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
Mary and George (2023)
Starring Julianne Moore, Nicholas Galitzin, Joseph Mawle
Director: Oliver Hermanus
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.
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