Steel City Steals the Spotlight: Sheffield's love affair with entertainment

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Sheffield has long been known for its entanglement in the entertainment industry, producing stars and featuring on screen.

Musical Greats

Legendary rock band Def Leppard met in the student haven Crookes, in Joe Elliot's

bedroom, where they recruited the vocalist in 1977. They played their first live performance

for a “Rent a Crowd” of friends at the Portland Works Spoon Factory, before a public gig at

Westfield School a year later. Whilst not having explicitly written about Sheffield, they

continue to show their love - In 2023 they returned to Leadmill as a prelude to their

European tour, kickstarting at Bramall Lane, and are set to return again in 2026.

Hailing from the High Green suburbs is Arctic Monkeys, an unsurprising but necessary

mention, who formed whilst the boys were attending Stocksbridge Highschool together. They performed their first gig in 2003 at pub The Grapes on Trippet Lane, and went on to perform at Boardwalk, The Harley and Leadmill, leaving crowds and chaos in their wake. Songs like ‘Red Lights Indicate Doors Are Secured’ and ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ reference

Rotherham and High Green.

Rock band Pulp first performed at Sheffield City School before their Leadmill right of passage in 1980. Throughout their fame, the city has inspired hits such as ‘Sheffield: Sex City’ and ‘Wickerman’. Pulp returned this year to perform at the annual Tramlines festival, alongside rising indie rock bands The Reytons and The Rosadocs.

Movie Stars

Lord Of The Rings and Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean grew up in Handsworth, Sheffield

and in 1996 starred as a brewery worker scouted to play for Sheffield United in the movie

When Saturday Comes. Sheffield Film Festival celebrated the production's 30th anniversary

last August. .

Meanwhile, Ranmoor holds claim to Monty Python's Michael Palin, who in 2016 petitioned to

save Sheffield Central Library from closure. Palin will return home with The Podcast Festival in 2026.

Sheffield on Screen

Even the streets have their moment, backdropping series such as Bodies (which used the

city centre for shots of the London metropolis), BBC’s Reunion (featuring City Hall, Tapton

Hall and Endcliffe Park) and political satire The Regime (filmed in Sheffield City Centre and

Botanical Gardens, where Kate Winslet was spotted on set in 2023.)

In 2024, Park Hill flats took to the stage in the musical Standing at the Sky's Edge, directed

by Sheffielder Chris Bush, with a soundtrack by Sheffield songwriter and guitarist Richard

Hawley. And it doesn’t stop there - camera crews could take to Sheffield's streets once again, as local Adolescence producer WARP Films vow to remake the 1984 movie Threads, which followed Sheffield in the aftermath of nuclear attack, originally featuring Broomhill's

Nottingham House pub.

The only question now is, what's next for Sheffield?

Edited by Gabriella Whiston