Filming took place last spring and summer in various Bristol and Devon locations

Agatha Christie adaptation Towards Zero filmed in and around Bristol and on the Devon coast during a three-month shoot that began in early April last year. The shoot was supported by Bristol Film Office.

Rachel Bennette adapted the book as a 3 x 60’ series for BBC One, and is produced by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited; it is a co-commission between the BBC and BritBox International. Rebecca Durbin is the producer; Sam Yates directs.

Doubling played a key role in the location choices, with Bristol ‘playing’ 1930s London. The nave of Bristol Cathedral ‘playing’ Westminster’s Royal Courts of Justice while Sessions House in Usk served as the interior for the Courts, alongside corridors at Grittleton House in Chippenham (which also served as Sylvia’s boarding school).

Frog Lane in the centre of Bristol doubled for a busy 1930s London street with the University of Bristol’s Goldney Hall providing the interiors of Nevile Strange’s fashion-forward apartment, with the aid of production designer Lucienne Suren who created a bold, Art Deco look.

A VFX company stepped in to work on the The Bath & West Showground in Shepton Mallet, that became 1930s Wimbledon.

Devon locations

The fictional Gull’s Point and Easterhead Bay Hotel locations were shot on the Devon coast. A private home in Wiltshire became Gulls Point, the family seat where matriarch Lady Tressilian rules the roost.

The property’s portico overlooked an expansive green vista that could easily look like a Devon cliffside, with the help of VFX. The private home was paired with the grand Tyntesfield House, a National Trust property on Bristol’s outskirts. Although Gothic in its external architecture, the “below-stairs” kitchen and servants quarters provided a match to the Wiltshire stately home.

Easterhead Bay Hotel exteriors were filmed at Burgh Island Hotel near Kingsbridge. The hotel’s sea- water swimming pool doubled for the hotel in Nice, South of France, where Nevile and Kay meet. The Forum Bath provided the space for the art department to create the ultra-modern interiors to match with the Art Deco exterior of Burgh Island Hotel.

The beaches at Bantham, where the Avon meets the sea, and the more sheltered cove at Thurlestone, served as the fictional beaches around Saltcreek and Gulls Point. The production team worked closely with local film offices, the council and National Trust to ensure filming activity didn’t impact on local residents, including wildlife and nesting birds.

A Mammoth Screen spokesperson said: “We were excellently served by our Bristol and South West locations when bringing the world of Towards Zero to life. We had some particular challenges – recreating the Royal Courts of Justice, 1930’s Wimbledon Centre Court and a sparkling modern Art Deco hotel geographically opposing an old country pile on a Devon cliffside.

“The Devonian landscape is so central to Christie’s Towards Zero, so it was really special to be able to film at Burgh Island Hotel and beaches in the Kingsbridge area, just down the coastal path from Christie’s home, Greenways.

Towards Zero stars Anjelica Huston, Matthew Rhys, Clarke Peters, Oliver Jackson-Cohen; Ella Lily Hyland; Mimi Keene; Anjana Vasan; Jack Farthing; Adam Hugill and Grace Doherty.

All images courtesy of BBC.