BILLY ELLIOT

GB
2000
1hr 51mins
Dir: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Jamie Bell and Julie Walters

The 11-year-old son of a miner switches from boxing to ballet

This successful dance drama features a scene towards the end of 1996-built tube stock at the new Canary Wharf Jubilee Line station, which had only opened in 1999. There is also an earlier scene where Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) walks down a road with a railway viaduct behind. This is Queen Alexandra Road in the Dawdon area of Seaham, County Durham, and Dawdon Dene Viaduct is behind located on the line between Seaham and Hartlepool.

Dawdon Dene Viaduct, one of four viaducts on the Seaham-Hartlepool line, three of which have ‘Dene’ in their name (a northen word for ‘a valley’). The billboards for striking miners’ were a sign of the times.
Canary Wharf Underground station, Jubilee Line, and the platform edge doors still seem unfamiliar