Anyone working or walking near Ealing Town Hall in mid-September might have noticed The Royals filming for a third series.
With the characters in this brash take on royal life having a mix of names from Greek mythology and names you’d be likely to find in Eastenders, you’d imagine the programme wants you to know that these royals, while living like gods, still have to deal with the same problems that Peggy (gawd bless ‘er), Phil Mitchell and that bloke from Tucker’s Luck have.
The production dressed 150 extras in lordly regalia and crammed them into council chamber to recreate their version of the Privy Council, with Queen Elizabeth Hurley in attendance. There, they received news of an imminent and momentous decision, to be made with the help of Big Ben.
Synthetic viewing
The second series of Humans has been filming around Ealing recently. The new series is set several months on from the events of series one, with humanity and the synths still working on the tricky business of co-existing and in doing so making the viewers anxious about where this whole artificial intelligence business will all end.
The actors from the first series must have enjoyed themselves since all of the familiar faces are back again.
This time they used Warren Farm as a base to shoot in the area and filmed a small scene in Hanwell W7 around Alwyne Road Park.
Don’t forget the Unforgotten
Former local lad Sanjeev Bhaskar stars in another second series, this time for The Unforgotten. Don’t expect any life-like robots in this one though. Probably just humans, some life-like, others on the dead side and it’ll be Sanjeev’s job to look into how the latter got that way.
Villiers High School doubled for Salisbury and played host to a day of filming in August in which one of the characters interviewed for a teaching position.
Drifting to real life
Series 4 of Drifters is on its way and Ealing’s film office tempted them back to film a fair few of their scenes in the borough. The programme lets us follow the lives of 3 friends in Leeds trying to navigate the tricky road from university to real life.
Their filming peppered the borough and included shots in the South Acton Estate, a night shoot in Brent Valley Golf Club and a scene or two in Charlotte’s W5 restaurant in Dickens Yard, Ealing, during August as well.
Advert break
And our friends in advertising have mainly been trying to get us to buy meat, games consoles and yoghurts, ideally from large supermarkets if at all possible. Be sure to put those on the shopping list…
Fancy getting your property on TV or in the movies?
The West London Film Office has a database of local homes and businesses willing to be used as film sets. You can make money from it – and you can find all the details on the office’s website.
