Guest Author - Jill Browne

One of the many things the Internet has brought us is the ability to get information about almost anything. Here are two ways of getting yourself a TV or movie location holiday. This means visiting the places where the programs were filmed, not visiting a live shoot.

If You Want To See Where Your Favourite Program Was Filmed

If there's a TV show you never miss, wouldn't it be fun to see the places where the characters ate, drank, and carried on? The research starts by searching for the official website of the show.

For example, one Britcom (British comedy) I like is an oldie but goodie, The Last of the Summer Wine, or LOTSW. It's obvious from the program that the characters are in Yorkshire, England - but where?

This is an easy one. A Google search for "last of the summer wine official website" quickly reveals that the location is Holmfirth. But, Holmfirth is a long way to go without knowing what I'll find there.

The official website leads to a link for Holmfirth and then some interesting possibilities. I can stay in Nora Batty's cottage! There's a tour of the show's locations, and it starts at Sid's Cafe! Of course these names mean nothing to non-fans, but fill in the name of your favourite show and characters instead, and you begin to get the idea.

If it hadn't been so easy, I would have continued researching for "tourist attractions in holmfirth" and "visit location last of the summer wine" - any sort of phrase to get me closer to the goal.

Then there is the sensible approach of emailing the local tourist authority and asking what locations are available.

IMDb (Internet Movies Database) www.imdb.com includes TV shows as well as movies. Looking in there for LOTSW, I found more locations near Holmfirth.

Another up and comer for finding locations is www.movielocationguide.com.

If You Find Yourself Somewhere and You Wonder if There are Film Locations Nearby

This is the flip side of searching for locations and then going to see them. What if you're in New York City and wonder, "Hey, I'd like to see some famous movie and TV locations while I'm here".

You could just wander up to the top of the Empire State Building, take the Staten Island Ferry, and have a good look at the Statue of Liberty and feel like you'd done it justice, but that would be cheating. You need to know specifically what movie fantasy you're re-enacting to play this game.

The Google search "where can i see movie locations in new york" produced several promising hits, including www.newyorkinthemovies.com. And there, a search for Friends told me the address of the famous apartment building. (But movielocationguide.com already tipped me off that Central Perk is apparently in L.A.).

Even in remote places you'll find Hollywood's tracks. The province of Alberta, in Canada, has Brokeback Mountain. In Saskatchewan you can pretend to live in Dog River and work at Corner Gas. And I hear that somewhere down in Texas there is a ranch that really looks like Southfork.