Two television dramas about the Great Train Robbery, shot largely in the Bradford district, are being screened to mark the 50th anniversary of the audacious crime.

The two films, made by World Productions, examine the 1963 robbery from the perspective of both the gang and the police team that hunted them down. Scenes were shot at locations across the district, including Shipley, Keighley, Haworth, Buttershaw and Bradford city centre.

Places such as City Hall, the Bradford Club and the Fountain Cafe in the Oastler Centre were transformed into 1960s venues. A house in Buttershaw is used as the ‘safe house’ of gang leader Bruce Reynolds.

The Bradford Club was used to depict Leicester’s Grand Hotel where Gordon Goody was arrested, and City Hall’s reception rooms were used as the Home Secretary’s office.

The robbery scenes were filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, and other locations were in Leeds and Goole.

The films, expected to be screened as part of BBC1’s Christmas schedule, show how the robbery was planned, rehearsed and executed, with the action shifting from November 1962 to the night of August 8, 1963, when a mail train from Glasgow was targeted for a then-record haul of £2.6 million.

Screen Yorkshire invested in the two feature-length dramas, A Robber’s Tale – telling the story of the ‘crime of the century’ which secured huge wealth and the wrath of the Establishment – and A Copper’s Tale, about Tommy Butler and the crack team of detectives he assembled in his quest to bring the robbers to justice.

Oscar and Bafta award-winner Jim Broadbent stars as Detective Superintendent Tommy Butler in A Copper’s Tale, and the cast also includes Robert Glenister, Tim Pigott-Smith and James Fox. The cast for A Robber’s Tale includes Luke Evans and Jack Roth.

Both films were written by Chris Chibnall, who penned hit ITV drama Broadchurch, shown earlier this year.

Screen Yorkshire chief executive Sally Joynson said the double bill of films was one of 20 major film and TV productions filmed in the region as a direct result of the regional film agency’s input.

The Bradford district was chosen, along with other regional locations, because they were considered more suitable for a 1960s setting than areas in the South.

“It’s been fantastic to have such incredible talent working here in Yorkshire, with more than 100 cast and crew staying locally while filming at locations ranging from the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds and Keighley & Worth Valley Railway to Goole and the Filey coastline,” she said.