JAMES Bond dodging bullets in a futuristic looking airport, Mr Darcy striding across downland and Queen Elizabeth I sweeping majestically through cathedrals.

All familiar sights from some of the best selling movies of recent years, but did you know these stunning sequences were all filmed here in Hampshire?

The county – known for its beautiful and varied landscape – is gaining a reputation among location scouts, looking for the perfect setting for their next period drama, advert, photoshoot or big budget movie.

Parts of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen were filmed at Martin Down near Fordingbridge and cinemagoers recently saw the architecturally esteemed Farnborough airport doubling as a meeting place between the CIA and Bond villain Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace.

Daniel Craig himself was filmed inside the terminal, where Bond’s credit card is denied and ‘M’ places him on the ‘capture or kill’ list at MI6.

The scene – one of the first to be shot for the movie – saw the Hampshire airport transformed into an Ocean Sky airport in Bregenz Austria.

Adding to Hampshire’s glittering movie credentials, Winchester Cathedral was used in Tom Hanks thriller The Da Vinci Code while parts of historical blockbuster Elizabeth: The Golden Age were also filmed there.

Over four days, two main sequences involving leading lady Cate Blanchett were filmed at the cathedral, including a dramatic scene between the Queen and Babington which takes place in the Lady Chapel at the east end of Winchester cathedral.

The knave at Winchester was also chosen to represent St Paul’s Cathedral during the 1580s. The film’s historical researcher Justin Pollard, from Dorset, said it was the nearest filmmakers could get to the original St Paul’s which was destroyed in The Great Fire of London.

Filmmakers went to great lengths to ensure authenticity.

A stained glass image of Queen Victoria was digitally removed from the final scenes and modern trappings like taps and radiator plugs were covered. Screens were built to hide commemorative plaques in the floor – including the famous tribute to Jane Austen – and covers were built to conceal the 18th/19th century tombs in the knave.

And Hampshire’s appeal for film and television doesn’t stop there.

Bursledon was famously the setting for 1980s serial Howard’s Way, Chesapeake Mill in Wickham appeared in ITV’s Ruth Rendell Mysteries while Nether Wallop was a key location for the 1980s BBC series Miss Marple, starring Joan Hickson.

In fact, Hampshire’s filming potential is considered so rich, the county council has launched a dedicated location finding service for production companies.

Film Hampshire has been operating for five years and was recently revamped and expanded to meet the increasing demand. It now includes an online library of more than 300 locations, from sweeping coastline to stately homes and historic villages.

In the last year, the site has taken more than 80 enquiries and receives between two and three filming requests every week.

Hannah Payne of Hampshire County Council, who built and now runs the Film Hampshire website, said: “We act as a liaison office between location managers and land and property owners.

“They want ideas and local knowledge. Even if they can’t find anything in the library, they come to us with enquiries and we have the knowledge of the area to find what they are looking for.

“I recently took an enquiry from a production company who were looking for an old petrol station.We found one for them in a local village.”

And it can be a lucrative business. If land and property owners are prepared to put up with the disruption of a film crew they can earn £250 a day from a photoshoot or documentary and as much as £1,000 a day for a feature film.

“Hampshire is so diverse,”

said Hannah, “We have cities, coastline, the New Forest National Park and beautiful country houses as well as industrial areas.

“We go out to location managers who are used to working in London and encourage them to go that little bit further for their location shoots.

“Word is starting to get around the industry about us.”

Recent filming has included a television advert for car-maker Subaru in Upper Canterton, New Forest, and a Ginsters advert at Basingstoke Canal.

The BBC also took over St Cross Hospital Winchester for a month to film Heist, a one-off historical drama which was shown as part of its Medieval season, while BBC4 comedy Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe, was filmed in Odiham near Basingstoke.

And the enquiries keep pouring in. Production teams working on forthcoming Ridley Scott film Nottingham (starring Russell Crowe) have already been to look at The Great Hall in Winchester, Alan Titchmarsh is interested in filming a new series in Hampshire’s country parks and the BBC is considering a privately-owned home near Southampton for an adaptation of postapocalyptic novel The Day of The Triffids.

“In terms of film locations, we’re there,” added Hannah.

“The next thing we want to do is promote the other connected film services in the county like Hampshire Wardrobe which has over 7,000 costumes.”

So next time you’re at the movies, look a little closer and you could find the action is more Hampshire than Hollywood.