Shakespeare in Love was shot at Broughton Castle

To capitalise on the interest, the British Tourist Authority (BTA) has launched its Movie Map - a guide to some of the places across Britain that feature in box office hits, classic films and TV shows.

It details 120 locations where cult films, as well as recent ones, were shot. Among them there's Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, featured in Elizabeth.

Liverpool played host to Hilary and Jackie. While the East End of London was the location for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Tourism boom

The BTA is handing out 300,000 free copies of the Movie Map to visitors from overseas: recognition of the boom in film tourism.

An estimated 20% of overseas visitors to London come because they have seen it in the movies.

And following the trail of a favourite film can take them far and wide.

At Broughton Castle, near Banbury, the makers of Shakespeare in Love found the perfect setting for Gwyneth Paltrow's home. Visitor numbers have rocketed.

In London, staff at the replica of Shakespeare's Globe on the banks of the Thames say its visitor numbers have doubled after the release of the film - even though not a single frame was shot there.

Blackness Castle: Scene of Mel Gibson's Hamlet

"People were phoning up the box office asking to come and see Romeo and Juliet, so the divide between fantasy and reality was becoming smaller and smaller as the popularity of the film grew," said a Globe tour guide.

Even Scarborough - the location for Little Voice - has had people turn up at the house where Laura Hoff lived.

It's partly Britain's cultural heritage that makes it so attractive to film makers and international visitors, says the Hollywood star Richard Dreyfuss.

"There is a history here that is so rich, and it is not only a history of country but of theatre, dialogue, wit and intelligence that people find fabulous."

Rich contrasts

Historical richness has provided a natural setting for Britiain's costume dramas. Much of the 1982 TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited was filmed at the 17th century Castle Howard outside York.

Fame has come to Portobello Market in Notting Hill

Scotland's stately homes and ancestral ruins have provided ideal settings for historical dramas such as Mel Gibson's Hamlet, filmed at Blackness Castle near Edinburgh.

Britain offers a blend of traditional and contemporary settings that film makers and visitors seem to like so much. London's Notting Hill has shot to international fame with the film of the same name.

But go to Sheffield, made famous by the Full Monty, and the official bus tours are no more.

The hordes of Japanese tourists have dried up. The problem for film locations is sustaining the interest when the film has been and gone.

The MI6 building almost did not appear in the latest Bond movie

Nonetheless, the government is making a priority of encouraging film-makers to come to Britain.

It even intervened to allow filming of the new James Bond film, The World is Not Enough, on the Thames outside the headquarters of the British Secret Service, MI6.

It was a move greatly appreciated by the current 007, Pierce Brosnan. He feels strongly that Bond belongs in Britain.

"Bond must always be filmed here, never in Hollywood. It is a homegrown production," he says.