Can you remember where these films were shot in the North East?

Sunderland and the surrounding areas might not have had as illustrious an on-screen career as some other UK locations, but they have certainly played a supporting role in a number of classic and contemporary British films.
Agyness Deyn.Agyness Deyn.
Agyness Deyn.

Whether you knew it or not while watching, here are the times our region has appeared on-screen - and once when, unfortunately, it didn't.

Lady Macbeth (2016)

Get Carter was famously shot across the North East.Get Carter was famously shot across the North East.
Get Carter was famously shot across the North East.

Locations used: Lambton Estate, Seaham Beach

This 2016 drama (not related to Shakespeare's famous character) was shot almost exclusively on the private Lambton Estate near Bournmoor.

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Lady Macbeth tells the story of a young woman stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age.

Though loosely based on an 1865 Russian story, the setting was moved from a provincial estate in tsarist Russia to North East England.

Part of Lady Macbeth was filmed on Seaham Beach.Part of Lady Macbeth was filmed on Seaham Beach.
Part of Lady Macbeth was filmed on Seaham Beach.

Director William Oldroyd told the Echo that "the entire film was shot [on Lambton Estate], aside from a day on location at Seaham Beach, Gibside and Cow Green Reservoir in the North Pennines.”

Two Graves (TBC)

Locations used: The King’s Arms, Deptford

Still in production and with no concrete release date, gritty thriller Two Graves stars I, Daniel Blake's Dave Johns, and Katie Jarvis, who appeared in the critically-acclaimed Fish Tank.

Sunderland missed out on being a location for Malice in Wonderland.Sunderland missed out on being a location for Malice in Wonderland.
Sunderland missed out on being a location for Malice in Wonderland.
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Pub boss Stefan Emmerson told the Echo that a crew had been working nearby when they approached him about using The King’s Arms pub in Deptford as a filming location.

The bar’s traditional decor and atmosphere are what attracted the filmmakers, Emmerson said.

Get Carter (1971)

Locations used: Belmont, Pelaw, Hebburn, Blackhall Colliery

Get Carter was famously shot across the North East.Get Carter was famously shot across the North East.
Get Carter was famously shot across the North East.

The Michael Caine crime classic, Get Carter, made use of many Tyne and Wear locations.

While the majority of the film was shot in and around Newcastle, outlying locations included Broomhouse Lane in Belmont, which was used as character Cliff Brumby's house, and has since been demolished.

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Spots in Pelaw and Hebburn were used as a post office and an accountant's office respectively, and the final confrontation between Carter and Paice on the beach was filmed a little further afield in Blackhall, County Durham.

Electricity (2014)

Locations used: Sunderland Royal Hospital

This under-the-radar British film starred Agyness Deyn as a young epileptic, plagued by hallucinations after leaving her seaside home to search for her missing brother.

Part of Lady Macbeth was filmed on Seaham Beach.Part of Lady Macbeth was filmed on Seaham Beach.
Part of Lady Macbeth was filmed on Seaham Beach.

Director Bryn Higgins made use of the consulting rooms and wards of Sunderland Royal Hospital for the 2014 production.

Malice in Wonderland (2009)

Locations used: None

This gritty, urban reworking of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (in which a university student is knocked over by a black cab in London and wakes to find she has amnesia and is lost in a world that is a long way from home) made use of seaside locations - but Sunderland was not actually among them.

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Despite the working title of 'Malice in Sunderland', it was reported that the production company were denied the £250,000 they'd hoped for from the region's film group, who said their funding would only be granted to local talent.

Soon after, the film’s name was changed.

Producer Albert Martinez-Martin claimed that this was only because "everyone in the UK would know Sunderland but outside UK they wouldn't" - and the film shot in Southend instead.

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