Eleven photos of Netflix period drama The English Game being filmed in Saltaire

Yorkshire became Lancashire this week - but only for the filming of a new Netflix drama about the first professional football clubs.
The English GameThe English Game
The English Game

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Saltaire was taken over by film crews as part of the shoot for The English Game, a drama set in the late 19th century and written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. Saltaire stood in for the Lancashire cotton town of Darwen, as several northern mill owners were instrumental in the founding of the Football League. Salts Mill appears as a backdrop but filming did not take place inside. Several shops on a parade on Victoria Road were used for filming street scenes set during a mill workers' strike. Hopwood's sandwich bar, a paint shop, cafe and off-licence were all transformed into authentic Victorian businesses, including a bakery and butcher's. Extras in Victorian costume could be seen during takes, and the shoot attracted crowds of visitors to the village between Leeds and Bradford. Saltaire has become a popular filming location in recent years with appearances in Peaky Blinders, Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders and An Inspector Calls. The English Game - which will be shown on Netflix in 2020 - tells the story of the creation of the Football League and how the game crossed class divides to capture the imagination of the English public. The six-part series is set in the late 1800s, when the debate about whether to allow professionalism in football was dividing the country. Kingsman’s Edward Holcroft, Line of Duty’s Craig Parkinson and Charlotte Hope, who played Ramsay Bolton’s lover Myranda in Game of Thrones, are among the cast. Happy Valley's Tim Fywell is one of the directors.

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