Filmed in Norfolk

PRODUCTIONS FILMED IN NORFOLK

1970-1999 • 2000-2010 • 2010-2020 2021 -Present

Norfolk is no stranger to being the back drop for high profile film and TV productions and is highly regarded as a film-friendly county. The snapshot below highlights a selection of productions that have been filmed in Norfolk over the years. We hope your latest production can be part of the ‘films made in Norfolk’ story.

2021- Present

And Did Those Feet … with Alan Partridge (2024)

Starring: Steve Coogan

Director: Steve Coogan

Partridge’s life after returning to Norfolk from Saudi Arabia where he spent a year. His struggles to readjust to his hometown and reintegrate into society.

Wicked (2024)

Starring: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum

Credit image: Universal Pictures

Synopsis: An unlikely friendship emerges between Elphaba and Glinda, two clashing witches in the magical land of Oz. Elphaba is wrongfully cast as a wicked witch as she seeks to expose the fraudulent, corrupt Wizard who rules the land.

Locations: Belmont Nurseries (Tulip Fields), Terrington St Clement

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Starring: Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman

Director: Shawn Levy

Credit Image: Marvel Studios

Synopsis: The irresponsible hero Deadpool will change the history of the MCU with Wolverine!?

Locations: Holkham Beach

Mary and George (2023)

Starring: Julianne Moore, Nicholas Galitzin, Joseph Mawle

Director: Oliver Hermanus

Credit image: Sky Atlantic

Synopsis: The story of the Countess of Buckingham who molded her son to seduce King James I and become her all-powerful lover, through intrigue, becoming richer, more titled and influential than England has ever seen.

Locations: Old Hunstanton Beach (1 day filming with Joseph Mawle)

The Shepherd (2023)

Starring: John Travolta & Ben Radcliffe

Director: Iain Softley

Synopsis: Based on the short story by Frederick Forsyth, The Shepherd follows a young RAF pilot who takes off in his de Havilland Vampire from Celle airfield in Germany to fly back to England on Christmas Eve. But somewhere over the North Sea his instruments fail. Will he make it home alive?

Locations: West Raynham Business Park (Raynham Hangars), Castle Acre, RAF Sculthorpe

Chemistry of Death (2022)

Starring: Harry Treadaway, Katie Leung, Jeanne Goursaud, & Nick Blood 

Director: Richard Clark

Synopsis: s Based on the 2006 novel of the same name by British crime fiction writer Simon Beckett. The plot follows forensics expert Dr David Hunter who discovers a woman has been murdered while working in an isolated Norfolk village.

Locations: Horsey, Old Buckenham (More locations to be added)

This England (2022)

Starring Kenneth Branagh

Director(s): Michael Winterbottom and Julian Jarrold 

Synopsis: This England (formally known as This Sceptred Isle) is an upcoming five-part television drama for Sky which will air in 2022 and recounts the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, based on testimonies of people from the government, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, care homes and hospitals. 

“Norfolk is a stunning film location. A vast range of spectacular visuals and a wonderfully welcoming population. I had a truly memorable experience working in this part of the world and can’t wait to return.” Sir Kenneth Branagh

Location: West Raynham Business Park (Raynham Hangars) & Aylsham (additional Norfolk Locations to be added)

Good Luck to you, Leo Grande (2022)

Starring Emma Thompson & Daryl McCormack

Director: Sophie Hyde 

Synopsis: Emma Thompson is Nancy Stokes, a 55-year-old widow yearning for some adventure, human connection and good sex, which she was robbed of in her stable but stale marriage. To make things right, the ex-teacher devises a plan and hires the services of Leo Grande, a sex worker — or “sex therapist,” as he puts it — in his early 20s for a night of bliss.

“I live in Norfolk and have wanted to film in this wonderful region for years. It was a great experience for our cast and crew. The location manager, who was recommended via Norfolk Screen, was brilliant as were the local crew we used. Norfolk is an incredible place for the cast to stay and we were able to “ bubble” everyone safely and joyously in the area. The local accommodation was wonderful and the catering sourced the best local ingredients for our very hungry cast and  crew. Norfolk has a great wealth of talent and locations and is an ideal region for shooting“. Debbie Gray, Producer.

Locations: Various Norwich locations & Epic Studios

The Trick (2021)

Starring Jason Watkins, Victoria Hamilton, George McKay and Jerome Flynn.

Director: Pip Broughton 

Synopsis: BBC One’s The Trick tells the story of world-renowned Professor Philip Jones; Director of Climate Research at the University of East Anglia, who back in 2009 found himself at the eye of an international media storm and the victim of cyberterrorism.

Locations: Norwich & Happisbugh Beach

Spencer (2021)

Starring Kristen Stewart, Sally Hawkins & Sean Harris.

Director: Pablo Larrain

Synopsis: In 1991 while spending the Christmas holiday with the royal family at Sandringham House, Princess Diana decides to leave Prince Charles.

“Filming in Norfolk was such a wonderful experience. Norfolk Screen were instrumental in helping us source our local crew who worked tirelessly and with unending enthusiasm, and everywhere we went we were supported and made to feel so welcome. We also had excellent access to world-class, unspoilt locations – from winding country roads to the stunning North Norfolk coast. Watching the sun rise on the sands of Hunstanton beach made the early starts that much easier. I am already looking out for an excuse to return.” Paul Webster (Producer, Spencer).

Locations: Hunstanton, Castle Rising, Shropham and various Norfolk roads.

The Souvenir Part II (2021)

Starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Charlie Heaton, Joe Alwyn & Richard Ayoade

Director: Joanna Hogg

Synopsis: In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction. Joanna Hogg’s shimmering story of first love and a young woman’s formative years, The Souvenir Part II, is a portrait of the artist that transcends the halting particulars of everyday life.

Locations: West Raynham Business Park (Raynham Hangars)

The Girl on The Train (2021)

Starring Parineeti Chopra

Director: Ribhu Dasgupta

Synopsis: Netflix’s The Girl on The Train is the Bollywood Version of Mira Kapoor, a recently widowed lawyer who takes the same train journey home each day and fantasises about the perfect life of Nusrat and her husband, a couple she can see from the window of the train.

Location: Mid-Norfolk Railway

2010-2020

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

Starring Forest Whitaker

Director: David E Talbert

Synopsis: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is an American Christmas musical film written and directed by David E. Talbert. The film is set in an imaginary world that comes to life in a holiday tale of an eccentric toy maker, his adventurous granddaughter and a magical invention that has the power to change their lives forever.

“It was an absolute pleasure to film in Norwich. The people were extremely welcoming and the council couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. Everyone involved was super helpful. A wonderful experience!” Lynsey Cosford (Location Manager – Netflix’s Jingle Jangle).

Location: Elm Hill, Norwich

Tiny Creatures (2020)

Starring: Mike Colter

Director: Jonathan Jones

Synopsis: The Netflix hit show looks at little animals who embark on big adventures across the U.S. in a dramatic nature series that explores their hidden worlds and epic survival stories. Tiny Creatures, was shot within the confines of a studio in Norfolk by award-winning production company Ember Films.

Yesterday (2019)

Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino & Ellise Chappell

Director: Danny Boyle

Synopsis: A struggling musician Jack Malik who, after an accident, finds himself the only person who remembers the Beatles and becomes famous after taking credit for their songs.

I loved Gorleston, which is a town I did not know. You encounter one of Britain’s most remarkable beaches and I am amazed that no one seems to know about it. It’s one of the great secrets of England, Gorleston beach. It’s beautiful.“

Danny Boyle

Location: Gorleston-on-Sea

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

Starring Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie & Tilda Swinton

Director: Armando Ianucci

Synopsis: A modern take on Charles Dickens’s classic tale of a young orphan who is able to triumph over many obstacles.

“Norfolk is one of the most atmospheric and unspoilt places in the UK to film – and we could not have asked for a better set of landscapes, marshland and beaches with which to visualise the world of David Copperfield. Digging in with a cast and crew in North Norfolk made the experience of making a film even richer than usual.” Kevin Loader (Producer – The Personal History of David Copperfield).

Locations: King’s Lynn & North Norfolk

The Souvenir (2019)

Starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Tom Burke & Richard Ayoade

Director: Joanna Hogg

Synopsis: In Hogg’s semi-autobiographical movie, Julie is an aspiring film student who wants to tell stories outside her privileged society. By chance, at a party one night, she strikes up a conversation with Anthony, a mysterious and slightly older employee at the Foreign Office.

Location:  West Raynham Business Park (Raynham Hangars)

Fighting with my Family (2019)

Starring Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost & Dwayne Johnson

Director: Stephen Merchant

Synopsis: Born into a tight-knit wrestling family, Paige and her brother Zak are ecstatic when they get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for WWE. But when only Paige earns a spot in the competitive training program, she must leave her family and face this new, cut-throat world alone.

Locations: Norwich Market & Mousehold Heath

Annihilation (2018)

Starring Natalie Portman

Director: Alex Garland

Synopsis: A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply. A biologist’s husband disappears. She puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not find what she’s expecting.

Location: Holkham Beach

The Bodyguard (2018)

Starring Richard Madden & Keeley Hawes

Director(s): Thomas Vincent & John Strickland

Synopsis: The series is set around the fictional character of Police Sergeant David Budd, a British Army war veteran suffering from PTSD, who is now working for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. He becomes responsible for protecting a politician but is he actually her biggest threat.

Location: Mid-Norfolk Railway

Tulip Fever (2016)

Starring Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Christopher Waltz & Judi Dench

Director: Justin Chadwick

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of the 17th-century Tulip Wars, a married noblewoman (Alicia Vikander) has an affair with an artist (Dane DeHaan) and switches identities with her maid to escape the wealthy merchant she married. She and her lover try to raise money together by investing what little they have in the high-stakes tulip market.

Location: Norwich Cathedral

45 Years (2015)

Starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay

Director: Andrew Haigh

Synopsis: A married couple preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary receive shattering news that promises to forever change the course of their lives.

Locations: London Street, St Benedict’s, the Royal Arcade and the Assembly Rooms (Norwich) & Norfolk Broads

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo & Chris Evans

Director: Joss Whedon

Synopsis: Tony Stark creates the Ultron Program to protect the world, but when the peacekeeping program becomes hostile, The Avengers go into action to try and defeat a virtually impossible enemy together. Earth’s mightiest heroes must come together once again to protect the world from global extinction.

Location: Sainsburys Centre, Norwich (The Avengers HQ and is also seen in Ant Man 2015 and Spider: Homecoming 2017)

Partners in Crime (2015)

Starring David Walliams & Jessica Raine

Director: Edward Hall

Synopsis: BBC’s Agatha Christie spy drama. Husband and wife team Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are amateur sleuths who foil plots in 1950’s Cold War Britain.

Location: Muckleburgh

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2014)

Starring Steve Coogan

Director: Declan Lowney

Synopsis: When famous DJ Alan Partridge’s radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.

Locations: Norwich, Cromer & Sheringham

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

Starring Nicholas Holt, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor & Bill Nighy

Director: Bryan Singer

Synopsis: In the Kingdom of Cloister, Jack, a young farm boy, is fascinated by the legend of Erik, an ancient king who defeated an army of invading giants from a realm in the sky by controlling them with a magical crown. At the same time, Princess Isabelle becomes fascinated with the same legend.

Location: Norwich Cathedral

2000-2010

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Starring Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield

Director: Mark Romanek

Synopsis: Friends Kathy, Tommy and Ruth spend their childhoods together in Hailsham, a strange countryside boarding school. We follow the three children as they reach adulthood, wrestle with romantic tensions and learn a devastating secret about their lives. Screenwriter Alex Garland adapted the story from the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Location: Holkham beach

Glorious 39 (2009)

Starring Bill Nighy, Julie Christie & Eddie Redmayne

Director: Stephen Poliakoff

Synopsis: A tense psychological thriller from acclaimed director Stephen Poliakoff, about a young woman who uncovers dark secrets about Britain’s relationship with Nazi Germany in the lead up to the Second World War.

Location: Little Walsingham, Castle Acre Priory

Kingdom (2007-9)

Starring Stephen Fry, Celia Imrie & Karl Davies

Director (s) multiple

Synopsis: Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom, a Norfolk solicitor, who is coping with family, colleagues, and the strange locals who come to him for legal assistance.

Location: Swaffham

The Duchess (2008)

Starring Kierra Knightly & Ralph Fiennes

Director: Saul Dibb

Synopsis: The movie explores the marriage, relationships, and passions of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. 17-year-old Georgiana is delighted to have excited the notice of the much older Duke of Devonshire and marries him amid high personal and family expectations.

Locations: Holkham Hall & Cley-Next-The-Sea

Dean Spanley (2008)

Starring Peter O’Toole

Director: Toa Fraser

Synopsis: The elderly, self-centred widower Horatio Fisk cannot come to terms with his elder son’s death in the war and the subsequent demise of his grieving wife. His other son, the dedicated Henslowe, seeks to console him but can’t win his love.

Locations: Norwich Cathedral, Elm Hill and Holkham.

Stardust (2007)

Starring Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Charlie Cox & Robert De Niro

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Synopsis: In the 1800s, the clumsy teenager Tristan Thorn crosses the wall in the border of his town to the magic realm of Stormhold to bring a fallen star to his beloved Victoria, a spoiled girl that does not love him, but has promised to marry him if he accomplishes his promise.

Location: Elm Hill, Norwich

Atonement (2007)

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Keira Knightley & James McAvoy

Director: Joe Wright

Synopsis: In England in 1935, precocious 13-year-old Briony Tallis lives on her family’s country estate with her mother, and sister Cecilia is home for the summer from Cambridge where she has been studying with the housekeeper’s son, Robbie.

Location: Walpole St. Andrew

A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

Starring Steve Coogan & Gillian Anderson

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Synopsis: The film depicts Steve Coogan playing an arrogant actor with low self-esteem and a complicated love life.

Location: Heydon

Die Another Day (2002)

Starring Pierce Brosnan

Director: Lee Tamahori

Synopsis: After being incarcerated and tortured while on a mission in North Korea, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is traded for a psychotic terrorist and released back to M16, only to be accused of giving information. Bond escapes and goes after Zao (Rick Yune), a deranged terrorist who knows who betrayed Bond to the North Koreans.

Location: Farmland in the village of Burnham Deepdale was transformed into a North Korean paddy field.

1970-1999

Shakespeare in Love (1999)

Starring Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush & Tom Wilkinson

Director: John Madden

Synopsis: The film centres around the forbidden love of William Shakespeare and a noble woman, Viola de Lesseps .

Location: Holkham Beach

All The Kings Men (1999)

Starring David Jason

Director: Julian Jarrold

Synopsis: Feature-length drama about the mystery of Sandringham Company, which disappeared in action at Gallipoli in 1915. Commanded by Captain Frank Beck, their estate manager, the men advanced into battle, were enveloped in a strange mist and never seen again.

Locations: Sandringham, Blickling, Cromer, West Newton, Sheringham, Burnham Deepdale & Holkham.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Starring Lee Ermey, Matthew Modine & Vincent D’Onofrio

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Synopsis: Stanley Kubrick’s classic war film follows a pragmatic U.S. Marine who observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Location: Norfolk Broads (This was used to double as an Asian paddy field)

Revolution (1985)

Starring Al Pacino

Director: Hugh Hudson

Synopsis: This period drama about the American Revolution has an overlay of rhetoric that thwarts the action, flattening out the story about a man and his loved ones caught up in the events of the time.

Location: King’s Lynn

Out Of Africa (1985)

Starring Robert Redford & Meryl Streep

Director: Sydney Pollack

Synopsis: A well-heeled Danish lady goes to an English colony in Africa and buys 1000 acres. Her beau dies and to avoid loneliness she proposes marriage to his gentleman, but rascally, brother whom she got along well with as a friend. He agrees, in no small part because she has money.

Location: Castle Rising

The Ploughman’s Launch (1983)

Starring Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry, Charlie Dore & Rosemary Harris

Director: Richard Eyre

Synopsis: In the aftermath of the Falklands War, social climbing journalist James Penfield (Jonathan Pryce) aims to capitalise on the wave of support for the British military by writing a book on the Falklands War. Desperate to make a name for himself and win the affections of fellow journalist Susan Barrington (Charlie Dore), James changes his politics as often as he changes his clothes in an effort to ingratiate himself with the media elite and Susan’s family.

Locations: Cley next the Sea, Cley Hall

Julia (1977)

Starring Jane Fonda & Vanessa Redgrave

Director: Fred Zinnemann

Synopsis: At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.

Location: Winterton-on-Sea

The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Staring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall

Director: John Sturges

Synopsis: 1943, The war is entering its final stages and Germany is teetering on the brink of defeat. An increasingly unhinged Hitler, orders a mission to have British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill kidnapped and brought to Germany. The plan seems ludicrous in the extreme, but a message sent from a German spy in the Norfolk countryside makes one German officer realize that such a mission may just feasible

Location: Holkham

Monty Python’s and Now For Something Completely Different

Starring Michael Palin, John Cleese & Eric Idle

Director: Ian MacNaughton & Terry Gilliam

Synopsis: Village idiot sketch

Location: Heydon

A Warning to The Curious (1972)

Starring Peter Vaughan and Clive Swift

Director: Gordon Clark

Synopsis: BBC Christmas ghost film based on a M.R.James’ story about the search for an Anglo-Saxon crown

Locations: Wells-Next-The-Sea, Holkham, Happisburgh and Waxham

The Go-Between  (1971)

Starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave & Dominic Guard

Director: Joseph Losey

Synopsis:  Period drama, British teenager Leo Colston (Dominic Guard) spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian (Julie Christie). Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the “go-between” for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess (Alan Bates), a handsome neighbouring farmer. However, when Marian becomes engaged to Hugh Trimingham (Edward Fox), a local viscount, all their lives are altered.

Locations: Norwich, Hanworth, Heydon, Hickling & Thornage

Dad’s Army (1968 – 1977)

Starring Ian Lavender, Arthur Lowe & Clive Dunn

Director: David Croft, Harold Snoad & Bob Spiers

Synopsis: The misadventures of a ragtag group of elderly Home Guard local defence volunteers at the onset of WW2. Long running BBC production.

Location: Thetford

The Dam Busters (1955)

Starring Richard Todd & Michael Redgrave

Director: Michael Anderson

Synopsis: The story of Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb and 617 Squadron, the group of Lancaster bombers tasked with using the new artillery against a series of dams in the German Ruhr Valley. After Wallis (Michael Redgrave) convinces the head of RAF Bomber Command of the value of the bouncing bomb, Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) launches a perilous aerial assault.

Locations: King’s Lynn, Langham airfield

The Wicked Lady (1945)

Starring Margaret Lockwood, James Mason & Patricia Roc

Director: Leslie Arliss

Synopsis: Bored with her life as a married aristocrat, Lady Skelton (Margaret Lockwood) takes to waylaying coaches as a highwaywoman purely for the thrill of the experience. She quickly becomes the illicit lover of another outlaw (James Mason) and the two set up an ill-fated criminal enterprise.

Location: Blickling Hall