Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is arriving in cinemas this Friday, June 19 – and for director Tina Gharavi, bringing the film home to the North East was never up for negotiation.
In an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo, the BAFTA‑nominated filmmaker explains why she fought to relocate the shoot from Dublin, how Beamish Museum became the beating heart of Edwardian London on screen, and why she believes the region is one of the most versatile film backdrops in the country.
An ‘un‑romantic’ Woolf for 2026
Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day is billed as an “un‑romantic comedy” about Katharine Hilbery, a passionate young astronomer who does everything she can to avoid love and marriage while pushing against Edwardian patriarchy.
Set in 1910, it unfolds against suffragette protests, rapid advances in science and technology and the cracks appearing in Britain’s old social order.
Haley Bennett leads an ensemble cast that includes Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders, Jack Whitehall, Lily Allen, Sally Phillips and Elyas M’Barek, with Newcastle‑based Gharavi directing from a script by Justine Waddell adapted from Woolf’s 1919 novel.
Shot across the region, the film has been backed by the North East Production Fund and is already picking up buzz after opening SXSW London earlier this month.
The production leans heavily on North East locations to stand in for London and Cambridge, with Beamish Museum, Durham Cathedral, the Lit & Phil, The Common Room, the Mining Institute and Ryhope Engines Museum all appearing on screen.
‘I brought it home’
Gharavi is frank that Night and Day could easily have been made somewhere else.
The project was initially lined up to shoot in Dublin with support from Screen Ireland. “We were going to shoot it in Dublin, and Irish Screen had given us some money, but the locations weren't as good as what we had back home,” she says.
“So I just had to keep petitioning the producers to come and have a look because I was convinced that it would be just better value if we filmed in the region.”
North East Screen and local authority‑backed production funding helped tip the balance.
“The producers recognised the talent and the value of shooting in the region. So we actually gave up Screen Ireland money to bring that production back home."
For a director who has lived in the North East for 30 years, there was also a personal pull. “I have so much pride in bringing this production to the region,” she says.
"Plus, I can live at home for the majority of it!”
Beamish: ‘the jewel in the crown’
Among a long list of North East locations, one stands out.
“Beamish, of course, Beamish, the jewel in the crown of the North East locations,” Gharavi says, laughing.
The open‑air museum, already loved locally, is transformed into Edwardian London for the film, with its cobbled streets and period trams giving Gharavi the scale and authenticity she needed.
“Beamish is unbelievable, unbelievable,” she says. “I know it's been Museum of the Year and all that sort of jazz, so people do know it, but I still don't think people quite appreciate how extraordinary it is.”
She hopes Night and Day – which has a broad, mainstream appeal – will change that. “I think people will know it more nationally now, maybe with this film, because it's kind of got a very big broad appeal,” she adds.
It’s not hard to imagine streaming executives and location scouts taking note.
Beamish has already appeared in other productions - including Downton Abbey and Women of Substance, but Gharavi believes it should be a go‑to destination for anyone making period drama.
“I think people will say, ‘Oh my god, how did we not think of that if we were filming, I don't know, Bridgerton or Call the Midwife’” she says.
Hidden gems: Ryhope Engines Museum and beyond
If Beamish is the headline act, Ryhope Engines Museum is the cult favourite.
Gharavi admits that despite almost three decades in the region, she hadn’t heard of the Edwardian pumping station in Sunderland until she started scouting for Night and Day.
“It's such a gem. It is absolutely unbelievably good, you know, like staggeringly good for the region,” she says.
The site – properly known as Ryhope Engines Museum – is largely run by volunteers, and one in particular has stuck with her.
“The men who work there, they're just incredible because they've been doing it as volunteers, one of them for like 40 years. This guy called Keith,” she explains.
“Keith is just my hero, really.
"I just can't give enough props to those men who have kept this kind of Edwardian‑Victorian factory alive forever and ever and ever and it's just so lovingly looked after.”
Durham Cathedral also features, with its cloisters – which famously feature in the Harry Potter films – doubling for Cambridge University, alongside other regional stalwarts such as the Lit & Phil, The Common Room and the Mining Institute in Newcastle.
‘Brooklyn in Newcastle’: the case for filming in the North East
Gharavi is clear that her attachment to the North East isn’t just sentimental – she believes it makes hard commercial sense for producers weighing up where to shoot.
“I mean, they can't live in my house, but I do think you can make many different movies in the North East,” she says with a smile.
“I always think there's little bits of New York that you could film.
"Brooklyn is in Newcastle,” she says as an example.
For her, the region’s selling point is its range. “There's obviously cities, countryside, oceans, forests,” she says. “It's a really diverse region that has a lot of factories, great universities, and period material. So the region is spectacularly diverse.”
Then there are the practicalities.
“When you're looking to do production, you're looking for a city that's easy to navigate, somewhere where you can live and work easily,” she explains.
“The region isn't like filming in London or even Manchester, which is very tense to film there because you have so many more problems getting around.
"So the region is just really functional for filmmaking and very supportive of it as well.”
Gharavi wants to help keep talent in the region too.
“What's sad is that a lot of that great crew often leave to go work elsewhere,” she says.
“Filming up here would just be a really good excuse to bring a lot of people back or retain talent in the region.”
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A North East film with global ambitions
Backed by North East Screen and a UK‑German production partnership, Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day is positioning itself as both a prestige literary adaptation and a fresh, contemporary take on Woolf for new audiences.
The film has been described as “fun and contemporary in tone”, with a strong comedic thread running through its exploration of women balancing romantic love with ambition and work.
For Gharavi, who has also taught at Newcastle University, it is also a showcase of what her adopted home region can do when it is given a chance to lead a major production.
Virginia Woolf's Night and Day is in cinemas from Friday, June 19.
Will you be heading to the cinema to watch? Let us know in the comments.
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