Juliet Bravo 1989, no reproduction without permission. Photo by Janice Rider, Costume Designer
In November 2020 a Facebook site was set up with the aim of trying to identify as many specific filming locations used in the Juliet Bravo TV series. At the time there was next to no details online other than the following information on Wikipedia:
Filming took place in the Lancashire towns of Colne, Bacup, Accrington, Nelson, Burnley and Todmorden. Other locations around East Lancashire, West Yorkshire and the Black Country (Tipton and Dudley) were also used. The exterior of Hartley Police Station seen throughout the entire series run was in fact the real-life police station in the town of Bacup.
The task was made even harder by the fact that many of the buildings and surrounding areas had been demolished or significantly redeveloped since filming days.
After a rather slow start the Facebook site began to gain interest and eventually had over 1000 members. Many of these people lived, or still live in the filming areas. Quite a few were young actors, mainly from the Burnley Youth Theatre, some as extras and some that actually starred in the program. Other members included cameramen, make-up artists and continuity managers. With all these people on board the members managed to identify hundreds of filming sites. They also identified other areas such as Blackburn, Bury, Kendal, Simonstone and Read, all of which had never been documented before.
Out of all the 6 series, one episode, ‘Lost & Found’ had no locations to find as it was filmed entirely in the studio. Another episode, ‘Talk To Me’ had all its outdoor scenes filmed at night which made location identification virtually impossible.
A document was initially created as a back-up for the Facebook site and updated as each episode was being researched. It has since morphed into something much larger and now contains nostalgia, filming photographs, letters from the BBC, continuity issues and photographs from numerous contributors. It also contains many ‘then & now’ photographs showing how certain locations have changed since filming days.
The document is available to view or download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M4JE-PSQojPhHfj4-_w35MzW6RIQgIrG/view
Throughout the investigations the group tried to be as accurate as possible when identifying each location but as mentioned, some sites / buildings had been changed beyond recognition. Sometimes it was necessary to hunt down old photographs of certain areas to positively identify a location.
Tony Shaw
Here is the link to the Juliet Bravo Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/431724484870895