We live in picturesque seaside town where Beyond Paradise is filmed & we want tourists to stay away for crucial reason
RESIDENTS in the town where new BBC drama Beyond Paradise is filmed fear hordes of tourists will spoil the ambience.
Looe in Cornwall is the backdrop to the series – a spin-off from the smash hit Death in Paradise.
Actor Kris Marshall, who plays Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman, has swapped the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for the Cornish coast.
The area is already a honeypot for holidaymakers, with locals having to put up with thousands of visitors during the summer months.
But for many, the prospect of the harbour town being just as busy in the “much-needed” quieter winter months is filling them with dread.
Phil Spencer, 67, who is originally from Wales but has lived in the fishing port for more than 50 years, thinks it will push the price of everything up.
He said: “The cost of renting a place in the town has gone through the roof and as more and more people see just how attractive the place is through programmes like this, it will only get worse.
“It’s already the sort of price you might expect to pay in London.
“More than £1,000 a month is just not sustainable for someone on the wages being paid in this part of the world, especially because most jobs are seasonal.”
Michael Pengelly, a sixth generation fisherman from Looe, agreed that having a successful TV show filmed in the town could warrant unwanted attention like it has in Port Isaac, where Doc Martin is shot.
“The last thing we want is for Looe to end up like Port Isaac with thousands of people flocking here just to see where the action took place,” the 71-year-old said.
“I don’t think that will happen in Looe because we are a bigger community, but the danger is there and I wouldn’t want my hometown overrun.
“There’s still a thriving community feeling in the town because it still has such a thriving fishing industry, as well as a lot of independent retail shops.”
His son Tom, 31, added: “It was nice to sit back and watch the first episode and try to spot all the places that we know well.
“But I wouldn’t want Looe to become like Padstow where you get a lot of Londoners descend on the town in their big cars and disappear back home at the end of the weekend.”
And brother Will, 29, said: “The Doc Martin effect badly affected Port Isaac and something like that would be too much for Looe.
“I’ve only seen the first episode and it’s obviously depicting somewhere totally different to what life in Looe is like.
“I suppose that is all part of the drama and it was good seeing them film in the town last year.
“But if people are coming down here thinking that life is like that, they are in for a shock.”
I wouldn’t want my hometown overrun.
Michael Pengelly
Catherine Brealey, 67, and her husband Lee, 68, from Tavistock, Devon, said the programme, which also stars Sally Bretton and Dylan Llewellyn, will only encourage even bigger crowds to the picturesque civil parish and make congestion and parking a nightmare.
Catherine said: “We like to come here in the off season because you can at least get around the town centre.
“In the summer it is impossible and the programme will only encourage more people to come and that will mean even more traffic in a centre which is heaving.”
Lee added: “We used to bring our son here when he was very young to play on the beach.
“I’d hate to think what it would be like now trying to get a spot on the sand at the height of the season.
“You’d have to be here really early to bag your place and that’s if you could find a car park space in the town.”
Another man called Lee, a 76-year-old retired engineer, described the possibility of an influx of day-trippers as “potentially chaotic”.
“I know things change and you can’t keep places like they always used to be, and I’m sure that the shopkeepers in the town will be happy to see more people coming in, but those who live here will be thinking, ‘Where is it all going to end?’” he said.
“There are only so many people who can come into the town without it causing chaos.”
COUNTY WAR
As well as the risk of traffic jams, parking woes and price hikes, locals are also up in arms about the fact that Looe – the archetypal Cornish town – is being depicted as the fictional Devon town of Shipton Abbot.
Christine Hendry, 76, from Par, Cornwall, said: “Why can’t they just accept that it was filmed in Cornwall?
“We have our own separate identity to those across the Tamar River in Devon.
“We are all proud Cornish folk and love our heritage so to have a Cornish town masquerading as a town in Devon is a disgrace.”
Twitter also went into meltdown over the controversy.
Phillipa Ashley said: “Why, why is Beyond Paradise filmed in Looe but billed as being Devon?”
Another user added: “What Devonian stereotypes are they going to put in Cornwall then to make it look like Devon?”
The first episode of Beyond Paradise aired on February 24 and is on every Friday at 8pm on BBC One.