Spotlight on Kirkby Lonsdale

The town stars in the Dolittle film coming out next month – but it’s a place that does an awful lot

- Louise Bryning

Dr Dolittle could do much for Kirkby Lonsdale when a new film about him is released in the UK next month. Some scenes in the Dolittle film, starring Robert Downey Jnr, were shot in the town almost two years ago.

‘It was a fantastic experience,’ said John Strange who until recently ran the Crossing Point Cafe. ‘It was very exciting and I can’t wait to see the film.’

The cafe catered for the crew and, like all premises in Market Square, it was transformed for the movie, becoming Cropp & Watson Royal Hatters.

The film is a re-working of the classic Hugh Lofting book about an eccentric doctor who finds he can talk to animals. One scene, featuring a police chase involving a boy and a giraffe, is understood to be pivotal to the plot which is music to the ears of Kirkby Lonsdale’s town and tourism manager, Janet Nuttall.

‘It was great publicity at the time of the filming and will continue to be for years,’ said Janet. But it’s not the first time drama has come to Kirkby. In 2014, it featured in a television adaptation of Jamaica Inn.

The historic nature of the town, which is in Cumbria Council area yet has a Lancashire postcode and also lies in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is one of its attractions. And heritage is the focus of many projects and events lined up for 2020.

Five of the information centre’s 30 volunteers have recently been trained as town guides to lead free Vault Walks. The walks start at The Vault, an innovative attraction which opened in 2018 at the information centre which is housed in a former bank. Visitors choose an item from The Vault, place it on a table and magically, audio-visual dramatizations of historic events in the town appear.