The Bottle Yard bags another high profile shoot
With Wolf Hall garnering plaudits and the much-anticipated Poldark due to start airing in the spring, Bristol's Bottle Yard Studios can now tick another box for hosting a high-profile drama as filming has just wrapped on a Sherlock special.
Filming started on 6 January on the feature length episode destined for delivery to BBC One at Christmas, with seasoned director Douglas Mackinnon - Line of Duty, Doctor Who, Silent Witness - at the helm to direct. (His name was added to the project's entry on Production Intelligence last November, along with the line producer and casting director).
The production team from Hartswood Films constructed sets at the studio's Tank House 2 space, as well as using various Bristol locations including Arnos Vale Cemetery, King Street and Queen Square (pictured).
Sherlock producer Sue Vertue said of the location choice: "It's been great shooting in and around Bristol and at The Bottle Yard Studios. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and helpful."
The Bottle Yard has really been notching up the credits in the last year or so, with the big-budget American musical drama Galavant having filmed there last summer, following the pilot in March.
Up until January of this year, The Bottle Yard Studios was the only major facility between the West Country and West Wales, so it will be interesting to see how many more productions, both international and domestic, will head west down the M4 now that Pinewood Studio Wales has opened.
And with the greenlight expected to flash any day now on the sequel to Wolf Hall, it can only be a good thing for the burgeoning Bottle Yard Studios. Â
For more on all the productions listed above, head to Production Intelligence, our online database of advance and archive production news.
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