THE EXPANSION ACROSS NOT JUST LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST, BUT ACROSS THE WHOLE OF THE UK NATIONS AND REGIONS, HAS BEEN REMARKABLE

ADRIAN WOOTTON

returning series being recommissioned.

“The diversity of projects shooting in Scotland’s studios and built space over the last year have been game-changers for the industry here,” head of Screen Commission at Screen Scotland, Cheryl Conway, says.

“Prime Video choosing Scotland as a base for three productions, Good Omens two, which shot at the Pyramids in Bathgate, and The Rig and Anansi Boys, which shot in Leith’s FirstStage Studios, has meant that Scotland has been busier than ever with production,” she says.

This is also supported by Scotland’s fagship series Outlander recently completing its seventh series in Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. BBC Studioworks has had great success with the launch of Kelvinhall Studio in Glasgow where several unscripted shows have flmed, as well as the building being used by Channel 4 prison drama Screw for their prison set. Further north to the islands, Gaelic series An Clò Mòre flmed in the re-opened Alba studio on the Isle of Lewis. Also shooting in Glasgow and Edinburgh was the Sky Original action thriller Borderland.

“This year is looking extremely busy again with both returning series Screw, Outlander and the recently confrmed The Rig, and new projects which shoot from now onwards such as BBC and Euston Films’ Nightsleeper shooting in Glasgow,” Conway says.

Jennifer Reynolds, film commissioner, Glasgow Film Office says enquiries over the past 12 months have been dominated by high-end TV, with Glasgow playing itself in some instances — for example the BBC’s Mayflies — but often representing another city. “A lot of times they are looking to replicate London and we are one single local authority which makes it a lot simpler than filming in London itself. Also, having a production-friendly approach, the local authority knows the ins and outs of filming and so the department that deals with requests from visiting productions have experienced staff there. We know what’s expected and we can work together,” Reynolds says.

The locations that have been most popular recently have been the main thoroughfares through the city; the grid system of the streets helps with filming because it allows for diversions to be planned quite easily — and the grid system is a bonus if you are doubling for an American city.

The international HBO hit Game of Thrones was caught by the first wave of the streaming boom and was crucial to the growth of Northern Ireland’s film industry, with the series based at Belfast’s Titanic Studios. The prequel House of the Dragon’s main HQ is at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, north of London, where the interior sets were constructed, and where a ground-breaking LED screen was used to add real-time backgrounds to scenes. A number of location shoots took place across England including at Cornwall’s Holywell Bay in the southwest — a huge sweeping sandy beach, that was also a setting for BBC’s period drama Poldark.

Despite the departure of Game of Thrones, Titanic Studios remains in demand and is booked out untill Spring 2024, as is Belfast Harbour Studios, according to Andrew Reid, chief content officer at Northern Ireland Screen.

“It could be argued that Northern Ireland started the boom in high-end television in the UK,” Reid says. “We brought Game of Thrones to Northern Ireland years before the [2013] tax credit existed. We wrote the case study that [then Prime Minister David] Cameron used to bring in tax credits for high-end TV. We incentivised at our own cost with HBO for several seasons on Game of Thrones and made the case of how tax credits could benefit other areas of the UK.”

2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, starring Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez, was shot entirely in Northern Ireland, taking advantage of the wide range of forests, beaches and castles.

Also shooting in Northern Ireland is the forthcoming Four Letters of Love starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne. TV dramas filming in Northern Ireland include The Woman in the Wall (BBC/Showtime); Dalgliesh season two (All3Media); and season two of World on Fire

(Mammoth Screen). Northern Ireland will also host Blade Runner 2099, Amazon Studios’ sequel to the cult sci-f classic. So why are flmmakers choosing Northern Ireland? “I suppose our USP is that was we ofer a wide range of locations, but in a very, very accessible and small area,” Reid says. “So we are 5,196 square miles in Northern Ireland, which is actually slightly smaller than the area of Greater Los Angeles. But we have some 10% of the population. Just about 1.8 million people in Northern Ireland and great road infrastructure. So you can be inside on stage in the morning and up a mountain in the afternoon. Or the other way around: you can be in a forest in the morning and on stage in the afternoon. It's just it's easy to get around — the down time is minimal.”

In the south of England it has also been a busy period for the Kent Film Ofce, with a particular focus on the south coast seaside town of Margate. Empire of Light, starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth and Toby Jones is almost entirely flmed in Margate. After seeing the art-deco Dreamland cinema, director Sam Mendes chose the town as the flm’s lead location and dressed the building as the Empire Cinema. The amusement park and roller disco also make an appearance. Thanks to the availability of an empty lot nearby, a sound stage was erected with interiors facing the beach. “It was lucky that right next door was an empty lot where they could build the stage,” Kent flm ofcer Gabrielle Lindemann says. “It was quite spectacular. You have the seafront there and then the rest of the cinema literally 30 yards away or two houses down. So the view that you get is almost identical.”

While Empire of Light showed the faded elegance of an 80s seaside town, Dreamland (Sky Studios) takes a totally diferent approach. Based on Sharon Horgan’s 2018 BAFTA-awardwinning short of the same name, the six-episode comedy stars

Freema Agyeman and Lily Allen.

“It couldn't be any more diferent,” Lindemann says, noting that one town can provide such contrast. “It’s very brash and very bright. Both in the same location, but being very diferent in feel and in look and in content. Margate is not just the faded seaside town, it's also something that's very modern.”

The Dreamland amusement park also makes an appearance in the detective series Whitstable Pearl (Acorn TV) based on the much-loved series of novels The Whitstable Pearl Mysteries by Kent resident Julie Wassmer and starring British actorcomedian Kerry Godliman. The series is almost exclusively shot in Kent with locations including Whitstable itself, Canterbury, Faversham, Herne Bay, Margate, Ramsgate, Detling, Dover, Sevenoaks and Rochester.

Forthcoming eight-episode Amazon Prime Video drama, My Lady Jane, was recently shooting in the medieval Dover Castle, which overlooks the southern cross-channel port and which Lindemann says is a popular choice of location. “Dover Castle, and the keep in the centre, always gets used for the Tower of London, so there's a lot of beheading going on,” she says.

Known for hundreds of years as the garden of England, productions are attracted to Kent because of its proximity to London and its combination of varied coastline, historic buildings and its rolling countryside. “The only thing we haven’t got is mountains and skyscrapers,” Lindemann says.

Wales has welcomed a number of high-end projects including the Disney+ series Willow, a television follow-up to the original movie which showcases picturesque Welsh villages, medieval ruins and one of the world’s longest stretches of beach. World Production’s true crime drama Delia Balmer has also been shooting in Wales, along with historical fantasy series The Winter King; season four of Netfix’s Sex Education; and season three of His Dark Materials