LITTLE VOICE

A Seaside Location

LITTLE VOICE was shot in the Northern England town of Scarborough, a working class enclave on the sea. Although the play had been set in Bolton, where Jane Horrocks grew up, the filmmakers wanted a fresh and starkly visual location. In Scarborough, they found a dramatic horseshoe bay that ringed a cozy, if deteriorating, town of fishing and factories.

Says location manager Mark Herbert, who previously worked with Herman on 'Brassed Off': "You can see where you are straight away. The seafront is spectacular yet the streets are very industrial which plays out the contrasts in the story. Plus we had the slightly magical lights of the amusement park always in the background. It was great."

Adds Elizabeth Karlsen: "We spend quite a while searching for the right Northern English town. When we got to Scarborough, Mark felt it was the kind of place where you might turn the corner and run into the steel workers from 'The Full Monty' or the brass band from 'Brassed Off..' But there's something else in these seaside towns that was also important - a whole history of stand-up comedians and two-bit nightclubs and desperate entertainment

She continues: "It's also the perfect place for Ray Say, who you can imagine coming to a town like this after his London ambitions are quashed."

Once the location was found, the filmmakers had one final quest: Little Voice's house, a dilapidated flat above her father's long-defunct record shop. In Scarborough, they discovered the perfect empty apartment above an old candy wholesaler in a quirky building with lots of curves and corners.

Explains Mark Herman: "We drove past the building on our very first day in Scarborough and thought 'Oh, that's interesting, but I don't know what we'll use it for.' Then the idea slowly dawned on me that this would be Little Voice's home and temporary haven from the noise of the world. It came to us rather magically, and that was set the tone of the entire production."

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