Screen Staffordshire Marks First Year with £1.3 Million Boost to Local Economy

Screen Staffordshire launched in April 2025 as part of a three year pilot programme secured by We Are Staffordshire, with a clear brief: put the county on the production map. A year on, that brief looks well and truly delivered. The office has facilitated 62 recces, 35 reality days, 17 drama prep days, 17 drama shoot days and 6 strike days, working with broadcasters and streamers including Netflix, Apple TV, BBC, Channel 4 and Amazon Studios.

Two of the highest profile results landed on our own doorstep. Channel 5 drama "Murder Before Evensong" filmed at Chillington Hall, while Motorway Cops marked its Season 10 premiere with a screening night at Stafford's Gatehouse Theatre. Jonny told attendees that one of those productions alone required 20 recce visits and significant work to secure road closures and heritage sign off, underlining just how much groundwork sits behind every finished frame.

The economic breakdown is where the pilot's case really lands: over £35,000 in ancillary costs, £50,000 plus paid directly to local crew, £200,000 plus generated in location fees, largely to private owners, and £435,000 plus spent on local accommodation across more than 3,300 room nights. Put together, that is a 10.6 times multiplier on the public money invested, a figure Jonny was keen to stress when talking through the office's accountability to taxpayers.

It is not just about spend, either. Five local hires and multiple film office placements have come directly out of the pilot's first year, alongside careers talks and speaking slots that have put the industry in front of Staffordshire students. Gemma Whalley of Stoke-on-Trent College praised Jonny's ability to "bring the industry to life" for her students, while Jessica Bates, employment broker at Staffordshire County Council, said candidates had gained "meaningful, behind the scenes experience" that has proved invaluable for building confidence and sector skills.

Talent development featured heavily in yesterday's session. Ellie of LCA Academy and Agency, which trains over 330 children weekly in screen acting, spoke about the film office's role in helping cut child performance licence processing times from 21 working days down to just 48 hours, a change that has opened up far more opportunities for young local actors. Eleanor Ham, the academy's Managing Director, said the film office had directly connected her performers to a locally shooting production.

The Staffordshire Film Collective also came in for praise, having produced 11 award winning short films since August 2024 by pooling resources between local directors, cinematographers and crew, a model designed to keep creative talent in the county rather than losing it to Manchester or further afield.

Not every challenge has been straightforward. Jonny was candid about the work involved in securing roof safety certification for the Queen's Theatre ahead of filming, a case study in the film office acting as mediator between productions, council surveyors and historic venues. Heritage sites, in particular, demand patience: conversion from recce to actual shoot sits at under one in four, though as Jonny pointed out, every viewing still functions as a sales pitch for the county's next opportunity.

Looking ahead, the office is turning attention to film tourism, an area Staffordshire's destination plan has yet to fully embrace despite the obvious potential. Plans are also under way to encourage more Midlands productions to enter the Royal Television Society awards, and to deepen educational partnerships around heritage planning and independent filmmaking skills.

As the pilot moves into year two of three, the message from yesterday morning was one of quiet confidence. Testimonials collected in the report, from Middleport Pottery's Louise Bartley to location manager Charlie Turner, tell a consistent story of a film office that has made itself indispensable in a remarkably short space of time.

For a county not traditionally associated with the screen industry, that is no small achievement.