Oxford has long been one of Europe's most recognisable movie locations. Thanks to the likes of Iris Murdoch, CS Lewis and -- of course -- Harry Potter, in recent years it has also become one of the busiest.

Many of us have become almost blasZ about stumbling across cavaliers and Roundheads in Radcliffe Square or the likes of Dame Judi Dench or Richard Dreyfuss drinking coffee on set.

Chances are that if you bragged at work about spotting Kate Winslet at work, you will be quickly be outdone by someone who was an extra in A Fish Called Wanda or Brideshead Revisited.

Hollywood, arguably, has done much to perpetuate the Oxford clichZs and stereotypes around the globe, while movie-making has become a useful source of income for university colleges, country houses and -- most recently -- the former Oxford prison.

David Parkinson, The Oxford Times film critic, has decided to put the spotlight on the city, indeed the whole of Oxfordshire, as a centre of film-making in his new book, pi which looks set to become an indispensable reference book -- and one bound to settle many an argument between film buffs.

The idea for the guide came from John Lange, of the Museum of Oxford. Parkinson, who also writes on films for the Radio Times and Empire magazine, said he was inspired to write the book after being invited to write panels for the On Location exhibition, which celebrates Oxfordshire on the small and big screen, which ends at the museum on February 22.

"But it is a book I have always wanted to write," he said. "In fact, I have been keeping notes about films in Oxford since I was a student at Merton College, where I read history from 1979 to 1983. I had the opportunity to finally do it after being laid up with a back injury, which has stopped me travelling down to London for film screenings."

Even though the disappointing absence of any photographs and the densely-packed pages mean that it looks quite a slim volume, the huge amount of research involved makes this something of an epic.

Oxford's first moving pictures were probably projected by travelling showmen at St Giles' Fair, with the earliest full-length film recorded in the city probably a silent take on Worcester graduate Brandon Thomas's stage favourite, Charley's Aunt, which brought Sydney Chaplin (Charlie's half brother) to Magdalen in 1925. Hollywood outings like A Yank at Oxford (1938) tended to make do with stock footage of the skyline.

In all, about 50-odd feature films have been set in and around Oxford, with hundreds more having some association with either the city or university. Then there are the dozens of TV shows ranging from the New Avengers to Bad Girls -- although the 75 sinister deaths seen over the 33 Inspector Morse episodes is a record likely to stand.

David certainly goes for the bigger picture, with no film link to the city too insignificant to escape his attention.

The film record of every Oxford college is carefully examined, with the author even throwing in potted histories of the colleges, while the list of actors and film facts associated with them can become slightly intimidating. Hands up who knew, for instance, that the Elizabethan scholar Sir Henry Wotton, of New College, once wrote to Francis Bacon about a camera obsura that he had seen at the home of the astronomer Johannes Kepler. Similarly, new light is thrown on the roles taken by scores of villages and suburbs across the county.

As a film book it could have been sexier, but it certainly cannot be faulted for pace, detail or love of the big screen.

Oxford At the Movies is on sale at the Museum of Oxford, the Phoenix, the Bodleian Library Shop and the Book House in Summertown.