STRETFORD’S most famous export was back on home turf last week – or so it seemed.

Film crews were out on the streets of Stretford to shoot scenes for the much-anticipated Morrissey biopic.

Hotly-tipped to be called Steven, the film depicts the life of music icon Steven Morrissey before he found fame as The Smiths’ frontman.

Writer-director Mark Gill, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2014 for his short film The Voorman Problem, is leading the production and, like Morrissey, hails from Stretford.

Gill is working with the Voorman Problem team, Manchester-based Honlodge Productions, and the film paints a portrait of Morrissey’s early life prior to forming a legendary song-writing partnership with Johnny Marr.

Gill said: “The film covers Morrissey’s life pre-Smiths and is more of a portrait than a conventional biopic. It’s as much a film for non-Morrissey fans as it is for die-hard devotees, but I can’t deny that this is a love letter to Steven Patrick Morrissey and the dark satanic mills of Manchester.”

Actor Jack Lowden, who played soldier Nikolai Rostov in the BBC’s epic of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel War and Peace, will take the lead role and Jessica Brown Findlay, best known for playing Lady Sybil Crawley in the ITV series Downton Abbey, has also been cast.

With the film now in production, cast and crew were spotted filming in Longford Park all last week, and also at Morrissey’s childhood home in Kings Road, Stretford.

Did you spot film crews around the borough?  Let us know and send your pics to sam.editorial@messengergrp.co.uk