Jimmy Akingbola - Kent Film Office

Gemma Arterton as Alice and James Norton as Robert Freegard stand against a navy-blue background. Alice has long dark hair and wears a high-neck navy blue top. Robert wears a grey suit. The two actors’ faces are distorted by a large black swirl pattern.

Gemma Arterton and James Norton in Rogue Agent (2022) © IFC Films

Director: Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson
Writer: Michael Bronner
Starring: Gemma Arterton, James Norton, Sarah Goldberg, Shazad Latif, Jimmy Akingbola
Production Company: Rabbit Track Pictures
Kent Locations Used: Dover, St. Margaret’s Bay, South Foreland Lighthouse

Rogue Agent (2022) depicts the chilling true story of career conman Robert Freegard, who masqueraded as an MI5 agent in order to extort and kidnap countless victims. When one woman falls for his charms however, she becomes the only person capable of finally bringing him down.

Directed by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson (The Salisbury Poisonings), Rogue Agent stars James Norton (The Nevers (2021), Little Women) as Robert Freegard and Gemma Arterton (Summerland (2020), The Escape (2017)) as Alice, the woman who falls for his charms. Also appearing in the film are Sarah Goldberg (Barry, The Night House), Shazad Latif (Penny Dreadful, Spooks) and Jimmy Akingbola (Kate & Koji (2020-2022), In the Long Run (2019)).

Production visited several locations across Dover for their filming. A driving scene was shot on Upper Road, where Robert Freegard (James Norton) gives Alice (Gemma Arterton) the chance to drive his red Ferrari. The exterior of South Foreland Lighthouse features as the holiday let Freegard stays in with Alice and Jenny (Sarah Goldberg), and St. Margaret’s Bay appears in the scene where Freegard and Jenny take a walk along the beach and discuss her student debt.

Dover’s most recognisable landmarks are its White Cliffs. The Port of Dover connects the UK with the European mainland. First built in the 1180s, Dover Castle still towers above the town, signalling Dover’s strategic importance in the defence of the country. Previous productions to have filmed in Dover include the Sky crime series The Tunnel: Sabotage (2016), Series 1 and 2 of the BBC drama Missing (2009-2010), and the Doctor Who episode Mind of Evil (1971).

St. Margaret’s Bay is a small shingle-beach bay backed by the famous white chalk cliffs of Dover and supposedly where the sun first touches mainland UK each morning. It was once the home of Noel Coward, Peter Ustinov, as well as James Bond author Ian Fleming. As well as BBC’s Missing (2009-2010) series, two episodes of Poirot were filmed here, The Kidnapped Prime Minister (1990) and The Clocks (2009).

South Foreland Lighthouse is a Victorian lighthouse perched on The White Cliffs of Dover. Now owned by the National Trust, it the first lighthouse powered by electricity, as well as the site of the first international radio transmission. The Bollywood film Rustom (2016) features the Lighthouse, as well as Series 3 Episode 7 of the ITV period drama Mr Selfridge (2013-2016).

Rogue Agent was released on Netflix on Wednesday 27^th July 2022.

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

Koji sits at a table in a dated looking café. He holds a white mug and has a full English breakfast in front of him. Kate stands behind him, wearing a green apron and smiling at the camera.

Brenda Blethyn as Kate and Okorie Chukwu as Koji in Kate and Koji (2020-2022) © Hat Trick Productions

Writers: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin
Director: Ben Kellett
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Jimmy Akingbola (Series 1), Okorie Chukwu (Series 2), Blake Harrison, Barbara Flynn, Meera Syal
Production Company: Hat Trick Productions, ITV Studios
Kent Locations Used: Romney House, School Road, Charing, Herne Bay Beach, Pier & Promenade

Kate & Koji (2020-2022) is a six-part TV sitcom about a working-class woman played by Brenda Blethyn (Vera, Pride & Prejudice (2005)) who runs an old-fashioned café in a neglected seaside town. Kate develops an unexpected and spirited friendship with Koji, an asylum-seeking African doctor (Jimmy Akingbola – Series 1 (In the Long Run (2019), Bel-Air); Okorie Chukwu – Series 2 (The Complex: Lockdown (2020)). Although from very different worlds, they are similar in ways which they do not recognise, including a dogged determination to never back down!

Kate’s resourceful nephew ‘Medium’ played by Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners (2010), Big Bad World (2013)) is often on hand to act as peacemaker. Barbara Flynn (The Durrells, Cracker) also stars as Kate’s lifelong nemesis Councillor Bone, and in Series 1, Meera Syal (Back to Life (2019-2021), The Split (2020)) guest stars as an adversarial GP to Koji.

The series is directed by Ben Kellett and written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. It is a Hat Trick Production for ITV Studios filmed on location in Kent and at Elstree Studios in front of a live audience.

The seaside café for the TV sitcom was filmed at Frasiers Pie and Mash Shop in Herne Bay, standing in for the fictional seaside town of Seagate. For Series 1, the production also filmed exteriors of The Divers Arms pub and various scenes around the Promenade and Pier and an exterior scene at Herne Bay Industrial Estate. A further sequence was shot on the Promenade featuring a storm and its after-effects.

Series Two returned to Herne Bay for exterior filming and once again filmed along the Pier and Promenade, as well as the Neptune Arm and the Bandstand, which doubled as the exterior to a Community Centre.

A damaged road sign saying ‘Seagate’ on the side of a coastal road with the sea in background.

Herne Bay is a seaside town which has a Pier and shingle beach and is set just outside of the historic City of Canterbury. Recent productions to film in the area include Blue Planet UK – Series 1 (2019), The 1900 Island – Series 1 (2019) and Coast vs Country (2016).

Series 2 of Kate and Koji began airing on ITV on Wednesday 16^th March 2022 at 9PM.

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

Kent's Premier Film Commission