Kingdom link-up looks for Northern European tourism boost for the county

Added: 02/05/2008
Category: Norfolk County Council

An innovative link-up between Norfolk County Council, Norfolk Tourism, and an international television channel, is using locally filmed TV programme, Kingdom, to plug the county as a tourism destination in Scandinavia.

Primarily filmed in Swaffham, Kingdom follows Peter Kingdom - a small-town solicitor - played by Stephen Fry - whose work revolves around cases brought by the people of the fictional, Market Shipborough.

First aired in this country last year, the programme has seen a number of Norfolk locations used during its filming.

Hallmark Channel, part of NBC Universal, premiered Kingdom in Scandinavia last year and began showing the second season of the programme mid-April.

As part of the link-up, Hallmark Channel has agreed to fund a competition in conjunction with the County Council and Norfolk Tourism - which will see twelve Scandinavian viewers of Kingdom winning a trip to come and stay in Norfolk during June (13 - 15).

A competition advert - plugging Norfolk as a travel destination, is running after each episode shown in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, inviting viewers to answer the question - 'in which county is Kingdom set?', in order for them to win the trip.

Two pairs of winners from each respective country will then be chosen at random when the competition comes to an end in May.

Articles about the programme and competition are also being placed in television listing magazines in each country as part of the link-up.

Stephen Fry, star of Kingdom, said:

“One of the things that excited me about Kingdom was that it was set in a country town - which I think is a much overlooked part of Britain, and of course, that it is set in Norfolk.


“You feel a loyalty to the place you call home, you belong to a part of the world and you think it's gorgeous - especially when it has qualities that you think are different.

"Having been raised in Norfolk, I would be delighted if in some way I could help give something back to the county, and I would encourage viewers of Kingdom - whether in this country or any other, to come and see what this unique and wonderful place has to offer."

Around 1000 viewers are believed to have already entered the competition, with the winners' trip featuring a guided tour, which will include the Kingdom trail and a visit to Norwich and the Broads.

Accommodation for the winners' trip has been kindly donated by:

- Best Western, Knights Hill Hotel, Kings Lynn

- Best Western, The Hoste Arms, Hunstanton.

- Best Western, Le Strange Arms. Hunstanton.

- Best Western, The George Hotel, Swaffham.

- Manor House Farm, Wellingham. (Norfolk National Gardens Scheme Garden, open 15th June)

- Searles Leisure Resort, Hunstanton.


Christopher How, Cabinet member for Economic Development at Norfolk County Council, said:

“Tourism is the county's largest industry, and is worth over £2 billion to the local economy.

“Kingdom has already provided great publicity for Norfolk, even before being screened to international audiences, and we are keen to work with the producers of the show to maximise the positive benefits that the association between the show and the county can bring.

“I hope the competition is a great success in promoting the county, and I would certainly like to thank the hotels in the county who are to provide accommodation for the visitors as part of their stay.”

Gunn Haglund, Marketing Manager, Hallmark Channel;

“Kingdom is a high quality production and one of our programme highlights in 2008.

The series contains beautiful footage of the Norfolk scenery and creates a perfect synergy for promoting Norfolk as a tourist destination


“We visited the set of Kingdom with Italian journalists last summer and were all amazed by the untouched beauty of Norfolk as well as all the cultural attractions in the area”

Michael Timewell, Chairman of Norfolk Tourism, said:

“The type of publicity that we can gain from images of Norfolk locations being screened to national and international audiences is priceless in many respects.

“The imagery of Norfolk that comes from filming programmes, such as Kingdom, in the county often sticks in the memory longer than most advertising campaigns and often reaches much further afield than we could afford to fund.

“I hope that the link-up with Hallmark Channel helps us to crack a notoriously difficult Northern European market, and sees many Scandinavian visitors coming to see what Norfolk has to offer.”