Press Coverage

The North East press were quickly on the case of the “spaghetti western” to be shot in Lemington.

This arose through our publicity descriptive slug:

“A spaghetti western in a northern terrace – Clint Eastwood meets Coronation Street"

This seemed to catch the attention of the press corps and they started calling, so we agreed to have a press day for pictures and interviews. There was a full attendance from the regional morning and evening daily, a daily freepaper, BBC local radio and BBC North East & Cumbria television news.

One freelance reporter appeared a day early, looking for a spoiler story ahead of the press day coverage, the film’s producer found him doorstepping all our neighbours for an “Our Film Hell as Our Street Becomes a Studio” story. He didn’t get it because the neighbours told him they were having a great old time watching it all happen.

There was some very creative reporting – a ten minute short is hardly a summer blockbuster – and in one case our little short kicked off a full page story headlined Hollywood Comes To Tyneside, but on the whole press coverage was excellent.

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One of our favourite press gems was a cartoon in the grapevine column in regional daily The Journal. This showed a cheroot-smoking cowboy on a mule heading for Lemington.

BBC local radio coverage with a full breakfast show package including local residents talking about their street becoming a film set – they all thought it was amusing, different or just interesting – and Northern Film Commission’s location finding service got a good boost.

The BBC TV news crew interviewed our stars, Thelma Barlow and Bryan Pringle and then talked to producer Leslie Lowes about the market for cinema shorts. After transmission, Leslie got a telephone call from an old college friend he had not seen for over 30 years, who was now living in the Newcastle area.

Finally, a female member of the press found herself unable to leave us. It was not a case of the magnetic pull of film, but a very flat tyre, which she was unable to change. A very resourceful runner spotted her problem and had her spare fitted for her in no time at all.

Next day, a bottle of wine arrived for him by way of thanks for his good deed.