London - When I lived in Oxford a decade or three ago, it would have amazed me to imagine that my modest street in the working-class neighbourhood of Jericho would one day witness scores of escorted tour parties earnestly retracing the murder investigations of Inspector Morse. But at last this sign of the times has gained a name.
Set-jetting is defined as a passion to visit places you read about in books or see portrayed in films and television. Estimates vary on how widespread the fad is, but it's a fair guess that well over a quarter of us are influenced to some extent in our choice of holiday destinations by novels or screen presentations.
Perhaps it all started in the land of Hollywood, but the UK is catching on fast - the blockbusting success of The Da Vinci Code has produced a massive hike in visitor numbers to the places mentioned in the original novel, and to the locations used in the film starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou.
It's a rare destination these days that fails to make the most of any fictional media coverage, however tenuous the association.
Visitors are just as likely to find themselves on the Dracula Trail or in Catherine Cookson Country, as in Whitby or Tyneside.
Acknowledging "spirit of place" as an essential element in film production, the Film Distributors' Association celebrated its 50th Cinema Days event last year by inviting more than 2 000 film writers and critics to nominate the 10 films that had made the most atmospheric use of British locations. The top three were Local Hero (set in Pennan, Aberdeenshire), The Full Monty (Sheffield), and Trainspotting (Edinburgh).
Set-jetting is particularly prevalent among the under-35 age group, but there is also a growing number of "Silver Set-Jetters" (over-65s).
Over the past few decades, long-running TV soaps like Coronation Street and EastEnders have given just about everyone in Britain some mental picture of urban Manchester or London's Docklands, though not necessarily encouraged many people to go there. In those dramas, it's the human stories rather than the locations that drive the ratings.
But who could fail to warm to the idyllic north-country settings of hardy perennials like Last of the Summer Wine (set in Holmfirth) or the National Park landscapes of Derbyshire, which make such an enticing hinterland to Peak Practice and The League Of Gentlemen?
The West Country's varied coastline and countryside remain popular. Cornwall is virtually a co-star in ITV's Doc Martin; Devon is the scene of many a dastardly murder solved by Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes; Dorset has been frequently targeted for Thomas Hardy TV screenings; and Bath and Lyme Regis are regular haunts for dramatisations of Jane Austen novels. Above any other location, London's street scenes mould the world's perceptions of Britain.
Ranging from the gritty wharves and council estates of the East End to the elegant Regency terraces of Greenwich, Mayfair and Notting Hill, the capital provides a variable canvas.
It's a journey through time as well as space: the medieval Tower of London; Shakespeare's quasi-Elizabethan Globe Theatre; Wren's City churches; the murky Victorian streets of Dickens, Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper; the bomb sites of the Blitz; Carnaby Street in the Swinging Sixties; the glittering high-rises of regenerated Docklands - these are just a handful of London's multifarious props enshrined in cinematic media.
Some locations are in regular demand. Harrow School has generated handy chunks of income from productions such as the recent Harry Potter films and the eerie china-clay pits around Cornwall have conjured other-worldly sets for Dr Who.
Nearby Charlestown Harbour has starred in any number of period dramas (Moll Flanders, Frenchman's Creek), capitalising on its traditional setting and resident tall ships.
Gloucester Docks featured in Vanity Fair and The Onedin Line, while Burghley House, near Stamford, has cornered a useful slice of the Elizabethan costume drama market and Lyme Park in Cheshire spells desirable Georgian residence bar none since Mr Darcy's famous wet evening-shirt scene in the BBC's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. - The Daily Telegraph
Visit