PURELY BELTER

GB
2000
1hr 39mins
Dir: Mark Herman
Starring: Chris Beattie and Greg McLane

Two youths try every trick in the book to get a Newcastle United season ticket

This comedy drama is based on The Season Ticket, a 2000 novel by Jonathan Tulloch, and takes its title from Geordie dialect for ‘very good’. It was filmed in and around Newcastle and there is a semi-distant shot of Tyne & Wear Metro units crossing the River Tyne on Queen Elizabeth II bridge, and a closer shot of a Class 156 ‘Sprinter’ DMU crossing Half Moon Street in Gateshead. There is also a particularly good shot of Tynemouth station on the Tyne & Wear Metro. Incidentally, Chris Beattie and Greg McLane are Newcastle fans in the film, but both are Sunderland supporters in real life!

The Tyne in Newcastle is famous for its bridges. In this shot there are five such structures visible, with a pair of 2-car Tyne & Wear units crossing Queen Elizabeth II bridge. The front unit is in the familiar white and yellow metro livery but the rear unit appears to be one of the handful that carried a special commemorative livery.
A Class 156 ‘Sprinter’ DMU crosses Half Moon Street in Gateshead
This fine station is Tynemouth, opened by the North Eastern Railway in 1882 and part of the Metro system since 11th August 1980