Screen Yorkshire is setting up an adapted film studio to boost northern England’s production appeal. Yorkshire is regularly used as a filming location – mainly for UK shoots – and has recently doubled for London in A Royal Night Out, and as Belfast for the taut war drama ’71.
Wartime TV drama Home Fires will film a second series on location in Cheshire, northern England. Set during the Second World War, the drama follows a group of women keeping up morale and their community spirit in an English village.
The BBC has built a Victorian set in an adapted warehouse space in London for new period drama Dickensian. Written by Tony Jordan, the series presents intertwining stories of some of Charles Dickens’ most famous characters who it posits are living on the same London street.
Tom Cruise is filming Mena on location in Georgia. The movie is based on the true story of former airline pilot Barry Seal who clashed with cartels when he began smuggling drugs between the Americas in the 70s. The film reunites Cruise with his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman.
Michael Gambon will play Sir Winston Churchill in a TV movie set nearly a decade after the Second World War. Churchill’s Secret will film in London and Kent and will look at events in 1953 when the re-elected Prime Minister suffered a serious stroke that was not made public.
Pinewood Studios has announced a production partnership with Centroid, a company that specialises in full performance capture technology. Centroid is already based at Pinewood and has been involved with Guardians of the Galaxy and Godzilla.
The BBC will film the Second World War TV drama My Mother And Other Strangers on location in Northern Ireland. Belfast is a popular filming location for UK TV productions and also hosts the huge international hit Game of Thrones.
British TV shoots have kept location filming levels steady in Bristol, in the west of England. High-profile shows shot in the city in recent months have included a special period episode of the BBC’s international hit Sherlock.