Written by new-contact on Mar 21, 2014. Posted in On Location

BBC filming First World War memoir Testament Of Youth in Yorkshire and Oxford

An adaptation of Vera Brittain’s First World War memoir Testament Of Youth is filming on location in the UK in Yorkshire, Oxford and London. Heyday Films and BBC Films are co-producers on the adaptation of the 1933 memoir.

Brittain’s memoir is among the most iconic of the 20th Century and charts her personal journey from an Oxford scholarship to the battlefields of France as she volunteers to become a nurse and suffers unspeakable personal loss.

“Testament Of Youth is one of the most potent and moving war memoirs ever written,” commented BBC Films Head and Executive Producer Christine Langan.

“BBC Films is privileged to be working with Heyday, James Kent and the luminous Alicia Vikander on bringing this unforgettable story - brilliantly retold by Juliette Towhidi - to the big screen. In this centenary year, there can be few more significant ways of examining the First World War and its phenomenal impact on 20th century life and beyond.”

Testament Of Youth is one of the most potent and moving war memoirs ever written.

Christine Langan, Executive Producer/BBC Films Head

Testament Of Youth is being directed by James Kent, whose recent credits include three episodes of period miniseries The White Queen, which largely doubled the Belgian cities of Bruges and Ghent for 15th Century England.

The film is part-funded by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund, which was recently awarded an additional GBP7.5 million from the European Regional Development Fund. Screen Yorkshire has invested in 18 different productions in two years, including the Birmingham-set period gangster Peaky Blinders.

“This additional investment of GBP7.5 million - effectively doubling the capacity of the Yorkshire Content Fund - is a vote of confidence in Yorkshire, in Screen Yorkshire and the effectiveness of the Yorkshire Content Fund in putting Yorkshire at the heart of production across the UK screen industries,” said Screen Yorkshire Chief Executive Sally Joynson when the extra funding was first announced.

(Main page York Minster photo © Copyright Peter McDermott and licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence; Production stills: BBC)