Carnival Pictures, the company behind the hit period drama Downton Abbey, is to film a new crime drama miniseries on location in New Zealand for the BBC. The series will shoot in Rotorua on the North Island and has been provisionally titled Bay of Plenty, after the region itself.
Global exports of UK television productions to China rose by a staggering 40% in 2013/14, but the US remains the single biggest international market for UK shows. The figures, published by the independent producers’ trade association Pact, show that overall TV exports rose by 5% in 2013/14.
The BBC will be filming its new period drama Poldark partly on location at the historic Chavenage House near Bristol in south-west England. Mammoth Screen is basing Poldark at Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios that recently hosted Channel 4 production New Worlds.
The continuing success of the BBC’s modern-day detective series Sherlock could help boost film tourism in London. Nearly ten million UK viewers watched the opening third-series episode broadcast on 1 January 2014 and the series starts in the US later this month.
Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) will return to the historic Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, northern England, to film a second series of period drama The Mill. The new series will move forward in the mill’s history and chart the lives of workers from the late 1830s.
Hit period drama series Downton Abbey is likely to return to Bampton in the UK for its new season this year. The historic Oxfordshire market town has featured as Downton village in previous seasons of the show.
The UK will launch a TV location filming tax credit in April 2013. Chancellor George Osborne confirmed the programme to boost the TV industry and encourage high-end shows like Downton Abbey to continue filming in Britain.
A formal consultation has been launched by the UK Government on the TV filming incentives promised back in March this year. Production companies are being invited to offer their views on the tax relief that will be designed to keep high-end TV shows like Downton Abbey filming in the UK.