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The Old Oak traces the growing tensions within a former North-East mining village after Syrian refugees are unexpectedly housed there.

Its title is the name of the last pub still open in the deprived community and where much of the plot is set.

The third of three movies to be filmed in the North-East by Loach after I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You, its locations include Easington Colliery, Horden and Murton.

From left, The Old Oak cast members Claire Rodgerson, Dave Turner, Ebla Mari and writer Paul Laverty at the movie's premiere at the Durham Gala Theatre & Cinema. Picture by FRANK REID.

Separate premieres took place on Thursday night at Durham’s Gala Theatre and Cinema and Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema.

Among the cast walking the red carpet at Durham were Dave Turner, who appears as landlord TJ Ballantyne, and Sunderland actress Claire Rodgerson, who plays the key role of Laura.

Continuing Loach’s trait of working with unknown and untrained actors, Turner was previously employed as a fireman and in a pub.

Asked whether his time behind a bar prepared him for his role as TJ, who desperately tries to bring the two communities together, he said: “No, not really. It was helpful to an extent in that I could pull a pint.”

Sunderland actress Claire Rodgerson plays Laura in new Ken Loach movie The Old Oak,

Murton’s disused Victoria pub doubles as The Old Oak while Easington Colliery’s A streets and Horden’s numbered streets also feature.

Yet Kes director Loach, 87, is keen to stress that the movie is not specifically about these places.

Speaking before the premieres, which he was unable to attend, he said: “The village in the film is not a single village in real life.

"We knew Easington already, some of us had worked there and we had friends there.

Murton's former Victoria pub doubles as The Old Oak in director Ken Loach's new movie.

"Paul had made the sea an important part of the story and, although the beach at Easington is no longer black with sea coal, it is still marked by industrial waste.

"Neighbouring Horden has a visually impressive collection of terraced streets, a classic example of traditional miners’ houses, built to gather round the pit.

"And Murton had an empty pub, a lovely building, with a friendly owner who helped us enormously.

"But while these villages were good places to work, they are typical of many, and this story could be set in all of them.”

The Old Oak opens nationwide on Friday, September 29.

Ken Loach new movie The Old Oak - which is filmed in Horden, Easington and Murton - enjoys premiere screening at Durham's Gala Theatre