My home, the star of the show.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Has a book or movie ever been based somewhere you’ve lived? How did it compare?

Devon in general is a source of a lot of inspiration for movies and books. For example, there’re the many adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes classic “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” which was set on Dartmoor.

Agatha Christie, who was born locally and lived about two miles from where I’m writing this, also used the county a fair bit for inspiration.

To find Brixham in cinema, you have to go back to 1964 and a film called “The System.” I haven’t seen it, but it stars Oliver Reed, before he was famous.

Neighbouring Dartmouth features in a couple of movies, “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea,” and the Agatha Christie mystery “Ordeal by Innocence.” Both of them are pretty good movies, showing the Dartmouth that I remember from my youth.

Probably the most famous show as regards Torbay is the T.V. series “Fawlty Towers,” which was set in a hotel that used to be in Torquay.

That needs no introduction, if you have never watched it, you should.

As for books, I have on my WIP pile, a story set in South Devon called “The Riviera Express,” by T.P. Fielden, the first part of a series that I’m looking forward to reading. It’s reimagined a place called Teignmouth, about ten miles from here, yet it’s very recognisable in the bit I’ve read so far.

Brixham, or Torbay, being a holiday destination, also features on a lot of travelogues and programmes about “local” life. The strange thing is that a lot of the people featured are not local at all, mainly those who have moved here from somewhere else, in search of a new life.

Moving further afield, having travelled a lot while I was working, a place I’ve visited often pops up on the screen. My children used to groan and tell me to shut up when I’d invariably say, “I’ve been there.”

In general, I’ve found that what you see or read is very rarely anything like what you would have experienced. I guess that’s only to be expected, the only constant is the setting itself, the people can seem to be enhanced for dramatic effect.

How about you? Has your locality featured in a big-budget Hollywood movie, or a bestseller? Please comment below, then head on over to see what the other contributors to this bloghop have to say on the subject.

Until next time.

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