Question Time (2016)

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Kent Film Office

Question Time David Dimbleby sitting in front of a desk

Question Time David Dimbleby © BBC/Mentorn/Des Willie

Production Company: Mentorn

Kent Location Used: The Creative Quarter, Folkestone

Question Time is the topical politics show hosted by David Dimbleby. High profile guests debate various topics and face difficult questions from members of the public.

In a special programme about the EU referendum, which takes place on Thursday 23 June 2016, Question Time will be coming live from The Quarterhouse in Folkestone’s Creative Quarter.

Kent previously hosted the show in Tunbridge Wells in 2012, when the discussion included the crisis in Syria, Bankers bonuses and unpaid work placements.

The Creative Quarter in Folkestone was developed by the Creative Foundation, to regenerate the area through the arts, the creative industries and education. It is now home to a thriving collection of artists’ studios and creative businesses. The Folkestone area has been used as a location for filming by productions such as The Tunnel (2013 – 2016) and Is Anybody There? (2009).

Question Time will air on Thursday 9^th June 2016 at 22:45 on BBC One.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map.

New Blood (2016)

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Kent Film Office

New Blood written in balck, Stefan (MARK STREPAN) and Rash (BEN TAVASSOLI) headshots in front of a derelict landscape

New Blood Stefan (MARK STREPAN), Rash (BEN TAVASSOLI) © BBC / 11th Hour Films

Director: Anthony Philipson

Starring: Mark Strepan, Ben Tavassoli, Ariyon Bakare, Dorian Lough, Rachel Palmer, Aiysha Hart, Matt Bardock, Mark Bonnar, Mandana Jones

Production company: Eleventh Hour Films

Kent Locations Used: the M2 and Medway Services

New Blood is a new, seven part investigative drama, created and written by bestselling author Anthony Horowitz (Foyle’s War, Collision). The story follows Stefan (Mark Strepan) and Rash (Ben Tavassoli) who are junior investigators for the Serious Fraud Office and the police respectively, brought together by two seemingly unrelated cases.

The duo comes up against the rich and powerful as well as criminals who hide behind legitimate facades and are guarded by lawyers. As their friendship grows, they understand that they make a formidable crime-solving team.

The series stars Mark Strepan (The Mill, Northmen – A Viking Saga), Ben Tavassoli (Tomorrow, Healey’s House), Ariyon Bakare (Doctors, The Dark Knight), Dorian Lough (Notting Hill, Far from the Madding Crowd), Aiysha Hart (Atlantis, Honour), Matt Bardock (Casualty, Sixty Six), Mark Bonnar (Casualty, Catastrophe) and Mandana Jones (Bad Girls Random Quest).

The production visited Kent in September 2015 to film driving sequences the M2 motorway as well as Medway services.

Medway is a group of towns set along the River Medway, steeped in history, particularly with Charles Dickens connections. Rochester City offers beautiful cobbled streets, parks as well as a Cathedral and castle. The Medway area has previously been used for filming by projects including Secret Britain (2016), Black Sea (2014) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012).

New Blood will start Thursday June 9^th 2016 at 21:00 on BBC One.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map.

Blakes 7 – Bounty (1978)

Posted on October 20, 1978 by Kent Film Office

Blakes 7 logo © BBC

Director: Pennant Roberts

Creator: Terry Nation

Starring: Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette, Paul Darrow, T.P. McKenna

Production Company: BBC

Kent Locations: Quex Park – Waterloo Tower in Birchington

Blake’s 7 is a BBC One science fiction show which ran for four series between 1978 –1981. Set in the future, the show is about a group of outcasts who fight a guerrilla war against the totalitarian Terran Federation from an alien spaceship.

The series was created by Terry Nation (Doctor Who, And Soon the Darkness, London Conspiracy), who also created the Daleks in Doctor Who.

Episode 11 of Series 1, “Bounty”, sees Blake (Gareth Thomas) and Jenna (Sally Knyvette) try to convince Sarkoff (T.P. McKenna), the exiled former president of the planet Lindor to return to lead his people, before the Federation assumes control of the planet. However, the Liberator is taken over by a group of bounty hunters known as The Amagons.

“Bounty” is directed by Pennant Roberts (The Sherman Plays, Howards’ Way, Doctor Who) and stars Gareth Thomas (Merlin, Waterland, Parkin’s Patch), Sally Knyvette (Emmerdale, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, General Hospital), Paul Darrow (Die Another Day, Rough Magik, Law & Order: UK) and T.P. McKenna (Straw Dogs, Red Scorpion, Ulysses).

Blakes 7 Screenshot at Quex Park- Waterloo Tower with trees around it

Blakes 7 Screenshot Quex Park – Waterloo Tower- two characters leabing against the stone wall

Waterloo Tower at Quex Park features in the episode as the ex-president Sarkoff’s residence in exile.

Quex Park is a unique country park of 250 acres set within an estate of 1800 acres in Birchington which offers parkland, gardens and a Regency-style country house with unique museum containing dioramas of African landscapes. Projects which have previously filmed in the Birchington area include Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages (2015) and BBC Three drama The Things I Haven’t Told You (2008).

Blakes 7 aired between 1978 –1981 and is now available for DVD purchase.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map.

Kent's Premier Film Commission