There's something about Worthing that movie moguls love.

Every year, without fail, camera crews descend on the town to film footage for movies, TV dramas, pop videos and adverts.

The seafront, especially our unique, unspoilt, uncluttered art deco pier, backed by panoramic views of the English Channel, is a magnet for directors.

One location manager summed it up when he said: "Worthing was just perfect - a classic English seaside town. The pier, the old sea-eroded aluminium rails, the fishermen . . . it is all there, of its period and untouched.

"There is a lovely feel to the place. It was a pleasure to film there."

Worthings finest hour came in 1987 when Wish You Were Here was shot in the town during a sixweek period during the autumn.

Many residents were hired as extras in the movie, with the Dome cinema, virtually unchanged since Edwardian days, forming the focal point.

They included Dome cashier Joan Williams, of Middle Road, Lancing, who played the part of a woman in the paybox, and the ice cream girl.

Wish You Were Here, about a rebellious teenage girl growing up in a postwar English seaside town, made Emily Lloyd a Hollywood star and Worthing helped to capture the nostalgic essence and atmosphere of the era.

Three shops at the junction of Rowlands Road and Queens Road, County Interiors, Le Gourmet restaurant and what was Chaplins wine merchants, featured in several scenes.

Le Gourmet, a fine Italian eaterie, became a barbers and County Interiors a funeral directors.

Shortly before its destruction by fire, the Warnes Hotels Edwardian ballroom became a cafe and footage was also shot at a house in nearby York Road.

One of the most memorable scenes, of Emily Lloyd showing her suspenders to cheering bus drivers, was filmed at the bus station next to the Dome.

Sadly, the bus waiting room where this took place has since been demolished.

The film probably saved the Dome from destruction, because at the time the borough council, tired of paying for costly repairs, was seriously considering plans to knock it down as part of the Warwick Street south redevelopment plan.

Campaigners used Wish You Were Here as a battleflag to rally public support and thousands of people signed a petition demanding "Save the Dome".

They screened the film to packed houses and made stirring speeches about Worthings heritage, forcing the council into an embarrassing u-turn.

Wish You Were Here is regularly shown on TV and it must be quite a surreal experience for the extras to see themselves forever captured in time.

Harold Pinter knew exactly what Worthing had to offer when his bestselling play, The Birthday Party, was turned into a film starring Sidney Tafler, Patrick Magee and Robert Shaw.

Pinter lived in Ambrose Place with his family for a short time during the Sixties.

The plot of The Birthday Party centred on two mysterious strangers menacing a down-at-heel lodger in a seafront boarding house.

Footage was shot in Chapel Road, South Street and on the seafront near its junction with Heene Road.

A year earlier, Up The Junction, starring Suzy Kendall, Maureen Lipman and Hylda Baker, was partly filmed on Worthing seafront, opposite the Beach Hotel, and near the pier.

The seafront came into its own once again in 1985 for Dance With A Stranger, starring Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm and Stratford Johns.

It featured the chilling tale of Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain.

More recently, Worthing has formed the backdrop to numerous adverts, including a mods and rockers scene for Walkers Crisps.

Major car and motorcycle companies like to show their latest vehicles in their best light, preferably with the pier in the frame.

In 1994, the beach just east of the Pavilion Theatre was turned into a Second World War gun emplacement for a BBC ghost story called Blood And Water.

A toilet block was transformed with sandbags into an air raid shelter, signs warning of mines were hammered into the shingle and mock anti-aircraft guns were installed.

The barbed wire, which looked authentic but was made of plastic, later caused great amusement when it was used to surround the Pavilion stage during the riotous Starsearch talent shows on Monday nights.

Men Behaving Badly was the comedy hit of the Nineties and in 1998 the Christmas special was filmed between Splash Point and the Pavilion.

Stars Martin Clunes, Caroline Quentin, Leslie Ash and Neil Morrissey braved freezing weather to film a series of scenes and Splash Point was turned into a crazy golf course for the duration.

Clunes returned in 2000 to shoot Dirty Tricks, a thriller, at the Ardington Hotel, Steyne Gardens.

Other visitors include Buster Bloodvessel, who filmed a pop video with a bevvy of scantilyclad beauties on the beach.

And advertising agencies regularly use the town as a backdrop to fashion photoshoots which appear in glossy magazines.