A NEW feature film based on the life of infamous highwayman Dick Turpin is set to be filmed in York.

Yorkshire-based TV and film company, Henceforth Films, are crowdfunding for the completion of ‘English Outlaw: The Story of Dick Turpin’, with scenes filmed in Shambles, and at other York historic locations around the city with links to the highwayman.

Lynne Hambrey, producer and founder of Henceforth Films said: “The film will be following the events of Dick Turpin’s life as closely as possible in accordance, with available accounts of his life.

“Though artistic licence will be drawn upon to fill in the quite substantial gaps that are unaccounted for and to aid the dramatic narrative.”

The research into the highwayman’s life included ‘Dick Turpin and the Gregory Gang’, a well-regarded study by Derek Barlow, published in 1973, as well as regional accounts in both York, the village of Hampstead in Essex, and the Blue Bell Inn pub, also in Essex, where Turpin was born in 1705.

Lynne said: “For as long as I can remember I have wanted to make a film about the life of Dick Turpin and tell the true story of the man that he was and not the dashing dandy that previous depictions have made him out to be.

“Having formed Henceforth Films in 2016 with my business partner, Danny Fraser, that is exactly what I did.”

The audience may recognise actor Simon Kerrison, who featured in BBC’s Peaky Blinders and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, playing the Squire Anthony Jeffrey, Turpin’s nemesis.

Filming began just before the first lockdown, and will resume in November this year, it's scheduled to be completed just in time to be submitted to the American market in November 2022.

Go to: indiegogo.com/projects/english-outlaw-the-story-of-dick-turpin#/