"If you can't find a job you like doing, make your own"... this advice from a friend gave Nick Jones the incentive to do just that and now he's launched his own online company offering a comprehensive library of TV locations.

Nick's Yorkshire Locations business has collated around 500 locations, homes, businesses, landmarks and sites, even stretches of road around the county, and Bradford is at the forefront of his operation.

But he knows there's still plenty of untapped potential out there around the district that TV crews will be clamouring to use as backdrops for films and commercials.

"People ring and the conversation always starts off I don't know whether you may be interested' then they may say they live in a 14th Century Grade I listed manor house with all the original features. Some of these buildings you just can't find," says Nick.

It can be lucrative too. "What many people don't realise is their property could be earning them money. Property owners can earn hundreds of pounds a day depending on the type of filming and time required."

He is already seeing demand for homes with large open living spaces, knocked through kitchens/dining rooms or living and dining rooms affording extra space for cast, crew and equipment. Loft apartments, rural farmhouses and quirky conversions are other contenders for Nick's wish list.

"The website will provide a comprehensive library of filming and photography locations across Yorkshire, so whether you live in a mansion or an apartment, own a factory or a bookshop, we want to hear from you," he says.

Nick's experience is based on a decade working for TV companies. Before that he sold advertising space in arts and listings magazines. His breakthrough into TV came as a runner, making refreshments and running errands in his native Newcastle on Jimmy Nail's Spender series.

Working freelance in the same role for Yorkshire Television on hit series At Home with the Braithwaites and as assistant location manager on the second series of Where the Heart Is brought him to West Yorkshire, where his business is now based, and introduced him to the county and locations he's busy promoting to TV companies, crews and producers.

"I've always been keen on locations and Yorkshire is an amazing place. It's so diverse," says Nick, who records details of potential locations on the dictaphone he carries wherever he goes.

"I really like the coast, Robin Hood's Bay, the North Yorkshire Moors and the Dales - Hetton, Grassington, Kettlewell and Hawes.

"But Yorkshire is so diverse. You have so much. Within an hour from the centre of Bradford you can be out in the Dales away from the hustle and bustle and it's the most picturesque spot. Yorkshire stone has a good look about it."

Such is his knowledge of the area he can source the right property to suit a storyboard or script. Whether it's a thatched cottage in North Yorkshire or a plush city centre apartment in Bradford, Nick can pin-point a location.

Bradford's Alhambra Theatre and Omar's Balti house are among the most recent locations he provided for the series Ghost Squad, and - being ripe with regeneration - it's becoming a city film crews are clamouring to work in.

When the makers of a Pot Noodle commercial were seeking a mine to film in, Nick pointed them to the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield. Other recent assignments include working on a pop promo for Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys.

Nick says: "It's nice to start the day not knowing what the call is going to be. Whether it's a promo for Arctic Monkeys in Sheffield or sourcing a stretch of road to test drive cars for Top Gear, I get excited.

"It is hard work and long hours but it's certainly rewarding working in Yorkshire. I can't think of a nicer place to work. It's an interesting and varied way of making a living and no two days are the same."

  • For more information call 0845 0450608 or visit www.yorkshirelocations.co.uk.