Last Tango in Halifax travel guide – find out where Alan and Celia drink, walk and got married
Fans of the BBC drama have fallen in love with its locations – but they’re not all in Yorkshire
HALIFAX
Halifax’s cosmopolitan town centre, heritage buildings and arty eateries feature in a number of scenes in series three, particularly the Market Arcade and the Upstairs Downstairs Café, where Alan meets Gary Jackson (played by Rupert Graves). “Halifax has got some amazing ancient buildings,” explains Lewis. “The Piece Hall is an incredible building where they used to sell woollen cloth. Halifax used to be a really rich town. It’s not now, but it’s got some lovely architecture.” As well as scenic shots of Wainhouse Tower in King Cross on the west of town, the crew also filmed at a 600-year-old medieval timber-framed manor house named Shibden Hall, for a series one episode when Alan and Celia get locked in a medieval hall overnight.
MANCHESTER TOWN HALL
In the opening scene of series one, Celia, Caroline and her son William are in a café that’s supposed to be in Harrogate. Unfortunately, the production team couldn’t find a café in Harrogate willing to close their doors to permit filming the drama. So they decamped instead to the neo-Gothic splendour of Manchester Town Hall. “We wanted a café that was grand and like those beautiful, affluent buildings in Harrogate,” says Lewis.
RIPPONDEN, HEBDEN BRIDGE, SOWERBY BRIDGE
Elements of Yorkshire’s distinctive towns are scattered through the series, whether it be Sowerby Bridge’s railway station, Hebden Bridge, Ripponden for the exterior of the church in the series or the roads around Mytholmroyd. “All the little towns set in the valley are really beautiful,” says Lewis, and all can be explored on a driving tour of the area.
Watch Last Tango in Halifax on Sundays at 9.00pm, on BBC1
Visit the glorious north with Radio Times Travel, see here for more details
