THE director of Bradford’s UNESCO City of Film team is hopeful that tourism in the district will be boosted by the release this week of two films both shot in Keighley.

Dalton Mills in Keighley doubles as the backstreets of Victorian London in The Limehouse Golem, which has a starry cast including Bill Nighy, Daniel Mays and Eddie Marsan. The murder mystery, also shot at Bramham Park and a Leeds studio, delves into a series of gruesome slayings striking terror into a squalid East End community. At the heart of the story is a battle of wits between Inspector John Kildare of Scotland Yard and a serial killer known as The Golem.

Set in 1880, the film opens in a music hall where London’s most renowned performer, Dan Leno, takes to the stage. He delivers a monologue about the fate of a young woman who once adorned the stage; singer Lizzie Cree who is facing the hangman, accused of murdering her husband. But the police’s attention is soon turned by a calculating serial killer, murdering unconnected victims, leaving behind barely identifiable corpses - and his signature in blood. All is not what it seems; everyone is a suspect and everyone has a secret.

Adapted from Peter Ackroyd’s novel Dan Leno And The Limehouse Golem, the film uses cinematic trickery to keep audiences guessing about the killer’s identity.

Also released last Friday was God’s Own Country, shot near Keighley. Writer-director Francis Lee’s heartbreaking love story is drawing comparisons to Brokeback Mountain for its tenderly observed coupling of a disenchanted farmer’s son and a Romanian migrant worker. At this summer’s Edinburgh Film Festival, the film won the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film, honouring imagination and creativity in British film-making.

David Wilson, director of Bradford City of Film, said: “Both these films are getting lots of attention - God’s Own Country is Francis Lee’s debut film yet has won so many accolades and been so highly praised - and the knock-on benefits is that Bradford and Yorkshire are talked about in a very positive light. This is great for the region in terms of visitor numbers. We saw it with Sally Wainwright’s Bronte drama, To Walk Invisible; after it was was shown on TV at Christmas visitor numbers soared to Haworth and surrounding areas.

“The City of Film office provided advice on locations for The Limehouse Golem and God’s Own Country. We respond to all requests; often they know what kind of places and buildings they want, and we advise on what’s available.

“It’s a really exciting time for the district, with the amount of production that is coming through. That two such high profile films, both shot locally, are released on the same day can only be good news for the district.”