Whitley Bay - in Fiction

In Fiction

• In the BBC children's television series Byker Grove, Dave Richmond, the leader of the rival youth club at Denton Burn, was a local drug dealer from Whitley Bay. His trademark act of violence was the "Whitley Smile".

• In the movie Purely Belter, Gerry's drug-addicted-sister Bridget is hiding out from her family at The Spanish City funfair in one of the waltzer cars on the Whitley Bay seafront.

• In the BBC series Our Friends in the North, several scenes take place on or around the Whitley Bay seafront (such as the Rendezvous Cafe), it is also name checked several times.

• Several episodes of the 1980s ITV television programme Supergran were filmed in Whitley Bay.

• The 2006 BBC sitcom Thin Ice was filmed in the town and at Whitley Bay Ice Rink.

• In comedy series 'The Fast Show', Paul Whitehouse can be seen in one sketch, walking through the Spanish City and along the seafront.

• Spanish City is the title of a novel by the Tyneside-born author Sarah May. Although the novel is set in the fictional seaside town of Setton, this setting bears a number of striking resemblances to Whitley Bay, not least of which is the idea of a leisure complex named "Spanish City" that, after a period of relative prosperity in the mid-20th century, has fallen into disrepair. The novel begins when an elderly teacher is kidnapped by disgruntled ex-pupils. The rest of the novel is narrated mainly in flashback.

• There are numerous references to Whitley Bay in the 1970s sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?. The series was set in North-East England, and was written by Dick Clement and locally-born Ian La Frenais.

• The song Chop That Child In Half by post-punk band The Mekons includes a reference to "the memory of a beach-hut in Whitley Bay".

• The music video for First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by duo Journey South was filmed along the beach and seafront in Whitley Bay.

• The music video for Pray by Tina Cousins was filmed in Whitley Bay with scenes filmed at St. Mary's Lighthouse, along the seafront, Spanish City including the dome and a street at the rear of Whitley Bay Baptist Church.

• In The Catherine Tate Show, Geordie Georgie tries to get her co-worker Martin to sponsor her and her friends to pull a Boeing 747 from Whitley Bay to Tynemouth using only the B roads.

• In the BBC sitcom, One Foot in the Grave, Victor's oddball friends Ronnie and Mildred are said to live in Whitley Bay. "Bugger off back to Whitley Bay the pair of you!".

• In the Geordie comic Viz, Whitley Bay was occasionally mentioned, for example by Sid the Sexist: "Less gann oorsel' doon Whitley Bay and see if wi canna pull oorsel' some forry hoops!".