The Increasing Trend Of The Location Guide For Movie Fans

Having trundled across to Prague on one of those flights which make you wonder if you'd have got more legroom by shipping yourself off via air freight, it was nice to discover once there that my guide book was able to tell me I was standing in the very square used prevalently at the start of Mission: Impossible. This set me thinking. Movie geeks, like real people (although, as we all know, not really like real people) like to travel too. Wouldn't it be nice if, assuming they survive the in-flight showing of the latest Jennifer Aniston Rom-Com with their passion intact, they have a movie-themed guide book when they get there. As ever, it seems as though I wasn't the only one with such an idea.

The bridge Tom Cruise runs along in Mission: Impossible...

...just as the car blows up here.

The movie guide book industry seems to be growing at a decent pace. Interest in seeing the filming locations of popular productions is typified by articles such as this one, which accentuate the connection between visiting a location and experiencing the mood, look and sensibilities of a film. But are the many guides actually useful? Or is this just a cheap way of selling goods to film fans, with little in it for them apart from limited opportunities to gawp at characterless façades of otherwise uninteresting buildings?

The kind folks at Anova Books decided to help me find out and sent a copy of London Movie Guide (which appears to be short of a definite article but, hey ho) by Simon James my way. The weighty guide is available on a certain famous book-led website which doesn't pay me enough to link to them for a very reasonable £11.99, which seems a fair price for something with a glossy cover and lots of pages.

The first pointer to its quality comes on page four where the endorsements start and no less a famous London person than Boris Johnson declares the publication 'brilliant' twice in the same sentence. Boris and the London Tourist Board might not have been so keen on it had they read James' introduction which summarises London's film-making weather as such;

'Rain? No problem. Sun? Use lights.'

So, no such luck if you want your Hollywood star to appear with that 'just kissed by the sun' tint but look, if this bloody thing is good enough for Boris then it is good enough for me.

The book is separated out by post code and area, making it easy to navigate to either a) the area you live in (if you happen to be a Londonite) or b) the area you're visiting (if you are what is locally known as 'an outsider'). The main bulk of the content is comprised mainly in a 'train of thought' style, which looks as though James has tried to mind dump all of his retained information about London filming locations on to the page as quickly as possible like so;

'The main doors of Her Majesty's Prison Wandsworth, opposite Heathfield Avenue, are seen in Law And Disorder (1958), during which Michael Redgrave is released after serving various terms. Stanley Baker as The Criminal (1960) is released temporarily. In Poor Cow (1967) Carol White visits Terrence Stamp, and again the doors are seen in Ooh... You Are Awful (1972). Julia Ormond parks in Heathfield Avenue to supply dentistry to the inmates, especially Tim Roth, in Captives (1994).'

I must admit, this is distracting at first but once you settle in to it and grasp the concept that you're probably only going to read brief chunks in one go it becomes easier to take. The back of the book contains both a street index and a film index so if you're a fan of a particular film (or, erm, of a particular street) then you can quickly pick out the locations you need to visit to complete your slightly OCD-alike geekdom. The inclusion of the indices shows that, despite appearances to the contrary, these books are really more reference guides than out and out tourist fodder. They aid the movie-obsessed tourist in finding locations by not listing films by year, or by arbitrary rating, or alphabetically but by house number and post code. The intention seems to be mainly that you will then build your own 'to see' list and negotiate your own route with the A-Z (read: iPhone) which seems like a decent amount of work but really, in such a definitive publication, is the only way to properly go about things.

Famous London views, such as those seen prominently in Last Chance Harvey, are catered for, as are the more niche, backstreet, filming locations.

For those not willing or able to plan their own trip, the book contains eight suggested walking routes, complete with map and brief instructions. These serve as both a 'how to' guide to create your own routes (invariably they start at a tube station and include optional 'detours' to locations you may want to pass by) and as an easy way to get something tangible out of your purchase. Being 'an outsider' I haven't been able to test the routes out but the areas of London that they cover are fairly well known. It'd be very easy, for example, to combine the route on page thirty-three (which takes in filming locations from productions such as Harry Potter and 28 Days Later) with a sightseeing expedition to The London Eye, The Houses Of Parliament, et al. The maps also include filming locations which are just off the routes they cover so if you want to augment your day with a few extra trips then it's perfectly possible to do so.

The fact that you can combine regular sightseeing with film sightseeing easily is really the book's main selling point. The hand-holding guides are great for the more casual geek whilst the easy-reference indices cater for the hardcore movie walker. Books like Anova's are available for several European cities and beyond and if they all follow this sort of structure then they're well worth an additional purchase to ensure you don't leave your movie obsession at home.