Jerk – Series 3 (2023)

Oliver Maltman as Jack Doyle, James Norton as himself, Sharon Rooney as Ruth and Tim Renkow as Tim stand in a line in a brick building. Behind them are bales of hay and a pile of wooden crates. Maltman wears baggy blue jeans, a red flannel shirt, blue jacket, navy blue gilet, navy blue beret and brown boots. Norton wears baggy grey trousers, brown shoes, a red fez and a loose-fitting yellow and green patterned shirt. Rooney wears blue skinny jeans, a blue hoody, grey coat and white trainers. Renkow is dressed as working-class person from the Victorian era in light brown corduroys, dark brown vest over white shirt, red neck scarf, brown cap and boots and is leaning on his walker.

Oliver Maltman, James Norton, Sharon Rooney and Tim Renkow in Series 3 of Jerk (2023) © BBC/Roughcut TV/Adam Lawrence

Director: Tom McKay
Starring:
Tim Renkow, Lorraine Bracco, Sharon Rooney, Rob J Madin
Production Company:
Primal Media, Roughcut TV
Kent Locations Used:
The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Jerk (2019-2023) is a BBC Three comedy series about Tim who has cerebral palsy. People often misjudge Tim due to his disability, but inside he is still a jerk.

Directed by Tom Mckay (Drunk History: UK, Bloods), the series stars Tim Renkow (Death to 2021, Bobby & Harriet Get Married) as Tim, Lorraine Branco (The Sopranos, Goodfellas) as Tim’s mum, Sharon Rooney (The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2022), My Mad Fat Diary) as his care worker Ruth, and comedian Rob J Madin as his friend Idris.

Series 3 sees Tim take on a myriad of jobs, including the lead role in a movie, a drug mule, and a job advising the government on disabilities. Love could also be in the air, as Tim finds himself falling for a disability activist with an agenda.

Production visited The Historic Dockyard Chatham for Series 3 Episode 1, which doubled as Grain Island Studios, where Tim is cast as an extra in a controversial film about a disabled musician, played by the able-bodied James Norton. Areas featured include The Ropery Alley, Anchor Wharf, The Tennis Courts and The Tarred Yarn Store.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a 17th Century dockyard which spans over 80 acres, containing over 100 buildings dating from the Georgian and Victorian periods. It is the most popular filming location in Kent, having played host to a variety of productions. Most recently, Operation Mincemeat (2022), Living (2022) and Enola Holmes 2 (2022).

Series 3 of Jerk began airing on BBC Three on Tuesday 14th March 2023 and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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


Back to Life Series 1 and 2 (2019 – 2021)

 

Daisy Haggard as Miri Matteson is sat on a bench on a pebbled beach with Adeel Akhtar as Billy. She has long hair blowing in the wind and is holding her phone and a sandwich. She is wearing a green anorak and black leggings. Adeel has black hair and a beard and wears a brown jacket and blue jeans.

Miri Matteson (Daisy Haggard), Billy (Adeel Akhtar) in Back to Life Series 2 (2021) in Hythe © SHOWTIME

Writer: Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon
Director: Christopher Sweeney
Starring: Daisy Haggard, Geraldine James, Jamie Michie, and Christine Bottomley
Production Company: BBC Studios
Kent locations used: Dungeness, Abbot’s Cliff in Dover, Folkstone Harbour Arm, Hythe, Lydd-on-Sea

BBC3 comedy drama Back to Life (2019-) follows Miranda ‘Miri’ Matteson (Daisy Haggard Breeders Series 2 (2021), Hilda) who has just been released from prison, having spent a decade behind bars. In Series One she is desperate to go straight and move on with her life.

In Series Two Miri starts a relationship with her neighbour Billy (Adeel Akhtar (Victoria and Abdul (2017)), but all is not plain sailing as a body is washed up on the beach and she becomes the prime suspect.

The series was directed by Christopher Sweeney (Parental Advisory: Disciplinary Measures, Women are from Mars), is written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon, and stars Daisy Haggard (Black Mirror, Outnumbered), Geraldine James (Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes), Jamie Michie (Game of Thrones, The Outlaw King) and Christine Bottomley (Hard Sun, The End of the F***ing World).

The series is set in in the small seaside town of Hythe, and filming for both series took place along the seafront, including various scenes at the beach promenade on West Parade, and a cycling sequence on the promenade at Princes Parade. In Series 2, Hythe High Street is pictured in various scenes, including Caroline (Geraldine James) and Oscar’s (Richard Durden) litter-picking crusade and when Lara’s father John (Adrian Edmondson) leads a procession of mourners through the town.

For Series One, production filmed in locations across Dungeness, including Dungeness Estate and the Britannia Pub InnLydd on Sea’s Lade Car Park also features in both series; in Series One it plays host to a Fish & Chips van, and in Series Two it became the driving school where Miri takes her practical test. Dungeness has played host to several recent TV productions including Brave New World (2020), The Third Day (2020) and Fantasy Homes by the Sea – Series 7 (2018).

Folkestone’s Harbour Arm features in several episodes of Series Two, with the lighthouse becoming the site of an untimely and mysterious death. The Folkestone & Hythe district of Kent has 26 miles of beaches and is a popular location for filming, recently appearing in Flesh and Blood (2020) and Queens of Mystery (2019).

Abbot’s Cliff in Dover features in both series as the site of a tragic death.

Series One aired on BBC 3 on Monday 15th April 2019 and is currently available on iplayer.

Series Two airs weekly on BBC One from Tuesday 31 August at 10.35pm and will be available on BBC iPlayer from the same date.

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


Quacks (2017)

Group of Quack characters in Victorian attire standing around operating table looking forward

Quacks (C) Lucky Giant – Photographer: Todd Antony

Writer: James Wood

Director: Andy De Emmony

Starring: Rory Kinnear, Mathew Baynton, Tom Basden, Lydia Leonard, Rupert Everett

Production Company: Lucky Giant

Kent locations used: The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Quacks is a new six-part BBC Two comedy series and follows William,  a young psychiatrist, (Mathew Baynton), Robert, an egotistical surgeon (Rory Kinnear), and John,  a hedonistic anaesthetist (Tom Basden) and their comedic misadventures during the early days of modern medical science in the 1840s.

The impressive ensemble cast includes Rory Kinnear (Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, The Imitation Game), Mathew Baynton (Peep Show, The Wrong Mans, You, Me and the Apocalypse) Tom Basden (Plebs, Star Stories) and Lydia Leonard (Da Vinci’s Demons, Whitechapel), with a guest performance by Rupert Everett (Stardust, St. Trinian’s, The Musketeers) as Dr. Hendrick.

Three Quack characters sitting at bar table looking at camera

Quacks (C) Lucky Giant – Photographer: Mark Johnson

The highly popular Historic Chatham Dockyard, Kent doubled as streets of Victorian London. It was also used as the location of the market place, the apothecary and bareknuckle boxing fight featured in the series.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham has previously been used as a filming location for a vast range of productions such as Close to the Enemy (2016), Mr. Holmes (2015), and Arthur & George (2015) with the over a hundred Georgian and Victorian buildings and cobbled streets making it a popular choice.

The new series of Quacks starts on Tuesday 15th August on BBC Two at 10pm.

 

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


Cockles! (1984)

Opening title screen for Cockles!. A white screen with cockles in the top half, the programme title Cockles! In the centre , and on the bottom in black text is written Cc-Cc-Cc-Cockles, cockles from Cocklesea.

Cockles! (1984) © BBC

Writer: Douglas Livingstone
Starring: James Grout, Joan Sims, Norman Rodway, Jane Lowe, David Bamber, Tim Wylton
Production Company: BBC
Kent Location Used: Herne Bay, King’s Hall, Ramsgate Royal Harbour, Whitstable Harbour, Tankerton beach

Cockles! (1984) was a BBC comedy series, set in the fictional Kentish beach town of Cocklesea. The series follows ex-pat Arthur Dumpton trying to get the faded old seaside resort back to its former glory

The series was written by Douglas Livingstone (Clayhanger, Boys from the Bush), and stars James Grout (Inspector Morse, Mother Love) as Arthur Dumpton, Joan Sims (Carry on Screaming, Carry on Up the Khyber) as Gloria du Bois, Norman Rodway (Inspector Morse – Deceived by Flight (1989), Reilly: Ace of Spies) as Jacques, Jane Lowe (Bad Girls, The Creeping) as Mabel du Bois, David Bamber (Valkyrie, Miss Potter) as Graham and Tim Wylton (Pride and Prejudice, Wycliffe) as George.

Herne Bay doubles for the fictional town of Cocklesea, with filming taking place on the beach, the promenade by the bandstand and clocktower as well as along Central Parade. Private properties on Central Parade feature as the exterior of the Sunny Side Guest House run by Gloria DuBois and the Seaview Guesthouse run by Mabel. The King’s Hall appears throughout the series, doubling as the Cocklesea Pavilion which Arthur has bought and fixes up to become the new hub of the revived community.

Whitstable Harbour features as Cocklesea harbour in the first episode where Jaques and his mates Graham & George try to run a smuggling operation and Tankerton Beach also appears briefly in Episode 4, where George goes for a run by the Yacht Club.

Ramsgate Royal Harbour appears in Episode 4 of the series, as the location where Jacques goes to paint and meets the American Veronica Stapmeyer (Pat Starr) on her yacht.

Herne Bay is a coastal resort which is home to the world’s first free-standing purpose built clock tower. Productions which filmed in the town around the same time include Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em (1973), Blue Jeans (1977) and The Medusa Touch (1978).

Opened in 1913, the King’s Hall is an architectural gem, captivating visitors with its original Edwardian features and idyllic seafront views. French Dressing (1964) and Jagame Thandhiram (2021) filmed at this location.

Ramsgate is the home of the only Royal Harbour in the UK, decreed by King George IV in 1821 due to his fondness of the friendly locals he met there. The Harbour is a popular filming location, featuring in Contraband (1940), Á nous les petites Anglaises (1976) and The Big Sleep (1978).

Whitstable Harbour is a small commercial harbour in North Kent. Built in 1832 to serve the new railway, nowadays it is a municipal harbour. The town is famous for its oysters and the harbour has a number of shops which sell fish and shellfish.

The Tankerton Slopes are adjacent to Whitstable and consist of grassy banks covered in beach huts in front of a pebble beach. The beach features in Zoe and the Astronaut (2018) and Whitstable Pearl (2021-2022).

Cockles! (1984) aired on BBC One from Wednesday 4th January to Wednesday 8th February 1984.

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