With so much economic uncertainty around it's heartening to know that our photogenic patch can still bring in a wad of cash from the movie business.
Although it's difficult to break it down to local level, a cool £35m has come in to the East Midlands on the back of pictures being filmed here.
Keira Knightley in Georgian frocks at Chatsworth and Scarlett Johansson cropping up as Anne Boleyn's s
ister at Haddon can't have done visitor numbers much harm at either of the two stately homes.
As it happens, I was talking some old family friends who had been extras on the set of The Duchess.
They spent three long days dressed as servants, only for their scenes to be edited out of the final cut.
It didn't bother them one bit; just to have been involved gave them plenty of anecdotes for a good few dinner parties.
But there are very real spin-offs from the local landscape appearing on camera that will hopefully buck the downturning trend.
I know Dales tourist attractions have been taking on staff because not only has the Mercury reported on recruitment drives but family members and acquaintances of mine are among those who have been hired at various visitor destinations in recent days.
Playing to your strengths should always yield some sort of profit, so why not harp on about the majesty and drama of the Dales in the hope of luring more and more Oscar hopefuls to work here.
However, it will be interesting to see what type of film this period of recession inspires. Will it be the gritty realism of our nearby mining communities or inner cities, or will audiences crave the escapism of hills and wide open spaces?
The creative effects of the downturn will clearly take a few years to seep through, but you'd be hard pushed to find a finer, more inspiring backdrop than the one on our doorstep.
