Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd near Hebden Bridge in 1930 and there are still people in the village who knew him as a boy.

Donald Crossley was a boyhood friend. He remembers: "Ted was a great fisherman. He dearly loved fishing. It was his greatest love, salmon fishing, and it all began here when we were boys."

He does not think the new film tells the right story: "I think they ought to have done some of the early life of Ted. This is where it began up on these hillsides."

Ted Hughes became one of the leading poets of his generation and in his work he often explored the cruelty in nature. Hughes first went hunting and trapping in the Calder Valley. Donald Crossley adds: "This is where his rapport with nature began."

Speaking at the time of his death Yorkshire novelist and poet, Glyn Hughes, said: "The image of Ted that people have is of a rather dour man that wrote gloomy poems full of violence but a better word would be energy. What people generally don't know from his reputation is what a warm-hearted, convivial, vivacious life-living man he was."

Hughes' distinctive style earned him critical acclaim and, in 1984, the post of poet laureate. He widened his audience to millions with the publication of The Iron Man, a story that was to become a favourite with both children and parents.

Sylvia Plath's graveyard in Heptonstall church

Today, as the new film shows, Hughes is remembered as much for his marriage to Sylvia Plath which lasted for just six years. A few months after it ended Plath committed suicide.

Sylvia Plath is buried in Heptonstall churchyard but not everybody has been happy with the inscription on her grave, 'Sylvia Plath Hughes,' and in the past there have been attempts to desecrate the grave.

Speaking at the time of Hughes' death West Yorkshire Sylvia Plath fan, Elaine Connell, said: "People always want to blame someone for a suicide but personally I've never held Hughes responsible for Plath's suicide and she did try and kill herself when she was in her early 20s before she ever met him."

Elaine Connell, who has written a book about her heroine, now says she is very excited by the new film: "I think everyone is interested in the idea of a genius who died young and in tragic circumstances. I think it is the same sort of thing that promotes interest in, say, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana and James Dean."

Meanwhile, people in Hebden Bridge are waiting for the summer months to see if this Hollywood movie will attract more tourists to the town.