In S01E12 of Nu-Who, in the final round of the deadly quiz game show that parodies The Weakest Link, the Anne Droid asks Rose Tyler the question:
In geography, the Grand Central Ravine is named after which ancient British city?
The answer to which is Sheffield.
As a native of Sheffield, this makes me a little more proud than it probably should, and my curiosity lead me to search Sheffield in the Tardis Wikia. That link brings up what seems to be a disproportionately high amount of references to a city that hasn't been very popular since the industry of its primary export - steel - collapsed a few decades ago.
In the amount of references to Sheffield that Doctor Who contains, it far outdwarfs York, and just about matches Manchester, which is a far more famous, thriving city, and one that also has better links to the BBC due to being the home of its regional headquarters.
I'm curious as to whether there's a reason for this high level of representation. I'm not expecting an in-universe reason, obviously, but I figured there may be an out-of-universe reason - something like a disproportionate amount of the show's writers or staff hailing from there.
So is this the case? If it's not, is there a likely reason other than pure coincidence?