Which films are being shot in the UK

A.� There are a host of Hollywood stars in the UK this summer, working on a huge number of films. Around �230 million worth of films are being made, mostly by American directors using a lot of British talent. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore are on location for a film�based on Virgina Woolf's, The Hours, which Paramount has handed to Stephen Daldry to direct. Another Oscar nominee, Cate Blanchett, has completed Charlotte Gray, opposite America's Billy Crudup.

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Q.� Why is Britain so hot for filming at the moment

A.� Britain became a strong contender for film production thanks to the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bean and Bridget Jones's Diary. The threat of an actor's strike in America earlier this year was also a key factor and the dollar's position on the international currency markets has contributed to directors' decisions.

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Q.� Which locations are being used

A.� Gloucester Cathedral has been the setting for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The film, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the boy Potter, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane and Maggie Smith, also used Leavesden Studios and will be released on November 16.

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Gosford Park is a dark story set in the 1930s featuring many big names such as Stephen Fry, Richard E Grant, Helen Mirren and Clive Owen, and was shot in a secret grand country house in Barnet, Herts.

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Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, has been filmed in West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, and Somerset House in London, and will be released next year.

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Ali G in Da House, with Sacha Baron Cohen, is Ali's journey from the ghettos to parliament, and was filmed in Staines, Middlesex.

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Cate Blanchett filmed Charlotte Gray in Mentmore House, Oxford, Hardwick House, Reading, Greenwich, Woolwich, and St Antonin Noble Val in France.

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The Castaway ISland of Taransay in the Outer Hebrides was the scene of a true story called The Rocket Post, featuring Gary Lewis and Patrick Malahide.

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And Cornwall's Port Isaac will be put on the map when Doc Martin is released. Starring Martin Clunes, it's the sequel to the Brit film Saving Grace, introducing a doctor sick of London living and his faithless wife.

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By Katharine MacColl