Midlands filming locations including Dudley backdrop to Peaky Blinders set to star in new tourism campaign

Top midlands attractions such as Dudley's Black Country Living Museum, which provided the backdrop to the iconic Peaky Blinders series, and Grand Central in Birmingham which starred in Mission Impossible, are set to be showcased as part of a new, multi-year, global campaign by national tourism agency VisitBritain.

'Starring GREAT Britain’ will be promoted across VisitBritain’s major tourism markets, including USA, Australia, France, Germany and the Gulf Co-operation Council 

To celebrate the new campaign, a new tourist guide displaying the West Midlands’ well-known and under-the-radar filming locations has been launched, set to provides national and international visitors to the region with a handy overview of the West Midlands backdrops which have graced the big and small screen. 

The guide also includes destination profiles, fun facts and ideas for tourists on what to experience and where to eat, stay and party to live like the ultimate Hollywood A-Lister.

“The West Midlands has provided iconic backdrops for many of the television and film smash hits, which viewers have been glued to in their living rooms, on their smart phones and throughout our cinemas," said Neil Rami, Chief Executive of the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), which created the guide and leads the region’s Destination Development Partnership.

“For the first time, this new guide puts together the region’s eminent filming locations – past, present and future – in one place. I hope it encourages more “set jetters” to come and visit the West Midlands to put themselves at the heart of the filming action.”

The guide’s launch comes as fans eagerly await the new feature film of Peaky Blinders, the global smash hit BBC drama, set in Birmingham. The series was named the world’s most popular Netflix release in a 2021 study. It has also been credited with an increase in domestic and international visitors to the West Midlands, as well as special walking tours, a dance theatre event and escape rooms. 

Steven Knight, British Screenwriter, Director and creator/writer of Peaky Blinders, said: “I’ve always been proud of Birmingham and the wider region – for what it has achieved in the past and for its potential in the future.

“Exciting things are happening here and we’ve got ambitious plans to make TV and movies on an international scale from our new Digbeth Loc. Studios. 

“We’re setting up in the heart of, what was once, Peaky Blinders country. I want people to come and experience it for themselves and enjoy what a fantastic area this is.”