A FILM starring Dame Judi Dench is being shot in York this week.

Crews from the production have set up a base at York Racecourse, and a section of the National Railway Museum has been closed to the public to allow filming to take place in private.

The NRM refused to comment on the filming, and would not confirm what the production was, but The Press can reveal the film is Victoria And Abdul, which will see Dame Judi reprise her role as Queen Victoria.

Oscar-nominated director Stephen Frears - who previously directed The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, 2013’s Philomena, which also featured Dame Judi, and this year’s release Florence Foster Jenkins - is directing the movie, which looks at the true story of the monarch’s relationship with Abdul Karim - a young clerk who travels from India to take part in her Golden Jubilee.

Ali Fazal, who recently starred in Furious 7, will play Karim, and the cast also includes Simon Callow, Michael Gambon, Eddie Izzard - who will be playing the Prince of Wales - Ruth McCabe, The Night Manager’s Adeel Akhtar, Tim Pigott-Smith and Olivia Williams.

A spokeswoman for the production said the film was an “extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship”, as Queen Victoria looks back at her life.

She said: “As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy.

“As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.”

York Press:

Dame Judi previously played Queen Victoria in the 1997 film Mrs Brown, where she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, and won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA in the same category.

The film has also shot at locations across Scotland, India and the Isle of Wight, and is co-financed by Focus and BBC Films, and will be distributed around the world next September by Universal Pictures International.

Millions of viewers have also tuned in to watch the recent ITV series Victoria - which starred Jenna Coleman as the young queen, and was also filmed close to York, at the new Church Fenton Studios.

The ITV show also filmed at York Guildhall and York Minster School, which form the backdrop for the House of Lords, Castle Howard and Newby Hall, which are used for Kensington Palace, Carlton Towers, which is used for Windsor Castle, Whitby Harbour and Beverley Minster, which doubles as Westminster Abbey.

Victoria And Abdul is set to continue filming in York this week.