BUSINESSES across Somerset and Exmoor are being urged to cash in on the fast-growing trend to use the area’s unspoiled scenery as locations for film and television productions.

According to Screen Somerset - the unitary council’s film office - visiting production companies spent £4.2 million the county in the past year and are increasingly looking for a wide range of local services ranging from accommodation and security to cleaning, vehicle hire, catering, and courier services.

Somerset Council executive Cllr Mike Rigby said: “Film and television shoots can put a lot of money into the economy and is great for local businesses.

“That is why we are working to make Somerset as film-friendly as possible.”

Cllr Rigby said businesses could increase their chances of getting television and film work by registering with the Filming in England Supplier Directory, which is free to join and used by many production companies when planning their shoots.

The area has been boosted as a top location by the successes of the film adaptation of Raynor Winn’s ‘The Salt Path’, shot with dramatic coastal backdrops, including Minehead, Porlock Weir, and Bossington Hill, and the Swedish psychological thriller ‘Unmoored’, set largely on Exmoor.

Exmoor was also a main location for Tony Robinson’s hit television sit-com ‘Maid Marian and the Merry Men’ and the classic ‘Tom Jones’, starring Albert Finney.

Dunster was the main location for a David Suchet episode of ‘Poirot’, while the movie ‘Pandemonium’ about the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth was set on the West Somerset coast.

A Screen Somerset spokesperson said encouraging film and television had brought dozens of productions to the area.

They said: “Using local companies is better for the environment, great for local businesses and jobs, and makes life easier for productions, increasing the chances of them coming back again.”

For further information on the directory visit www.filminginengland.co.uk.