5:50pm Saturday 7th November 2009
By Emma Clayton
Billie Piper heads the all-star cast of a new TV drama filmed in and around Bradford.
A Passionate Woman, written by Kay Mellor, stars Bradford actors Andrew Lee Potts, John Duttine, Anthony Lewis and Rachel Leskovac. The cast also includes Sue Johnston, Alun Armstrong and Frances Barber.
Filming took place at a disused unit at St Luke’s Hospital – where ITV medical dramas The Royal and The Royal Today were filmed – and in Bradford city centre and King’s Hall in Ilkley.
Former Doctor Who star Billie plays Betty Stephenson, a wife and mother who falls for a married Polish man living in the same tenement block in Leeds.
The series begins in 1985 when the older Betty (Sue Johnston) is hiding in her attic on her son’s wedding day, thinking of her past.
The action flashes to the 1950s when Betty embarks on her affair.
When she and her husband and young son move to a better area she slumps into a depression, terrified of living a passionless life.
She gets chance to be reunited with her lover, but a cruel twist of fate means their plans are thwarted. Thirty years later, the affair returns to haunt Betty.
A Passionate Woman started as a play at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 1992. This version will be broadcast next year on BBC1, in two 90-minute episodes, followed by an international release as a feature film.
Executive producer Hugo Heppell said: “We are thrilled to help Kay Mellor bring her much-cherished smash-hit play to the big screen. We believe the film, co-directed by Kay and Antonia Bird, will have huge appeal for international audiences.
“It brilliantly evokes the time Room At The Top (by Bingley’s John Braine) put Yorkshire on the world cinema map.
“With a longer version being made for the BBC, and featuring stellar British talent including Billie Piper and Sue Johnston, A Passionate Woman will be one of the stand-out productions of 2010.”
Kay Mellor’s previous TV dramas include Band Of Gold, Playing the Field and The Chase, filmed in Bradford.
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