Tower Hamlets has been the second most filmed in borough across London for several years running and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down for 2024. Across 2023 and into this year we’ve have all manner of productions visit the borough, projects big and small from huge Netflix features, to fashion photoshoots – Tower Hamlets doesn’t shy away from providing the aesthetic and versatile backdrops for whatever is required. We’ve rounded up some recent releases below, check them out!
Trigger Point
The second season of the thrilling ITV Drama ‘Trigger Point’, featuring Vicky McClure, premiered in January of this year. Following the immense success and widespread acclaim of its first season, the show was promptly renewed for another gripping instalment. Season 2 continues to follow the bomb-disposal team led by Lana (McClure) and her courageous team in yet another edge-of-your-seat case.
The production filmed exciting scenes for the opening episode at the Tobacco Dock Car Park involving the Counter Terrorism Squad, Firearms Officers, and EXPO Officers arriving at the scene after tracking a suspect to this location. This shoot included all the bells and whistles you might expect from a high impact shoot including 100 strong cast and crew, drones, imitation firearms and many replica emergency service vehicles. Naturally when dealing with a shoot of this nature, it is in our best interest to minimise the disturbances to residents and businesses and for assured public safety we embark on thorough consultation with the local area as well as working closely with the MET Police Film Unit.
Scenes also took place at the St George’s Estate in Shadwell with a police chase ripping through the estate exteriors after the squad spot a suspect which ends in a climax at the playground.
You can stream all of seasons 1 and 2 on ITVX now and check out the trailer below!
Back To Black
Biopics of music legends have been on the rise in the last few years and in 2024 Studiocanal will be telling the story of icon Amy Winehouse and her tumultuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil that inspired her to write and record the groundbreaking album “Back to Black”. The film of the same name will be released in April of this year and stars Marisa Abela in the leading role as Amy.
Back to Black filmed scenes at local pub The Palm Tree Pub in Mile End for which the Tower Hamlets Film Office helped to facilitate with equipment surrounding the location, parking for technical vehicles and sourcing a crowd base at the Mile End Pavillions. Helping to facilitate shoots at private locations in the borough benefits the local council and community through the local spend that comes from productions using local venues for catering, crowd holding and tech parking to name but a few. This all helps to make location filming a mutually beneficial situation for both the council and the nearby residents and businesses.
We can’t wait to see Back to Black when it comes out! The film is set to hit cinemas screens on April 12th so in the meantime, take a look at the trailer below.
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Scoop
Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation for Netflix gives an insider account of how the women of Newsnight secured Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, starring some great names such as Gillian Anderson, Billie Piper, and Rufus Sewell. The production filmed scenes at one of the boroughs most popular parks, Mile End Park and surrounding street Copperfield Road. The production also set up at Mile End Stadium to unit base for their filming in the borough.
Scoop launches onto Netflix on Friday 5th April and you can watch the trailer below in the meantime!
The Beautiful Game
Another Netflix feature film rolled into town to film, this time “The Beautiful Game” took to the streets of Tower Hamlets at many of our fantastic locations. The film follows Mal, played by Bill Nighy as he leads England’s homeless football squad, embarking on a journey to Rome with aspirations of clinching the title at the Homeless World Cup. Alongside him is Vinny, a skilled striker whose prowess on the field could significantly bolster their chances of victory. This charming film is based real events from the Homeless World Cup that was founded in 1999.
The production filmed a variety of scenes at Globe Town Market and surrounding streets such as Morpeth Street, Bullards Place and Warley Street with traffic management in place to maximise safety and allow the filming to take place smoothly. Other streets in the borough were selected as locations such as driving scenes on Backchurch Lane and Pundersons Gardens.
A few private unit base locations were used to facilitate the productions technical vehicles such as Tobacco Dock & the Docklands Slipway two popular unit base options for filming in the local area.
The Beautiful Game premieres on Netflix on March 29th, watch the trailer below!