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Laurence Harvey on his way to "the top" in 1958

While pictures may have been made to move for the very first time just down the road in Leeds back in the 1880s, today it's Bradford that's making the bid to become the world's first film city.

Tony Earnshaw has been writing about films for more than 20 years so it's not surprising that, together with Jim Moran, he's just published Made in Yorkshire, a book which celebrates the many films made in the region.

Tony takes a quick look at Made in Yorkshire

As artistic director of Bradford International Film Festival Tony's also very well placed to comment on the city's film heritage: "You're probably aware that the moving picture was invented in Leeds but on the back of that there was this huge explosion of filmmaking, and Bradford was in there at the very beginning. Over the years Bradford bizarrely has got more of a history of filmmaking than most other cities in the country. It's bigger than Newcastle, it's bigger than Birmingham and Manchester. You name it…On the basis of its heritage, its history, the films that have been made here, this place as well [the National Media Museum], the filmmakers who have come out of here like Tony Richardson and James Hill, actors like Timothy West, writers like Simon Beaufoy and artists like David Hockney (who has segued to films as well), the Council and we believe that the city has got what it takes to achieve that status."

Tony is in no doubt that Bradford will be benefit if it secures UNESCO recognition: "Once you get that status you are obliged to continue showcasing the city as a 'city of film' so the ball keeps rolling for the future. This means using the UNESCO City of Film tag as a shop window to show people what Bradford has done, is doing – there are still films being made now – and what it could do in the future so we are using it as a foundation to build on."

To coincide with the UNESCO bid some of the films that put Bradford on the movie map are being shown in a special season of films, Made in Bradford, at the National Media Museum and at least two of the films to be shown are up there in every list of Britain's best films. Asked which is his favourite Bradford film, Tony says he finds it very difficult to chose: "I ricochet between Billy Liar and Room at the Top."

He explains he only saw Room at the Top recently for the very first time: "The story of that very objectionable and ruthless man who rode roughshod over everybody is timeless and we know people who do that today. I think it's the terrible idea of someone who gives up true love for a position in life and he recognises afterwards that he's sold his soul and lost the love of his life. I think it's a tremendous film and it's a tremendous performance from laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret.

Billy Liar and a kiss in Undercliffe cemetery!

"Billy Liar is a movie I can watch repeatedly. I think it's tremendous. I think it's funny. I think it's poignant and in terms of showing Bradford, so much of Bradford has changed over the years that there are bits of Billy Liar that showcase Bradford as it was and as it is. It's a time capsule of a world that has gone."

Tony points out that while writers Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall very much saw Billy Liar as a Leeds film – and several sequences were indeed shot in Leeds – the film's director had different ideas: "John Schlesinger said he always preferred shooting on hills, looking up or looking down than on the flat, because it lent itself to cinematography."

So much of Billy Liar was filmed in Bradford that today it's seen very much as a Bradford film: "The exterior of the Funeral Director's office was in Southgate. They used parts of the city centre opposite the Telegraph and Argus office and Jessops photography shop. Billy [played by Tom Courtenay] starts walking down the hill past the Cathedral and he's pretending to be blind. The next thing you see he's walking across the road, he's limping and he's got his hand out to the cars. That's all the city centre and you can recognise huge chunks of it as they take their walk back to the office. The meeting with Julie Christie and her going into the superstore where the old BHS used to be - it's all been demolished now…Lots of those locations have gone but in terms of recognising the city it's still there.

From Bradford undertaker to Doctor Who via LA!

"Room at the Top was shot all over the town as well before it was pedestrianised and you had all those very steep streets. You see Laurence Harvey jumping off a bus, going to look in a dress shop and he's thinking about buying something for his lady love, then he's needled by this guy taking the mickey out of his working class roots. The street – Kirkgate – is immediately identifiable in the movie and you go 'Ooh, there's that bit.' Bradford became as much a character in the movies as the actors."

Of course, as Tony points out, filmmakers do cheat a bit when it comes to locations. Room at the Top's Warley was novelist John Braine's take on Bradford but the opening and closing sequences of the film were shot in Halifax: "When he jumps off the train it's actually Halifax Station and then when he gets married at the end and he comes down the steps of the church, he's looking terribly grim and he's crying in the car, that's All Souls Church in Halifax."  

In Made in Yorkshire, Tony and photographer Jim Moran, looks in detail at 38 films which they believe are particularly significant. Tony explains how over a period of years he and Jim would do location reports for the Yorkshire Post and would end up with much more material than they could fit into the paper, so much so they realised there might be a book waiting to be written.

Certainly the best of Bradford films are up there in Tony's 38 as well as at least one not so well known movie. A photo on the cover of Made In Yorkshire suggests that a now very familiar Time Lord must have dropped into Little Germany at some stage: "In 1998 we were invited to cover a film that was shooting in Undercliffe cemetery and it was called LA Without a Map (LA as in Los Angeles) written by a Bradford author and starring this young actor who we'd never heard of called David Tennant, and we were there on a very sunny day and the director was going spare because he wanted grey skies and drizzle, and he's just come from LA where there was a beautiful blue sky and sunshine. He wanted a contrast and he was very annoyed."

Richard Harris in This Sporting Life

In the film Tennant plays a bored Bradford undertaker who falls in love with an American actress. When she goes home, he follows her and finds himself in 'LA without a map'! Tony reminds us that Tennant was a little known actor in 1998: "I had pretty much an exclusive interview with David Tennant who suddenly, ten years later, is the biggest thing on British TV. A lot of people don't realise he did this film and a lot of his fans haven't seen it but we've got an entire chapter in here."

Every town and city in Yorkshire may have its own film story. Although it's not a Bradford film there's one other film that we find ourselves talking about because of its significance. Tony says: "I'm a big fan of This Sporting Life. Again it's another phenomenal milestone in British movies. You've got Room at the Top and you've got Billy Liar and later in the decade you've got Kes but suddenly here you've got This Sporting Life which everybody raved about, a kitchen sink movie based on a classic novel by another Yorkshireman, David Storey…This Sporting Life encapsulates everything that is brilliant about Yorkshire movies: a brilliant story, a brilliant film, brilliant acting from Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts as the woman who can't show her love to him. It's fantastic."

A lot of the stories retold in Made in Yorkshire come from West Yorkshire people who were involved as extras. In the film – now celebrated director Lindsay Anderson's first feature - Richard Harris plays ambitious rugby league player Frank Machin while Wakefield Trinity acts as the rugby league ground and provides some of the players. Other sequences in the film were shot around Wakefield, Leeds and Halifax.

Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney in The Dresser

The Made in Bradford film season at the National Media Museum kicks off with a special screening of The Dresser attended by Ronald Harwood, writer of the original stage play, who has also written the 'Foreword' for the Made in Bradford book. As a young man in the 1950s Harwood was part of Sir Donald Wolfit's touring company and acted as his dresser. The film contains memorable performances from Albert Finney as the actor-manager of the company, known only as 'Sir', and Tom Courtenay making a return visit to Bradford as his dresser but the city's Alhambra Theatre was also to end up with a starring role: "The back drop of the film had to be a 1940s touring theatre and they happened on Bradford and the Alhambra. They realised that the Alhambra in the 1940s and '50s had been one of the premiere touring venues in the country, and it hadn't been renovated then, so it still looked as it did when it was built in 1914. They moved in and shot some sequences there and the Alhambra became as much a film star as Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney. It was a massive hit and was nominated for about five Oscars…"

Tony very much hopes anyone in Bradford who worked as an extra on The Dresser will come along to the screening: "When I started advertising for people to come forward with stories, what came through really clearly was that anyone who has ever been an extra in a film remembers every nuance of that experience. They remember what the weather was like, what costume they had to wear, what they had to eat, the long days, the early starts. They remember which film star was a darling…"

Dresser writer Ronald Harwood also has fond memories of Bradford. He writes: "I was astonished because I quickly discovered that Bradford is a decidedly handsome city with notable architecture…No wonder a host of people have been attracted to film there and in the breathtaking countryside around."

Yorkshire and Bradford as seen from a cinema seat!

Made in Yorkshire by Tony Earnshaw and Jim Moran is published by Guerilla Books. Ronald Harwood will be attending a screening of The Dresser at the Pictureville Cinema on Friday August 15th at 7pm.