A Harrogate charity has admitted to having a “shameless” link to a number of prime-time TV dramas screened over the last few years.
And, in addition to items donated to Disability Action Yorkshire’s furniture enterprise helping dress the set of the Channel 4 hit, Shameless, numerous pieces have also featured on “In The Club”, and, more recently, The Syndicate – which was filmed at Bramham Park country house.
The charity’s furniture warehouse, based at Hornbeam Park, has become a firm hunting ground of Harrogate prop buyer, Bert Mackay, who, since 1978, has worked on scores of other well-known productions, including Eastenders, Birds of a Feather, The New Statesman and Sunburn.
Bert said:
I first found at about Disability Action Yorkshire’s furniture warehouse after trawling the internet for specific items I needed for a set I was working on.
Since that day I have gone there wherever possible. It’s usually really good quality and, with budgets on a shoestring, a lot cheaper to buy than hiring from a prop hire company in London and transporting it to and from a film set in the north of England.
And it’s also helping a local charity that does some fantastic work in the Harrogate district.
When I go to Disability Action Yorkshire I don’t know what I will find, but more often than not I strike lucky. Just looking around the other day I saw a set of chairs that would have made a great doctor’s waiting room!
For any prop buyer or set dresser, I would recommend starting off in a place like Disability Action Yorkshire’s furniture warehouse – even when working on a period production – you never know what you will find.
Disability Action Yorkshire Chief Executive Jackie Snape said:
Thanks to Bert – and those who very kindly donate furniture to our enterprise – we are now associated with some of the best-known and best-watched TV dramas of recent years.
For us, our furniture enterprise is a key component of our work. It not only generates much needed income for the charity, but equally as important it helps provide work and training for young disabled people.
Here they learn valuable skills that we hope will ultimately enable them to live independent lives and lead to job opportunities.
Further information about Disability Action Yorkshire – and its furniture warehouse – is available from its website www.disabilityactionyorkshire.org.uk
