TV

Horrible Histories Series 8, 9 & 10 (2019-2023)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
James McNicholas, dressed as a medieval king, pinches the cheeks of Ethan Lawrence, who is dressed as a rich medieval aristocrat. Behind them is a stone castle.

James McNicholas and Ethan Lawrence in Daft Dads at Allington Castle © BBC

Starring: Jessica Ransom, Tom Stourton, James McNicholas, Emily Lloyd-Saini
Production Company: Lion Television
Kent Locations Used: The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Allington Castle, Ightham Mote

First premiering in 2009, the CBBC’s children’s TV programme Horrible Histories (2009-2023) is back for its tenth series. Based on the novels by Terry Deary, Horrible Histories is packed full of bloody battles and black humour; informing and entertaining young audiences with comedic historical sketches.

In 2015, the series returned with a revised format and a brand-new cast that includes Jessica Ransom (Doc Martin), Tom Stourton (About Time, All My Friends Hate Me), James McNicholas (This England) and Emily Lloyd-Saini (Code 404, The People We Hate at the Wedding). Each episode centres on the life of one prominent historical figure.

Production have visited Kent various times for Series 8, 9 and 10.

For Series 8, production visited The Historic Dockyard Chatham, where they filmed a Queen Victoria as well as  a Suffragettes sketch in the Ropery; Napoleonic and Georgian scenes at the Officer’s Terrace and the Commissioner’s House; various scenes for the Home Front episode at the Old Pay Office and HMS Ocelot, which doubled briefly as a Swedish submarine.

Allington Castle was also used in Series 8 for various medieval sketches, as well as in garden scenes featuring Madame Pomapadour and the English Romantic Poets.

For Series 9, production returned to The Historic Dockyard Chatham. The Tarred Yarn Store features as the interior of a factory, the Ropery and Anchor Wharf double as Victorian streets, and the Officer’s Terrace doubles as a Georgian street.

Allington Castle once again provide the setting for the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, plus the Royal Mint, an ancient Grecian market, the Palace of King Charles VI in France, a medieval hall, and a spooky castle.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham features in Series 10, with filming taking place on HMS Gannet, HMS Ocelot and on the Ropery streets. Production also filmed scenes for the new series at Allington Castle and Ightham Mote.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham is one of Kent’s most popular filming locations. Set on the River Medway, the Dockyard spans over 80 acres, containing over 100 buildings dating from the Georgian and Victorian periods. The location has previously been home to several other historical productions, including Series 1 of Bridgerton (2020), Ammonite (2020), and Call the Midwife (2012-2024).

Built in the 12th Century and located on the River Medway, Allington Castle is now privately-owned and adorned with authentic Medieval tapestries and furniture. Once opening its doors to King Henry VIII, the Castle now plays host to film and TV crews, with productions such as The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984), Covington Cross (1992) and The Royals (2016-2018).

Built nearly 700 years ago, Ightham Mote has seen many changes and been owned by medieval knights, courtiers to Henry VIII and high-society Victorians. Highlights include the picturesque courtyard, formal gardens, great hall, Grade I listed dog kennel and the library of the American businessman Charles Henry Robinson. Making Noise Quietly (2019) filmed on the grounds of Ightham Mote.

The eighth series of Horrible Histories aired on CBBC from 3rd June 2019. Episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The Christmas special of Series 9 aired on CBBC on Friday 10th December 2021, with the rest of the series following in 2022.

Series 10 will begin airing on CBBC with a Father’s Day special on Friday 16th June 2023, with the rest of the series to follow intermittently. All episodes will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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

Walking Britain’s Roman Roads (2020)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Presenter Dan Jones looking at the camera with a Roman road behind him.

Presenter Dan Jones in Walking Britain’s Roman Roads- Copyright Rumpus Media

Presenter: Dan Jones
Production Company: Rumpus Media
Kent Locations Used: Canterbury & Pegwell Bay Beach

Walking Britain’s Roman Roads is a six-part series that follows historian and presenter Dan Jones (London: 2000 Years of History, Building Britain’s Canals) as he walks six of Britain’s Roman roads, exploring the different cultures that emerged along these routes. Episode one begins with the country’s oldest and longest road, running from the Kent Coast to Shropshire.

Production visited Pegwell Bay and Watling Street in Canterbury during filming for the Kent episode.

Pegwell Bay is the shallow estuary on the north bank of the River Stour  between Ramsgate and Sandwich in Kent. It is home to a large stretch of sea cliffs, a nature reserve, mudflats and salt marshes. Productions such as Britain at Low Tide – Series 3 (2019) and  River Walks (2018) have previously made use of the beautiful bay.

Canterbury is a historic cathedral city; many of its original historical structures remain, including the cathedral and section of the city wall. The city is a popular tourist destination and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Canterbury Tales (2003) and Great British Railway Journeys Series 11 (2020) have previously filmed here.

Walking Britain’s Roman Roads starts on 5 Select on Wednesday 1st July at 9pm.

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

The Big Flower Fight (2020)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Presenters Natasia Demetriou and Vic Reeves standing in display pavilion holding flowers with flowers behind them.

The Big Flower Fight – Natasia Demetriou and Vic Reeves- ©Netflix

Starring: Natasia Demetriou, Vic Reeves, Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht
Production Company: MultiStory Media
Kent Locations Used: Private estate in Kent

The Big Flower Fight (2020) is a new Netflix reality TV series hosted by Comedian Vic Reeves (Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out, House of Fools,) and Natasia Demetriou (What We Do in the Shadows, Stath Lets Flats,) with floral expert Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht as the head judge. The series follows ten teams of experts, including sculptors, florists and designers who will compete for the chance to design and display their extravagant installations at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The experts will compete over eight episodes to stay in the show, with each hour-long episode presenting a new challenge. At the end of each challenge, one team will be eliminated until the winners are crowned in the series finale.

The series was filmed on a private estate in the heart of Kent.

The Big Flower Fight – starts on Netflix on Monday 18th May 2020.

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

Bargain Hunt – Series 51 (2018)

Posted on by Kent Film Office

 

Bargain Hunt Series 51 poster- aerial shot of 15 cast members in a group kicking the air with their arms up and cheering faces.

Bargain Hunt Series 51 ©BBC One

 

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.

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

 

George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces (2015)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Presenter George Clarke standing on a bridge with metal railings

George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces © Channel 4

Production Company: Plum Pictures

Kent Locations Used: Margate

Channel 4 series George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces looks into the fascinating world of small spaces and builds. In each episode George meets different people who turn tiny spaces into amazing places to work, play and even live.

Now in its fifth series, episode four visits Kent’s very own Margate where George meets a man planning to build Margate’s first Victorian bathing machine in more than 100 years.

George Clarke's Amazing Spaces- Victorian bathing machine in Margate being pulled by a tractor in front of an industrial unit

George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces – Victorian bathing machine in Margate © Thanet District Council

Also in the episode, George meets a coma survivor who proves he has a sense of humour by transforming a hearse into a family camper van and visits a woman who has turned her narrow boat home into a floating bookshop.

Margate is a seaside town with a pleasant mix between a charming Old Town and modern architecture such as the Turner Contemporary. The town has also recently reopened traditional theme park Dreamland. Margate has been used as a film location in a number of productions including Coast (2015), Edge of Heaven (2014) and True Love (2012).

Catch George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces featuring Margate on Thursday 8th October 2015 at 20:00 on Channel 4.

 

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

Married… with Children Season 6 (1992)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Katey Sagal as Peggy and Christina Applegate as Kelly stand looking at a member of the Queen’s Royal Guard. Peggy is wearing a black coat and leopard print scarf. Kelly is wearing a black leather jacket and red top.

Married… with Children (1992) © FOX

Creators: Ron Leavitt, Michael G. Moye
Starring: Ed O’Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, David Faustino
Production Company: ELP Communications, Columbia Pictures Television
Kent Locations Used: Chilham, Chilham Castle

Married… with Children (1987-1997) is a US sitcom which follows the Chicagoan Bundy family, consisting of hard luck shoe salesman Al, his lazy wife Peggy, their attractive but dumb daughter Kelly, and their smart but unpopular son Bud. The three-part finale of Season 6 sees the Bundy family going on a free trip to England that turns out to be the cover for a murder plot.

The series stars Ed O’Neill (Modern Family, Finding Dory) as Al, Katey Sagal (Futurama, Sons of Anarchy) as Peggy, Christina Applegate (Bad Moms, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead) as Kelly, and David Faustino (The Legend of Korra, The Young and the Restless) as Bud. The Season 6 finale features guest stars Bill Oddie (The Goodies, Springwatch) as local historian Winston and Alun Armstrong (Breeders Series 2 (2021), Year of the Rabbit (2019)) as assassin-for-hire, Trevor.

The three-part finale was filmed in the Kentish village of Chilham, which doubled as the fictional village of Lower Uncton. Chilham has featured in various other productions, including A Canterbury Tale (1944), Emma (2009) and Chickens (2011).

Chilham Castle also features throughout the three episodes as the castle the Bundy’s stay in. Originally built in 1616, Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor situated in the heart of Chilham, with extensive parklands, stables and lake. Previous productions to have shot on the castle’s grounds include Episode 9 of Moon and Son (1992), the Series 1 episode of Dempsey and Makepeace “Cry God for Harry” (1985), and Marple: The Moving Finger (2006).

The Season 6 finale of Married… with Children began airing on Sunday 3rd May 1992 and the final episode aired on Sunday 17th May 1992.

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

Doctor Who – The Enemy of the World (1968)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Mary Peach as Astrid Ferrier is standing on a beach. Behind her is a retro-looking helicopter. She is wearing an all-leather flying suit. The photo is in black-and-white.

Mary Peach as Astrid Ferrier in Doctor Who – The Enemy of the World (1968) © BBC

Director: Barry Letts
Writer: David Whitaker
Starring: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Bill Kerr, Mary Peach
Production Company: BBC
Kent Locations Used: Dungeness Power Station

The Enemy of the World (1968) is a serial of the fifth season of the original 1967 Doctor Who series. Set in 2018, the story follows the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his companions as they become embroiled in a case of mistaken identity. When the Doctor discovers his uncanny resemblance to Earth’s scheming dictator Salamander (also played by Troughton), he must use this likeness to bring him down.

For over 40 years, only Episode 3 of the serial was known to exist. However, on 11th October 2013, the BBC announced that the remaining five episodes had been recovered from a TV station storage room in Nigeria.

Not all original Doctor Who serials have been rediscovered. The 1968 episodes entitled “Fury from the Deep” are still missing – unfortunate, as these allegedly feature Botany Bay, Kingsgate Bay and the Redsand Towers Sea Forts!

Written by David Whitaker (Doctor Who, Showtime) and directed by Barry Letts (Eastenders, David Copperfield), The Enemy of the World stars Patrick Troughton (The Omen, Jason and the Argonauts) as the Second Doctor, Frazer Hines (Emmerdale) as his companion Jamie, Deborah Watling (The Invisible Man, The Newcomers) as his other companion Victoria, Bill Kerr (Gallipoli, The Pirate Movie) as Giles Kent and Mary Peach (Room at the Top, Couples) as Astrid Ferrier.

Dungeness Power Station briefly appears in Episode 4 of the serial, doubling as the exterior of Salamander’s research station.

The now defunct power stations were originally built in 1965 and 1983 respectively. The building borders the Dungeness Estate, a unique expanse of SSSI shingle beach with ramshackle huts, old and ultra-modern residences, two light houses, a cafe by the historic railway station, boat moorings, a lifeboat station, two pubs and artist galleries. Other productions to have filmed in Dungeness include Back to Life (2019-2021), Brave New World (2020) and another Doctor Who episode – The Claws of Axos (1971).

Doctor Who – The Enemy of the World (1968) originally aired on BBC1 between Saturday 23rd December 1967 and Saturday 27th January 1968. It is now available to watch on Amazon or purchase on DVD.

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