In this special episode of the popular series, we see the real-life stories of three foundlings. There is the man who, as a newborn, was abandoned in a hospital car park, the five-day old baby left in a cardboard box in Manchester and the woman abandoned on a doorstep in Scotland. All three are desperately searching to identify their biological parents and find the answer as to why they were abandoned.
Starring: Kelly Brook, Denise Van Outen and Peter Andre
Production Company: STV productions
Kent Locations Used: Ramsgate, Margate, Whitstable, Faversham, Sittingbourne, Maidstone, and Ashford
A brand-new series of Celebrity Antiques Road Show returns to BBC two. In the programme each antique expert is paired up with a celebrity and they travel across the UK in vintage cars, in a quest to find worthy antiques to sell at auction.
Ashford is a market town with many shops, eateries, and a designer outlet shopping centre with London and Europe are just a train ride away through Ashford International train station. Previous productions which filmed include The Apprentice (2015).
Kent Locations Used: Wortham, Maidstone, and Sheerness
A brand-new series of Four in a Bed returns to Channel 4, where a different B&B is visited each day of the week and owners take it in turns to stay with each other as they compete to be crowned Best Hosts. The final day at the end of the week is reserved for feedback debates and the announcement of the winner.
The series is narrated by Mike Adams (Emmerdale) and for this series production visited a B&B in Wrotham and one in Sheerness, as well as neighbouring areas like the county town of Maidstone.
Wrotham is located in Sevenoaks and has starred in other well-known series such as, Next of Kin directed by Justin Chadwick and Jamie Childs. Maidstone in Kent has also been a key filming location used by popular Netflix show Black Mirror.
Isle of Sheppey is the largest town on the Isle of Sheppey. Sheppey regularly wins the blue flag for its clean beaches and has many pubs, restaurants, shops and other leisure attractions. The Hide (2009) has previously used The Isle of Sheppey as a film location.
The series will start on Monday 17th September on Channel 4 at 5.30pm and will air at the same time everyday till Monday 24th September 2018.
Production Company: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Kent Locations Used: Detling, Maidstone
This long-running, popular daytime show follows two amateur collector teams at an antique fair as they try to find the best bargains, to sell on at auction.
During the latest series production visited the Kent Event Centre in Detling during the annual Antiques, Vintage and Collectors Fair. The location, which opened in 1964, offers several halls and over 200 acres of outdoor space alongside a private woodland organisers’ disposal. The venue hosts concerts as well as large scale exhibitions, trade fairs and the Kent County Show. Bargain Hunt has previously filmed at the venue, including one of their Christmas Specials (2016).
Bargain Hunt series 51 will air on BBC One on Friday 14th September 2018 at 12.15pm.
Starring: Sally Phillips, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Tom Goodman-Hill, Adrian Edmondson
Production Company: Lost Eye Films
Kent Locations Used: Manor Way Business Park in Swanscombe, Old Town Hall Gravesend, Powerhub in Maidstone, Northfleet Industrial Estate
The Rizen (2017) and The Rizen: Possession (2020) is a horror story set in 1955, an era when both NATO and the Allied Forces were supposedly conducting secret, occult experiments in a bid to win the Arms Race.
What if they had succeeded and what the Army unleashed threatens to tear the world apart?
The Rizen was written and directed by Matt Mitchell (Gangsters, Guns & Zombies, It Never Sleeps). The film stars Sally Phillips (Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Decoy Bride), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Lucy, Rush), Tom Goodman-Hill (Mr Selfridge, Everest) and Adrian Edmondson (War and Peace, Bottom).
The production was largely based in Kent and the Manor Way Business Park in Swanscombe was used as their studio. Production filmed the endless, dark corridors in the Powerhub in Maidstone and ‘laboratory’ and ‘radio room’ scenes at Northfleet Industrial Estate with both locations doubling as an ex-military base. Filming also took place at Gravesend Old Town Hall which featured as a Grand Hall for an ‘academy’.
Manor Way Business Park is an industrial area with offices and warehouses located in Swanscombe, famous for its spectacular finds of Early Man. The site has excellent transport links and previously featured in Gangsters, Guns & Zombies (2012) and Doctor Strange (2016).
The Powerhub in Maidstone is a five storey, listed, industrial building with a 1900’s art deco exterior. Inside the building there are a selection of studios, offices, showrooms and amazing studios. Past productions that have filmed in Maidstone include Missing (2009), Children in Need – The Rickshaw Challenge (2015) and Couples Come Dine With Me (2014).
Northfleet Industrial Estate is an estate in two halves, having been cut in half by the high speed railway and each half has its own tone. The location was used for filming a car crash scene in Doctor Strange (2016).
Rustom is a Hindi murder mystery romance inspired by the true 1959 legal KM Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra, which changed the face of the India judicial system. Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati (Akshay Kumar) was a naval officer who was tried for killing his English-born wife’s lover, Prem Ahuja. The murder case is still famous on the subcontinent and the film’s tagline is “3 shots that shocked the nation”.
The film is directed by Dharmendra Suresh Desai (Special 26, Players), written by Vipul K. Rawal and stars Akshay Kumar (Singh Is Kinng, Housefull 2), Ileana (Barfi!, Devadasu), and Arjan Bajwa (Son of Sardaar, Bobby Jasoos).
The Historic Dockyard Chatham features as the Bombay naval port and HMS Cavalier as the destroyer on which he serves. A snowy Commissioners House also features in a montage and Slip 5 in a dinner scene between Rear Admiral Prashant Kamath (Parmeet Sethi)and Cynthia (Ilene D’Cruz).
Aylesford is a picturesque village located on the banks of the River Medway complete with a Norman Church and Victorian houses. It has previously featured in Half A Sixpence (1967).
Leeds Castle is a romantic castle with medieval themed rooms, 1920’s style interiors and original marble bathrooms. The large 500 acres estate boasts beautiful gardens, a moat, woodlands, maze with shell grotto and an aviary. The castle has been used to film The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses(2016), Henry VIII (2003) and Lady Jane (1987).
The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a 17th century dockyard set over 80 acres, containing over 100 buildings dating from the Georgian and Victorian Periods. It has been used extensively for filming, appearing in productions such as Call the Midwife(2016), Les Miserables (2013) and Downton Abbey(2013).
Rustom was released worldwide on 12th August 2016 and is now available for DVD purchase.
ITV’s Take Me Out returns for an eighth series with Paddy McGuinness hosting the Saturday night dating show in the hope that he can find dates for the “Flirty 30” ladies looking for love.
Single men arrive by the Love Lift and through various rounds, the ladies can turn their lights off if they are no longer interested in them – “No Likey, No Lighty”. Any man who survives with more than one light on, can choose which lady he will take on a date to the Isle of Fernando.
RochesterCastle is a 12th Century Castle set in beautiful gardens and overlooks the River Medway. The castle has been used as a film location by The Mystery of Edwin Drood(2012) and Veer(2010).
Returning in 2015 for its fifth year is The One Show Rickshaw Challenge, in aid of BBC Children in Need. With help from The One Show presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones, six young riders embark upon an epic 470-mile journey pedalling a rickshaw.
Across eight days the team will cycle from Land’s End to the East End, beginning their pursuit on Friday 6th November 2015. The end of Day Six will see the team touch down in Brighton, before beginning the sixty miles plus journey to The Historic Dockyard Chatham the following day. The expedition will take the team through a number of towns in Kent, including parts of Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, Chatham, Rochester,GravesendandDartford .
The cumulative total of money raised so far by The Rickshaw Challenge is over £7.9 million, all of which goes towards supporting disadvantaged young people in the UK.
Rochester offers beautiful cobbled streets, parks and the Cathedral and castle while Chatham is home to The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Day Seven’s final destination before Team Rickshaw makes their way up to Elstree to finally complete the challenge. The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a popular filming location on account of its Georgian and Victorian architecture and authentic cobbled streets (which the rickshaw riders might be hoping to avoid!). The Medway area has previously been seen on screen in Jekyll and Hyde (2015), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012) and Sherlock Holmes (2009).
Dartfordis situated close to Bromley and Bexley and boasts great travel links in and out of Kent. Full of quaint architecture and great guesthouses and hotels, Dartford has hosted other productions in the past such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows– Part 1 (2010) and The Inbetweeners(2010).
Tune into The One Show on BBC One at 19:00, BBC One to follow Team Rickshaw’s progress from Friday 6th November until Friday 13th November, when the Children in Need Appeal Show will be airing.
Returning for its 46th series, the popular live music show Later… with Jools Holland features performances from legendary musicians as well as new up and coming acts from all around the world.
The show is broadcast live on Tuesdays nights at 22:00, with a longer show being shown on Friday nights. The first episode of this new series features Blur who are making a welcomed return after an absence of 15 years from the show. They will be performing tracks from their upcoming album, MagicWhip.
Laura Marling is also joining Jools Holland at the Maidstone Studios with a track from her newest album, Short Movie which sees her inspired by her ongoing journey of self-discovery.
The popular Vaccines return with brand new songs, and all the way from Mali, Songhoy Blues join the fun; a young desert blues punk band whose Malian influences stem from greats such as Ali Farka Toure and Baba Salah to Hendrix. Mirroring the relaxed tunes from Songhoy, the dynamic Davina and the Vagabonds are also in the studio, with a tune or two from their recent Sunshine album.
The programme first aired in 1992 and is a major hit in both the UK as well as America and various European countries.
The Maidstone Studios is an independent TV studio complex on an 11 acre site with 5 television studios, dubbing facilities, edits suites, a fully saturated lighting grid and office space. The Maidstone Studios has previously welcome shows such as Draw It!(2014) and Got to Dance(2010).
The new series of Later… with Jools Holland will return on BBC Two at 22:00 on Tuesday 14thApril 2015 and repeated on Friday 17th April 2015 on BBC Two at 23.35.
The master of matchmaking, Paddy McGuinness returns for the seventh series of ITV’s hit dating show Take Me Out. 30 single ladies wait for their dream date to arrive by the Love Lift, each hoping that the next eligible bachelor to arrive on the Isle of Fernando will sweep them off their feet.
The group of flirty ladies run the four brave bachelors through their paces during a series of different rounds. However, as the show’s trademark catchphrase goes: ‘No likey, no lighty.’ If a woman loses interest in the hopeful men, they turn off their lights which could, unfortunately for the men, result in a humiliating departure to Celine Dion’s All By Myself. The women are in charge, the men left hanging on their every decision.
Recorded at The Maidstone Studios and now in its seventh series, the show has two marriages, three engagement and two babies to its name – matchmaking at its finest. Who knows what big life changes could be round the corner for the new contestants hoping to find love.
The Maidstone Studios is the UK’s largest independent HD TV studio facility and is based in Maidstone, Kent. The facility boasts 5 studios, a sound stage, post production facilities, storage and over 400 free parking spaces and has previously played host to productions such asLater…With Jools Holland (2014) and Sport Relief’s Top Dog (2014).
Don’t miss the new series of Take Me Out which starts on Saturday, January 3rd 2015 at 20:30 on ITV1.
