Levelling Up the Screen Industries: Film and Television Production as Regenerative Strategy in Places Left Behind

There is a significant body of work that considers the role of the regions and regionality in the British film and television industry, seen most visibly in Lez Cooke's A Sense of Place: Regional British Television Drama, 1956-82 (2012). The recent devolution of Channel 4, and then the BBC, combined with the investment and growth of areas like MediaCityUK in Salford, Digbeth Loc. Studios in Birmingham, and The Depot in Liverpool, has rekindled interest in the role of the regions in the future of Britain’s screen economy. However, aside from a few notable exceptions, this work has consistently foregrounded the contribution of larger metropolitan areas, leaving the contribution of smaller city regions underexplored. Without the critical mass and infrastructure of larger city regions, smaller economic areas face a significant disadvantage in fulfilling their potential as locations for the production of film and television content, but that does not mean that attempts are not being made to capitalise on the economic and cultural benefits that a thriving film industry could bring. Taking three regions not typically represented in any discussion of a national film industry, this paper seeks to explore what opportunities exist for places characterised as ‘left behind’ - areas blighted by what David Etherington, Martin Jones, and Luke Telford termed a ‘structural cocktail of disadvantage including low paid jobs, welfare erosion, indebtedness, destitution, and food insecurity’ (2022). Taking Sunderland, Stoke-on-Trent and Southampton as its focus, this paper will offer a snapshot of the different strategies that are being employed in three very different regions and will consider their effectiveness against the backdrop of national initiatives like the outgoing government’s Levelling Up agenda.