City Lights Dining and Hotels

Lights, camera, action: New York and the silver screen

New York is the archetypal city, with iconic edifices and a skyline recognisable by its silhouette alone. Indeed, there's little need to wax lyrical about the Big Apple as it has been immortalised in movies and television shows for a century ' people who have never ventured anywhere near the city will feel like they know the place inside out.

For starters, there was 'The Jazz Singer' which was a 1927 musical film set in New York that is credited as the first feature-length movie to have synchronised dialogue and, subsequently, heralded the decline of the silent movie era.

Then there was the classic King Kong with the famous scene near the end with the giant gorilla scaling the Empire State Building with a damsel in distress in its clutches, only to be shot down by fighter planes. Filmed a mere two years after the building was complete, King Kong helped put the Empire State Building on the map and helped build a certain amount of mystique about what was to be the world's tallest building for the next four decades.

There have been literally hundreds of movies over the years - from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's', 'The Godfather' and 'Taxi Driver', to 'Saturday Night Fever', 'Ghostbusters' and 'Spiderman' ' that have helped ingrain New York in the world's consciousness, making it one of the hottest city destinations on earth.

It's not just movies that have immortalised America's most populated city though ' countless TV shows have brought New York into millions of homes across the world too.

'Friends' is one of the most popular and successful sitcoms of all time and although it was mainly filmed in Los Angeles, the fact it was set in New York and used many of the city's famous buildings in the show certainly helped to glamorise the place. Other massively popular TV shows such as 'Sex and the City', 'Spin City', 'Ugly Betty' and 'The Cosby Show' have also been set against the splendid backdrop of New York City.

New York is the most filmed city in the world and is one of the main draws for many of the 47 million tourists that holiday there each year. Tours of the city's most famous scenes from the big and small screen are immensely popular and are why hotels in New York are always in demand.

A long weekend is plenty of time to take in the city's most well known movie locations and it's perhaps best to search for accommodation in or around the Manhattan area. Indeed, there are plenty of cheap hotels in New York, though it's wise to book as far ahead as possible to get the best deals.

From King Kong to Sex and the City, New York is the perfect city break for those seeking to relive their favourite movies and TV shows.