production. "Having a strong BBC powerhouse in the north of England is always going to be a good thing, and it has helped put the spotlight on the North. We're seeing different faces and different voices on TV as a result."

The problem is, she says, that the very success of Salford's MediaCity has tended to create a new centre of gravity across the Pennines. "There's a drift over to the North West."

The result? While more TV drama is now being filmed on location in Yorkshire, not much of it is actually being produced here. The great days of mainstream network TV being produced at the likes of ITV's Yorkshire Television Studios in Kirkstall Road, Leeds, are gone, she says.

This is an issue that veteran York-based TV cameraman Keith Massey has drawn attention to. Mr Massey, in his role as chair of the Guild of TV Cameramen, has been campaigning for more TV to be actually produced in Yorkshire.

The problem is that the big production companies – and hence the true TV power – are all based either in Salford or, even more so, still in London, says Sally Joynson: and they tend to bring TV crews with them when they come to film here, rather than always recruiting locally.

She agrees with Mr Massey that what is needed is more home-grown independent TV production companies.

York Press:
Sarah Lancashire, Anne Reid, Derek Jacobi and Nicola Walker in Last Tango In Halifax. Picture: Red Production Company 

There are a few – outfits such as Leeds-based True North and Kay Mellor's Rollem, which produced The Syndicate. But Yorkshire needs more: and the BBC could help by commissioning more TV actually produced in the White Rose county. That would be how to truly change the centre of TV gravity, she believes, and how to give Yorkshire TV and film-makers their chance.

"There are still far too many incoming productions. There are some really, really talented people in Yorkshire ready to make programmes. But where they struggle is in getting noticed."

It will take time, Mr Salmon says. But the BBC's Salford base is good for the TV industry across the north, he insists. It is a wheel with spokes that radiate out across the region. "And in the end, all our boats are rising at the same time."

One thing is for sure. Those of us more interested in watching TV than in making it can now enjoy more Yorkshire locations and Yorkshire accents on the box than we have done for a long time.

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will be screened on BBC One in seven episodes, starting next month


The BBC's MediaCity in Salford by numbers:

• 3,000 BBC staff
• 24 BBC departments, including BBC Sport, Children's BBC, and Radio 5 Live
• Over 39,000 hours of output a year across TV, radio and the 'red button'

BBC Yorkshire in Leeds:

• About 200 staff
• The base for BBC Radio Leeds and Look North
• Regional coverage from Leeds includes The Super League Show, Inside Out and Sunday Politics

BBC in London:

• About 8,000 staff