Steve McQueen’s Blitz: Hull’s Old Town turns clock back to the 1940s for new film set during the Blitz

Blitz, an original screenplay written, directed and produced by film director Steve McQueen, is being filmed in the Old Town.

Several shops in the city's Victorian Hepworth Arcade are being refitted to turn the clock back to the 1940s.

The film, to be released by Apple, will tell the story of how Londoners survived the German bombing campaign. Saoirse Ronan will star alongside Josef Altin, of Top Boy, along with Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke.

McQueen, 53, is best known for his Oscar winning ’12 Years a Slave’, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, which told the story of a free black man in the US who was kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Blitz is his first feature-length film since Widows in 2018, though he also created the award-winning TV series ‘Small Axe , which aired in 2020. The Old Town has been an increasingly popular location in recent years, with Netflix's "The Crown" shooting scenes last October. The Personal History of David Copperfield and Victoria also used it as a location, with Screen Yorkshire saying its listed buildings, pubs and cobbled streets and alleyways “make the area a perfect double for period London”.

Meanwhile businesses have been warned about street closures including High Street, Bowlalley Lane, Land of Green Ginger and Silver Street. The last filming is scheduled on February 14.

A letter thanked locals for being “so accommodating”, adding: "It is incredible to be able to bring productions to Hull and show off the beautifully historic architecture the city has to offer.”