Cornwall film locations

Cornwall's rugged landscape and scenery have been used by film and television companies as a backdrop for some of their productions.

Portloe alias St Gweep

The most recent critically and commercially successful film to be made mostly in Cornwall was the 2019 musical comedy, Fisherman’s Friends and its 2022 sequel which in turn was inspired by the true story of the folk band of the same name and was shot in and around Port Isaac near Wadebridge. Cornwall's links with film and television go back to the 1930s when Jamaica Inn was shot at Bolventor but the oldest recorded films made in Cornwall date back to 1899 when a short, silent, black and white documentary film, Wreck of the S.S. Paris was filmed at the Manacle Rocks near the Lizard,[1] and in 1904 black and white, silent film, sponsored by the Great Western Railway as a promotional film for holidays in Cornwall, called Scenes in the Cornish Riviera was filmed at the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, Looe, Polperro, Newquay, Truro, Falmouth, Penzance, St Michael's Mount, Lands End and St Ives.[2]

In 1971, Sam Peckinpah's infamous movie Straw Dogs, starring Susan George, was filmed at St Buryan and Lamorna. More recent films featuring Cornwall include Saving Grace, set on the north coast around Port Isaac, Boscastle and Trebarwith Strand, and Johnny English, part of which was filmed at St Michael's Mount.

Cornwall's scenery came to particular prominence in the mid-1970s with the serialisation of Poldark, based on the novels of Winston Graham. More recent success has come with Doc Martin, Wycliffe, Wild West, Penmarric (1979 BBC TV series), Frenchman's Creek (1998 TV adaptation) and The Camomile Lawn (1992). In June 2007 it was announced that ex-Neighbours star Jason Donovan is to appear with former EastEnders actress Martine McCutcheon in ITV1's upcoming soap opera about surfing in Cornwall. The former soap stars play ex-lovers in Echo Beach, a post-watershed drama set in fictional coastal resort Polnarren. The show will run in tandem with Moving Wallpaper, a sitcom starring Ben Miller as a producer desperate to make Echo Beach a success.[3]

The use of Cornwall as a film location has led to the establishment of ventures based in the area, including the £6 million South West Film Studios at St Agnes, now owned by Marilyn Gough,[4] the Cornwall Film Fund, the Cornwall Film Festival, and the production company Mundic Nation.