Jennifer Saunders and Judi Dench's new film about the NHS is shot and set in Wakefield

Allelujah was adapted by screenwriter Heidi Thomas from the 2018 stage play of the same name but minus the exclamation mark, by Alan Bennett.

Geriatric hostipal the Bethlehem, nicknamed “the Beth”, is a vital, caring institution, which is nevertheless earmarked for closure.

Director Richard Eyre said it was a “sort of metaphor” for the NHS.

On one side are the beancounters in Westminster, who want to replace supposedly inefficient hospitals like the Beth, with “centres of excellence”.

The threat of closure galvanises a campaign to save it and supporters invite in a news crew to plead their case by interviewing the patients and preparations for a concert to honour their top nurse, played by Jennifer Saunders.

A spokesperson for distributor Warner Brothers said the film “celebrates the spirit of the elderly patients whilst paying tribute to the deep humanity of the medical staff battling with limited resources and ever-growing demand”.

On the production, Eyre said Wakefield had undergone an incredible transformation since he last filmed there in the 1980s.

The film includes several views of the city and an outdoor scene is set in a park.

Eyre said: “Going back every mine has disappeared and the whole countryside has been landscaped. It is rather fine, Wakefield, and I thought it was the right place to set it, rather than in Bradford or Leeds.”

The director has worked with most of the actors before including Dame Judi Dench - who is now 88 - who plays Mary, a retired librarian.

Other veterans in the cast include Derek Jacobi, David Bradley and Julia McKenzie.

The former is no stranger to filming in God’s Own County having played a lead role in Sally Wainwright’s Last Tango in Halifax.

The director has recently made BBC TV film The Dresser, starring Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen, The Children Act, starring Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci, and adapted for a novel by Ian McEwan, and a TV adaptation of King Lear, also starring Hopkins in the lead role.

Allelujah is out now at cinemas.