As one of the first stops for major international filmmakers clutching wish lists when eyeing studios and locations in the United Kingdom, the British Film Commission (BFC) has dealt with myriad requests.
“At the BFC, we get some weird and wonderful requests – anything from dolphins to WWI airfields,” says BFC production support executive, Abee McCallum. “However one of the most frequent production support enquiries we receive is sourcing and troubleshooting UK locations for major international feature film and High-end TV projects.
“To facilitate these enquiries, we liaise with our brilliant colleagues at the national UK screen agencies [Filming In England, Film London, Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Scotland and Creative Wales/Wales Screen] who in turn coordinate with local UK film offices to provide a detailed portfolio of location options.
Wherever a production may be based, it can take advantage of the diverse and unique locations offered throughout the UK. Here are some recent examples.
Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny
UK locations include: London, NE England, NW England, Scotland, SE England
Director James Mangold, taking over from from Steven Spielberg, began filming for the Pinewood Studios based production in June 2021, with the BFC helping troubleshoot locations during Covid-19. The Disney-backed Lucasfilm production shot at various locations including Glasgow, built on a grid system which means it can play most US cities — in this case 1960s NYC. The film’s supervising locations manager Duncan Broadfoot says Glasgow city centre’s Victorian architecture, built from red or blonde sandstone, works well. “We shot on St Vincent Street, Cochran Street and Parnie Street over a two week period in June,” he explains. “An uncharacteristic mini heat wave ensured we had two weeks of glorious sunshine.”
The Scottish borders also hosted part of the opening sequence, set in Nazi-occupied territory in 1945. “We used the impressive Leaderfoot Viaduct in the Scottish borders, a disused railway viaduct over the River Tweed near Melrose,” says Broadfoot. Some stunt work for the bike and car chase from the same sequence shot in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
UK Locations include: London, NW England, Midlands, South East England
Of the 256 filming days for the latest instalment of this Tom Cruise action franchise, approximately 153 were in UK studios (Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and Longcross South) and 26 were on location; the latter included Windsor Great Park, the Lake District, the privately-owned North Yorkshire Moors Railway, airside at London Stansted airport (located in the county of Essex, to the East of London) and Birmingham New Street Station.
Location supervisor Ben Browning Firminger says securing Birmingham New Street required diversion plans to manage the hundreds of thousands of people who pass through the station every day, and involved the cooperation of Network Rail and Bullring shopping centre staff and British Transport Police. “It took over four months to plan and execute and used over 200 supporting artists and 200 crew for each filming day,” Firminger says.
Sex Education season 4
UK locations include: Wales, SW England
The fourth and final season of the Netflix comedy/drama show centring on a group of teenage school kids and their various love, sex and school misadventures, created by Laurie Nunn, began shooting in September 2022 and was completed in February 2023. This final season, as with all previous seasons, was based in Wales. Locations included the Cwmcarn Forest in the heart of the South Wales valleys, and St Fagans National History Museum in a village on the outskirts of Cardiff, which stood in for the new sixth form college. Other locations included Symonds Yat in the Forest of Dean and other stretches of the Wye valley, which covers parts of Monmouthshire, as well as the English counties of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.
Red, White & Royal Blue
UK Locations include: London, SE England
Amazon-backed US romcom Red, White & Royal Blue details a love affair between the son of the president of the United States and a British prince. It shot entirely in the UK utilising a trio of the British capital’s finest buildings and surroundings. “When Amazon approached us with the brief, not only did the team need the opulent UK locations as featured in the show, but also options which could double for locations in the US,” notes the BFC’s McCallum. “Our UK screen agency partners were more than up to the task, meaning that the whole production could be filmed in the UK, both for logistical ease and to make the most of our generous tax reliefs.”
London locations include the Victoria and Albert Museum, Queen Anne court at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and Goldsmiths’ Hall in London alongside Somerley House in Ringwood on the edge of the New Forest national park in Hampshire, southern England.
Secret Invasion season 1
UK locations include: London, NW England
For Marvel Studios’ HETV series Secret Invasion, set in the present day Marvel Cinematic Universe, Nick Fury (played by Samuel L Jackson) learns of a clandestine invasion of Earth. Based at Pinewood Studios, the production also utilised space at MBS’ Hallmark House, an industrial conversion developed with the support of the BFC’s Stage Space Support and Development initiative
“The Secret Invasion production team required locations that could double for Russia and the US,” McCallum explains. The BFC and the UK’s network of agencies helped source locations. ”The historic Piece Hall in Halifax, Yorkshire, doubled for Moscow,” notes McCallum. “As Secret Invasion was filmed during the pandemic, there were additional logistical obstacles, but our close relationships with the production and the amazing teams at Filming In England and Screen Yorkshire ensured as smooth a process as possible.”
The Outlaws season 2
UK locations include: SW England
This Bristol-set comedy crime thriller, created by Elgin James and Stephen Merchant, filmed at the English city’s The Bottle Yard Studios and also multiple surrounding locations. The community centre that the ‘outlaws — an ensemble of lawbreakers from very different backgrounds — renovate as part of their community service is an abandoned former real life community centre. The production worked with local agencies to coordinate a car chase shooting across parts of the city, while the Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel on College Green became a casino visited by Christopher Walken’s character Frank.
World On Fire season 2
UK locations include: Northern Ireland
Peter Bowker’s PBS/Mammoth Screen-backed World War Two drama World on Fire first aired on BBC One back in 2019. While the first series filmed in NW England, the second was shot extensively in Northern Ireland, which also provided locations such as a Bavarian castle, the Egyptian desert and occupied France. Mammoth head of production Ronnie Castillo says shoot HQ was an old Michelin tyre factory in Ballymena complete with production offices and room to create three stages: the interior of Chase house and two desert sets — sand and caves — both surrounded by blue screens. Exterior locations outside Belfast included the Seaford Estate, the Myra Estate and disused mill buildings in Ballyclare.
“We double-banked the entire shoot in an incredible 9 weeks using two full units. Sometimes we had a 3rd unit shooting,” says Castillo, who highlights the area’s talented crews, top post-production facilities at Yellow Moon and support from Northern Ireland Screen. ”Weather obviously is a challenge hence the decision to shoot all our hot/steaming North African desert scenes against a blue screen on our stages at Ballymena.
These are just some of the hundreds of film and HETV titles to have benefitted from the BFC’s bespoke production and locations support.
“At the BFC, we are proud to promote our fantastic UK-wide locations, and to be on hand to support our international clients, from development to delivery,” says McCallum. “The versatility, variety and attractiveness of our locations, along with the tailored production support and troubleshooting we provide, is evident in the quality and quantity of the award-winning international productions that continue to film in the UK.”
