Emmerdale and Star Wars actor Tony Pitts to appear at first Staithes International Film Festival
The North Yorkshire coastal village of Staithes is no stranger to the big and small screen, featuring in the likes of psychological period drama film Phantom Thread, Countryfile, children’s TV series Old Jack’s Boat and Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing. Now, it’s hosting its first film festival, featuring an appearance from Sheffield-born former Star Wars and Emmerdale actor Tony Pitts.
Staithes International Film Festival takes place from Friday to Sunday this week at St Peter’s Centre, with a three-day programme of film features, short films and live events. Highlights include a gala event on Saturday with a screening of Funny Cow, followed by an audience with its writer and co-star Tony. Funny Cow, starring Maxine Peake follows a stand-up comedian trying to make it on the tough North of England comedy circuit around working men’s clubs in the 1970s. It’s loosely based on real life Yorkshire comic Marti Caine.
Tony, who was a trainee truck mechanic on a college course when he was discovered by Ken Loach and cast in the 1981 film Looks and Smiles, says he has been a scribbler since the age of seven, filling notebooks with ideas for projects. “I realised recently that everything I’ve written has been set here in Yorkshire,” he says. “Because these are the wings that shaped me, this is the land that shaped me.”
He’s spent many a happy day in Staithes and believes the festival “can only be good” for the local economy. Tony, who also features in All Creatures Great and Small, will be accompanied at the event by Barnsley-born Katherine Kelly, one of the cast of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the award-winning dramatisation of the British Post Office scandal. "Anything that brings stories to a town can only be good,” she agrees. “It’s great that people are making the effort to go out and connect. I love the shared experience of watching a film or a play.”
Earlier this year, Tony and Katherine launched Make Me Productions in Barnsley, an independent film and television production company to stop talent leaving the county. The couple says their ambition is for youngsters who leave school in Yorkshire to be able to work in the industry without having to move away.
Want more stories like this? Subscribe to our newsletter here.
The Staithes festival has been organised by Barbara Govan and Paul Bader, the duo behind Leeds-based Screenhouse Productions, who for the last few years, have been involved in running a film club in Staithes, supported by the North York Moors National Park and Cine North. “We felt like we wanted to run a festival to make a bit more noise and tell more people about the cinema screenings,” Barbara says. “It’s open to all, with monthly screenings and we thought the festival would be a good way of spreading the word, sharing the joy and getting more people in. We’d also love to have some more volunteers to help us.
“Staithes is already a star of movies and the small screen….We’ve actually put together a montage of a Staithes showreel and we’ve been try to highlight how photogenic the place is and what the village has to offer with history, heritage, the arts.”