Written by new-contact on Oct 17, 2013. Posted in On Location

Television drama Emmerdale films at Pinewood water tank facility

Long-running TV soap Emmerdale filmed at Pinewood Studios’ water tank facility near London for a dramatic storyline involving a character trapped in a flooding cellar. Filming for the Yorkshire-set show is normally based in Leeds in the north of England.

The producers headed to Pinewood to get a specialist filming environment for the scenes. A large set was constructed for several days of shooting.

“They’d keep it above the water and as time progressed in the story, they’d lower the set deeper and deeper,” said Emmerdale actor Mark Charnock: “Every time you came back to it after a break it’d be deeper, up to your chest, up to your neck. On the last two days we were treading water because it was above head height. It was an exhilarating week of filming.”

Pinewood’s tank is a permanently-filled facility and holds 1.2 million litres of water kept at 30 degrees Celsius for optimum working conditions. High-profile productions filmed in the tank have included Atonement, The Bourne Ultimatum and Casino Royale.

They’d keep it above the water and as time progressed in the story, they’d lower the set deeper and deeper.

Mark Charnock, actor

The studio is one of the UK’s flagship filming facilities and is the home of the James Bond franchise. Productions have access to world-class resources, but the studio itself is seeking to expand in order to continually improve what it offers and stay ahead of the competition around the world.

Pinewood recently opened the 45,000-square-foot Q Stage, but getting authorisation from local authorities for its grander Pinewood Studios Development Framework plan has been more problematic. Studio bosses will once again be pressing for support in the coming weeks.

The studio now also hosts a Digital Motion Picture Centre, which offers industry training for Sony’s latest camera systems.