Production vans are currently in Le Mans Crescent, which has become the go to location for producers of some of the biggest TV dramas.

Quite what the giant streaming platform is filming is not yet known, although The Bolton News has reached out to the company.

(Image: BBC)

Netflix is currently filming Peaky 1954 and Bolton has been a popular location for the original series, which throughout its run filmed key scenes in and around Le Mans Crescent – with the iconic image of the three Peaky Blinders shot with the arches in the background.

Production crews setting up

Filming for the last series took place in 2022 attracting huge crowds and national attention.

The two new series continue the Peaky Blinders movie story.

Bolton has become a prime location for Netflix, with the town often dubbed the Hollywood of the North.

Major Netflix productions filmed in the beautiful crescent include Toxic Town, Missing You and The Stranger.

And more recently Netflix’s supernatural thriller, The Talamasca, which dropped last year was filmed in the town and across Greater Manchester.

Recently, stars from the eagerly anticipated drama Saviour were spotted on the steps of the old Bolton Magistrates Court.

Set to air on ITV, the legal drama stars Anjli Mohindra, Shaun Parkes and Aidan Gillen, who played ‘Little Finger’ in the hit HBO show Game of Thrones.

As soon as we know what is being filmed we promise you will be the first to know.

While recent global attention has focused on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively held closed since late February in a move that has disrupted world energy supplies, a quieter but also important development has been taking shape in south-east Asia.

On April 14, the US and Indonesia announced a “major defence cooperation partnership”, strengthening their military ties. According to reports, the US is also seeking to gain wider access to Indonesian airspace. Several media outlets say Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, has approved the proposal.

These developments matter because Indonesia’s vast archipelago sits astride some of the most critical sea routes in the world. These include the Strait of Malacca, an important chokepoint for global shipping and trade. The region surrounding Malacca has seen growing military attention from outside powers in recent years.

Both the US and China have been steadily expanding their military presence around the strait and its approaches. The US has largely done so through base access and naval deployments, and China through its port network and naval buildup. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located near the strait’s western approaches, also provide India with a strategic presence in the region.

South-east Asia is becoming more explicitly tied into great-power competition, with the new US-Indonesia defence partnership adding the latest layer. Should this competition intensify – whether through a crisis in Taiwan, a spillover from Hormuz or a shift in alliances – the Strait of Malacca would be at the centre of it.

The strait is the shortest sea route connecting the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, making it the default corridor for trade between east Asia and the west. It stretches roughly 900km from the Malay Peninsula to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. At its narrowest point, the Phillips Channel near Singapore, it is barely 2.8km wide.

Almost 24% of global seaborne trade by volume flows through the strait. It carries 45% of the world’s seaborne oil, over 25% of all cars traded internationally and 23% of dry bulk cargo including key agricultural commodities like grains and soybeans. A large portion of European imports of electronics, consumer products like footwear and toys, machinery and industrial goods pass through the strait in sea containers as well.

The strait is also home to some of the world’s most critical port infrastructure. Singapore, located at the strait’s southern entrance, is the second-busiest container port and the busiest container transshipment hub on the planet. It handles over 40 million containers a year and is the world’s largest ship refuelling hub. Port Klang in Malaysia ranks among the world’s top ten container ports too, handling 14 million containers annually.

Why Malacca is irreplaceable

The most commonly cited detours around the Strait of Malacca, the Sunda and Lombok Straits, both lie within Indonesian territory and neither is a straightforward substitute. Rerouting through either adds roughly 1,000 to 1,500 nautical miles to the journey – three to five extra days at sea – along with higher fuel costs and the loss of Singapore’s refueling infrastructure.

Beyond Indonesia, the Torres Strait near Papua New Guinea is too shallow for large commercial vessels with a draft of over 12 metres. Ships avoiding all these routes would face a detour around the entire Australian continent, adding another ten to 15 days of transit time. These geographical features are the reason why the Strait of Malacca is so difficult to bypass.

China understands the risk of relying on Malacca perhaps better than anyone. In 2003, the then-president of China, Hu Jintao, coined the phrase “Malacca dilemma” to describe a strategic exposure that has continued since. Between 75% and 80% of China’s imported oil still passes through the strait.

Beijing has invested heavily in alternatives, but none come close to matching the scale of what transits Malacca. Pipelines running from Kyaukpyu on the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar into Yunnan province in China bypass Malacca entirely. However, their capacity is only around 440,000 barrels per day, a small fraction of China’s roughly 11 million barrels of daily oil imports.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plans to link Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea to Xinjiang in north-west China through road, rail and energy infrastructure. But it remains only partially developed, with its completion affected by difficult terrain and security challenges in parts of Pakistan. China has also diversified through Central Asian oil and gas pipelines, which provide about 10% of its total imported oil.

There are rail freight corridors connecting China to Europe, which avoid maritime chokepoints entirely and are faster than shipping. However, they are far more expensive and very limited in capacity. Arctic shipping routes along Russia’s northern coast offer a longer-term hedge, cutting the distance between Asia and Europe, but remain seasonal and marginal in global trade terms.

For now, there is no clear indication that the growing military presence around the Strait of Malacca will have any impact on commercial shipping. But if a conflict does arise in the future, it will be trade-dependent economies like China that will suffer.

Tipsea Wines Ltd has applied for a premises licence that would allow it to offer wine-tasting sessions and sell wine from its premises at 1 Grape Lane, Whitby.

The business was founded by owners Adam and Chris, who said they had a vision to establish the town’s first wine merchants.

“Tipsea Wines is an independent wine merchant based on the Yorkshire Coast in Whitby. Founded by two best friends, who together have decades of experience running family-owned restaurants,” the company’s website states.

If the business is granted a premises licence, it would be allowed to sell alcohol from 10am to 6pm, seven days a week.

The proposal also seeks permission for pre-booked wine tastings, which could be organised from 6pm to 10pm.

Additionally, 24-hour internet sales have also been proposed.

The application is currently open to representations from members of the public.

Residents wishing to comment on the scheme should contact the licensing authority by Sunday, May 10.

Anyone wishing to make representations regarding the application should give notice in writing to: North Yorkshire Council, Licensing Services, Town Hall, St Nicholas Street, Scarborough, YO11 2HG or by email to licensing.east@northyorks.gov.uk.

Retail workers have painted a bleak picture to the Mirror of the abuse and threats that they face daily on the shop floor, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer vows to crack down on shoplifters

As Keir Starmer vows to crack down on ‘disgraceful’ shoplifters, retail workers have painted a harrowing picture of life on the front line.

For Ethan, 27, and Annie*, 46, the daily reality of customer service has shifted from simple questions about where to find things to a barrage of threats, verbal abuse, and physical assault. From stabbing threats to guns and workers who have quit on the spot, as the cost of living crisis bites, the shop floor has become a flashpoint for violence.

Two high-profile cases involved retail workers who claimed they were sacked from their supermarket jobs after tackling shoplifters – something that is often against company policy.

New figures from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) reveal physical attacks have more than doubled since 2019, while a staggering 78 percent of retail workers endured verbal abuse in the last year. And officials say the industry is “getting worse, not better”.

READ MORE: Sacked Morrisons manager Sean Egan says supermarket ‘threw me under the bus’READ MORE: ‘I used to work in M&S and four types of customers need to be stopped’

In a speech to the Usdaw shopworkers’ union today, the Prime Minister said: “It’s disgraceful that people just working in their shop have to take abuse from customers. It’s disgraceful that people feel sick to the stomach thinking about how they’re going to get through the day and it’s disgraceful that people can have their lives and livelihoods ruined by persistent shop theft.”

He said the Government has put an extra 3,000 neighbourhood police officers on the streets and scrapped the “ridiculous” rule which left theft of goods worth less than £200 “not properly investigated” by police. “That was a shoplifters’ charter, and we’ve ended it and not before time,” he said.

“We’ve toughened up punishment too. We’re giving police stronger powers, making the abuse and assault of retail workers a specific crime and giving you the same protections as emergency workers.”

‘She pulled out a flip-knife over a price tag’

Ethan, who has worked in retail for nearly nine years, paints a horrifying picture of what he and his colleagues go through on a regular basis including a shocking incident that saw one member of the public “threaten to stab” him after becoming confused about whether or not a product was currently on offer.

“She pulled out this flip-knife and threatened to stab me over the price of a product,” says Ethan, who remained “very calm and very polite,” after she refused to take no for an answer. After the threat, the woman simply pushed her trolley out of the store, claiming the stolen goods were “compensation” for her frustration.

Annie, who has worked in retail for 30 years, was left with PTSD after a terrifying shift where she refused to let a man – under the influence of drugs – into the staff toilets.

His furious girlfriend launched a vicious, unprovoked attack. “I’m coming up an aisle and she just attacks me,” Annie says. “She threw a punch and got the back of my head. I had things in my hands at the time, and so she threw another punch and caught me in the back of the head again.

“I went to defend myself, and she threw a big lottery stand at me.” As Annie called 999, the situation escalated.

Outside, the man had collapsed into a “drug coma,” but not before passersby saw him hiding a firearm in his sock. “As I’m on the phone to 999, a member of the public brought the gun to me,” Annie says. “I’m getting handed a gun and I’m like, ‘What am I meant to do with that if it goes off?’”

After the emergency services arrived 40 minutes later, the shop was closed for the day. Following her ordeal, Annie was signed off for work for three weeks.

She says it’s getting worse as the cost of living crisis fuels aggression and shoplifting, and feels the onus is on workers, questioning why workers have to be “tough”, adding: “Why should people have to be like that to save themselves? They’re only out doing a day’s work.”

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Annie, who has worked in retail since she was 16, said: “I must admit, 30 years ago, I didn’t feel unsafe going to work in retail. I love my job, but I am getting fed up being spoken to the way I get spoken to. I tell my staff to just kill them with kindness.”

The violence isn’t always directed at staff, sometimes they witness horrific violence between customers too. Ethan says one altercation resembled a “murder scene in the alcohol aisle” after two customers fought.

“A bloke had his face slashed with a Jack Daniel’s bottle and had to have facial reconstruction,” he says, adding that the perpetrator continued “slashing” the semi-unconscious man in the face with shards of glass, leaving “blood everywhere.”

Figures from USDAW show that 78 percent of retail workers have endured verbal abuse in the last year, 54 percent were threatened, and 11 percent were physically attacked, more than double the levels in 2019.

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The crisis is driving staff away, with one colleague telling Annie that her “anxiety is through the roof” and she’s ready to quit if the abuse escalates.

Ethan saw one colleague quit on the spot, declaring: “I’m not paid enough for this.” Both workers say their stores have strict non-engagement policies – designed to protect staff – but leave them feeling helpless and as if their wages are being “stolen” by thieves who sell in bulk on the black market.

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Whilst Ethan’s shop has security guards working, Annie’s only gets temporary security following an incident.

“We want to act upon [theft], but we can’t,” Ethan says. “You see your wages being stolen from you because they’re taking the products that you know customers will buy to supply you an income.”

Annie says the way shoplifting is deal with has radically changed, adding: “When I first started out, we were allowed to do more,” she says, but now “companies tell us we’ve not to do a thing, we’ve just to walk away,” adding that they “fear for our jobs” if they get involved. “At the end of the day, prices in stores are rising because of the amount of shoplifting that’s going on.

Morrison’s manager Sean Egan, 46 was dismissed after he “tackled” an abusive shoplifter, which is against the chain’s policy – he had worked there for nearly 29 years. He said last week: “I dedicated my whole life to Morrisons, but they did not even take my 29 years of service into account and just threw me under the bus for standing up for what is right.”

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On April 25, a demonstration took place outside the Aldridge branch where Egan worked, calling for him to be reinstated, the former manager thanked the crowd who “backed him from the beginning”.

Thinus Keeve, retail director at Marks & Spencer, made the stark warning earlier this month as he called for more to be done to protect those on the front line of the high street. The comments came after “several hundred” young people descended on Clapham in late March with police responding to reports of anti-social behaviour.

The proposed Crime and Policing Bill includes a new standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker which will have a maximum penalty of six months in prison, as well as new measures against low-level shoplifting. The bill has been returned to the House of Lords, where amendments proposed by the House of Commons will be considered this week.

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“We have campaigned along with many retail employers for substantial legislative measures to combat this growing problem and we are pleased that the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill has almost completed its passage through Parliament. The Conservatives persistently refused to legislate to protect retail workers and effectively provided an open invitation to retail criminals.

“Labour immediately set about tackling the issue and we are now starting to see the results of their investment in policing and funding for more uniformed officer patrols in shopping areas,” says Joanne Thomas, the general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW).

Sir Keir claimed today that “the tide could be turning” against shoplifting as he set out the Government’s efforts to crack down on retail crime.

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The Prime Minister said shop thefts were “slightly down” in the latest figures and he wanted wider use of technology which allows CCTV footage to be shared immediately with the police. The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed shoplifting offences fell slightly last year, down from 516,611 in 2024 to 509,566 in 2025.

His speech came as the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warned of a high street crime epidemic. The centre-right think tank’s analysis showed the average number of offences committed by shoplifters has nearly doubled in five years, rising from 5.5 to 9.1 offences per convicted thief.

Meanwhile, the Retail Trust has launched a new initiative with Merseyside Police which sees retail workers provided with de-escalation training and support from the police, as part of a larger scale project.

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Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the charity for retail workers, tells the Mirror: “Almost half of the people we speak to are now dealing with abuse every week, and many tell us they feel unsafe going into work and are considering leaving the retail sector because of the intimidation and violence they face.

“No one should ever be expected to put up with this kind of behaviour, in or outside of work, yet shop staff tell us they are being threatened, shouted at, spat on and hit on an all too regular basis.

“Our work with Merseyside Police shows how communities can come together to better protect retail workers from physical and verbal assaults. Shop staff across Liverpool have been receiving specialist training and support from the Retail Trust to help them safely manage, de-escalate and recover from threats and attacks, as part of wider efforts to tackle retail crime in the city.

“We’re supporting thousands more retail workers across the country following the unacceptable rise in abuse over recent years, and we want to work with other police forces, retailers and local partners to help even more people feel safe and protected.

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“This is a pan societal issue and therefore needs a pan-societal response. The more we work together, the quicker we will see change.”

*Annie’s name has been changed to protect her identity.