Gosforth on Screen: Newcastle Film and TV Locations

Gosforth does not have a castle that has doubled for Hogwarts, but it sits a short Metro ride from one of the most filmed cities in the North of England. Newcastle's quaysides, streets and stadium have carried classic British cinema and prime-time television for more than fifty years, and almost all of it is within easy reach of Gosforth. This is a guide to the screen heritage on your doorstep, along with an honest note on what still stands and what has gone.

Get Carter (1971)

The film that fixed Tyneside in the national imagination. Mike Hodges chose Newcastle and Gateshead for his hard-edged gangster classic, with Michael Caine as the London enforcer Jack Carter returning home to settle a score. The riverside, the terraces and the industrial skyline all feature, and the most famous location of all was the Brutalist multi-storey car park at Trinity Square in Gateshead, designed by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon.

It is worth being clear that the "Get Carter car park" no longer exists. Despite campaigns to preserve it as a cinematic landmark, demolition began in July 2010 and was complete by that October, with a new Trinity Square shopping and student development opening on the site in 2013. Many of the film's other riverside and terrace locations have also been redeveloped, so Get Carter is best enjoyed as a portrait of a vanished Tyneside rather than a walking tour.

Stormy Monday (1988)

Mike Figgis set his stylish neo-noir on the Newcastle Quayside, with Sting as the jazz-club owner Finney and a cast that included Melanie Griffith, Tommy Lee Jones and a young Sean Bean. Filmed around the old city centre in the summer of 1987, it captures Dean Street, Central Station and the riverside on the cusp of the regeneration that would transform them. Sting is a son of the region, born in Wallsend, which gives the film an added local resonance.

Goal! The Dream Begins (2005)

For football fans the standout local location is St James' Park. In this 2005 sports drama the young striker Santiago Munez signs for Newcastle United, and the stadium plays itself, with real Magpies match footage woven into the story. The ground dominates the Newcastle skyline and is easily reached from Gosforth on the Metro, so it is one screen location you can still visit exactly as it appears on film.

Purely Belter (2000)

Mark Herman's warm-hearted comedy drama, adapted from Jonathan Tulloch's novel The Season Ticket, follows two Gateshead teenagers on a hopeless quest to raise the money for Newcastle United season tickets. Shot across Tyneside, it is a gentler counterpoint to Get Carter and a fond record of everyday Newcastle at the turn of the millennium.

Our Friends in the North (1996)

Regularly named among the greatest British television dramas ever made, this BBC serial traced four Newcastle friends across three decades, from 1964 to 1995. It made stars of Daniel Craig, Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee and Mark Strong, and used the city and region as more than a backdrop, telling a story rooted in Tyneside's politics, housing and music.

Vera

More recent viewers will know Newcastle and Northumberland from Vera, the long-running ITV crime drama starring Brenda Blethyn as the rumpled detective. Across its many series it has filmed at the Quayside, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and Newcastle's bridges, as well as along the Northumberland coast at Holy Island, Bamburgh, Warkworth and Alnmouth. It is the production most likely to be filming somewhere in the region on any given week.

A Gosforth note

Is there a famous scene shot in Gosforth itself? Honestly, Gosforth's place in this story is one of proximity rather than a marquee credit. The Town Moor stretches from the city centre up towards Gosforth and turns up in the backdrop of city footage, but Gosforth's real advantage is how close it is to the locations above. From the Regent Centre or South Gosforth Metro you can be at St James' Park or the Quayside in minutes.

Seeing more across the North East

The wider region is a natural extension of a Newcastle screen tour. Alnwick Castle stood in for Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films and for Downton Abbey's Brancaster Castle, covered in our Alnwick on Screen guide. Durham Cathedral has doubled for Hogwarts and for Asgard in Avengers: Endgame, as set out in the Durham on Screen guide. Between the city's gritty classics and the county's castles and cathedrals, there is a full day of screen history within easy reach of Gosforth.

Best for: Most of the surviving Newcastle locations, including the Quayside and St James' Park, are a short Metro ride from Gosforth on the Yellow and Green lines.