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MP’s anger that Mo Mowlam tribute drama shuns Redcar

Feb 7 2010 Sunday Sun

THE TV company behind the moving tribute to the late Mo Mowlam has been taken to town for snubbing Teesside as a filming location.

Award-winning actress Julie Walters has been praised for her powerhouse performance as the former Redcar and Cleveland MP, who passed away in 2005 after a long illness.

Yet MP Vera Baird, who took over from Mo in the Teesside constituency, blasted programme makers for choosing to make Northern Ireland double as Redcar in the Channel 4 show.

She said: “It’s definitely not Redcar. Why they didn’t come to Redcar is a mystery as I didn’t see any shots of the town at all.

“There are number of scenes which pretend to be Redcar, such as a shot of Mo walking up the street talking on her mobile, a shot where she stops to talk to a fisherman going out to sea and asks him to bring her a fresh cod, but the boat goes out of a harbour.

“But there isn’t a harbour in Redcar as they use tractors to push and pull the boat up onto the beach instead.”

While she has misgivings about the locations, Vera was full of praise for Julie Walters for capturing Mo’s personality and lack of formality, which made her one of the most liked and admired politicians of her age.

She said: “Julie played Mo to a tee and even got Mo ageing, getting stouter and more clumsy exactly right.

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