The 60th anniversary specials of Doctor Who, Jayde Adam’s Ruby Speaking and Daisy May Cooper’s Rain Dogs are among the shows filmed in Bristol that contributed to TV and film production’s £20.1m boost to the local economy in 2022/23.

We’d love to know your favourite Bristol filmed movie or TV show. Send us a post on X at @Bristol_CI. 

The new figures from Bristol Film Office show that £20,134,750 inward investment was generated in 2022-23 by 220 recorded productions.

The office assisted 838 filming days on location in the city and at The Bottle Yard Studios, the largest film and TV studio in the West of England.

A total of 502 licenses were issued which allow filming to take place on Council-owned streets, properties and green spaces.

The report said production levels have held strong in the city since 2021-22 when the economic impact of the sector was valued at £20.8m, the highest figure in a decade.

TV and films produced in Bristol

Among the productions filmed on location in Bristol in 2022/23 were:

• • Upcoming Doctor Who 60^th Anniversary special episodes (Bad Wolf/BBC Studios) starring David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Neil Patrick Harris and Ncuti Gatwa, due to premiere in November.

• • Upcoming series two of The Lazarus Project (Urban Myth Films/Sky Max) starring Paapa Essiedu, due to premiere in November.

• • Upcoming Arthurian drama The Winter King (Bad Wolf/Sony Pictures Television) based on Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles, streaming now in the US and due for UK release on ITVX later this year.

• • Upcoming drama Truelove (Clerkenwell Films/Channel 4) starring Lindsay Duncan and Clarke Peters.

• • Season four of Sex Education (Eleven/Netflix) starring Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield, which filmed at locations University of Bristol campus locations.

• • Season three of Bristol-set detective thriller Before We Die (Eagle Eye Drama/Channel 4) starring Lesley Sharp.

• • Acclaimed true crime drama The Sixth Commandment (Wild Mercury/True Vision/BBC One) starring Timothy Spall and Anne Reid.

• • Series three of apocalyptic drama War of the Worlds (Urban Myth Films/Disney+) starring Gabriel Byrne & Daisy Edgar Jones.

• • Upcoming family drama Black Cake (Harpo Films/Kapital Entertainment/Hulu)based on Charmaine Wilkerson’s best-selling novel, starring Mia Isaac and Adrienne Warren, streaming in the US from 1 November with a UK release to be announced soon.

Titles filmed at The Bottle Yard included:

• • Upcoming 1980s Jilly Cooper drama Rivals (Happy Prince/Disney+) starring David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Alexander Hassall and Danny Dyer.

• • Upcoming season three of teen spy thriller Alex Rider starring Otto Farrant and Vicky McClure (Eleventh Hour/Sony Pictures Releasing/Amazon FreeVee).

• • Romcom The Flatshare (42/Paramount+) starring Jessica Brown Findlay and Anthony Welsh.

• • Comedy drama Rain Dogs (BBC/HBO Max) starring Daisy May Cooper, Jack Farthing and Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo produced by Sid Wild, the new Bristol arm of Killing Eve production company Sid Gentle.

Spot the Bristol scenes in the new #DoctorWho trailer! #Bristol #FilmedInBristol pic.twitter.com/yCrJJC3gU9

— Bristol Creative Industries (@Bristol_CI) December 26, 2022

Celebrating 20 years of Bristol Film Office

Bristol Film Office celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It was founded in 2003 by Bristol City Council to “attract, assist and provide business development opportunities for the moving image industry for the benefit of the city’s economy”.

In total, Bristol Film Office and The Bottle Yard Studios have assisted TV and film production worth an estimated £322m to Bristol’s economy. Its operations have generated more than £2.1m income for Bristol City Council through filming permits and charges.

Laura Aviles, senior film manager at Bristol City Council, said:

“It’s fantastic that inward investment generated by film and TV production held strong in Bristolat over £20m last year, a similar value to 2021-22 which included the post-pandemic surge in filming.

“This is proof that Bristol is maintaining its competitive edge as a leading UK filming city, thanks to services provided by Bristol Film Office, expanded facilities at The Bottle Yard and our skilled local crew.

“As we mark 20 years of Bristol Film Office, it’s clear that the impact this service has had over two decades is incredibly far reaching for such a small team. From its early days assisting shows like Teachers and Skins, it has provided a bespoke service to productions that has been reliable and consistent whilst the city’s filming infrastructure has grown, through the creation of The Bottle Yard Studios to its expansion last year.

“Not only has Bristol Film Office facilitated filming worth more than £320m to Bristol over two decades, it also played a central role to Bristol gaining UNESCO City of Film status in 2017.

“It rose to the challenge of supporting safe filming on the streets during the pandemic and has worked over and above to accommodate the higher numbers of crews we’ve welcomed into the city ever since. Its work is vital in attracting productions to Bristol, to spend money in our economy and create work for local crew, companies and facilities.

“I’m hugely proud of all that Bristol Film Office has achieved so far, and the team’s ongoing drive to grow Bristol’s profile even further, as the best UK filming city outside London.”

The second Bristol & Bath Screen Summit takes place in Bristol on 8 November.

We’d love to know your favourite Bristol filmed movie or TV show. Send us a post on X at @Bristol_CI or comment on this post on LinkedIn. 

Find brilliant Bristol-based production companies in the Bristol Creative Industries member directory.

Top image credit: BBC/Sid Gentle Films/HBO/James Pardon

About Bristol Creative Industries

Bristol Creative Industries is the membership network that supports the region's creative sector to learn, grow and connect, driven by the common belief that we can achieve more collectively than alone.