Gemma Arterton leads a stellar cast of spies and conspirators through the streets of London via the island of Malta and a host of locations that stand in for further afieldGemma Arterton leads a stellar cast of spies and conspirators through the streets of London via the island of Malta and a host of locations that stand in for further afield
On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favourite films, television shows, and more. This time, we ask where is Secret Service filmed?
“Have you seen my phone? I literally just had it”.
The opening lines of ITV’s gripping new spy drama, Secret Service, paint a portrait of a pleasantly suburban family life. Comments are made about filling the dishwasher from a frustrated father, teenagers are having a nightmare getting ready for school and clothes that are needed are being pulled out soaking wet.
Within minutes, however, as Kate Henderson (played by Gemma Arterton) pulls out a wardrobe drawer to reveal a firearm before flicking through multiple passports – and so the adventure begins.
From West London’s suburbs to a dazzling Mediterranean island, we reveal the filming locations used for the action in Secret Service.
Chatsworth Gardens, Ealing, London
We’re placed in the suburbs of Ealing, at Kate’s house, for Secret Service‘s opening scenes. The production team highlighted how they wanted to find a West London location that offered a comfortable-feeling family home feel – “with lots of books, a garden and a big TV, a home suitable for a family with teenage children”.
Chichester Road, Brent, London
We learn more about Rev, one of the agents working alongside Kate, at his home – scenes for which were filmed among the streets of NW6.
St James’s Hall, Wilsham Street, Ladbroke Grove, London
Ryan, the Labour Party’s foreign secretary, needed a home that reflected his and his wife Amanda’s wealth. This took production to the leafy neighbourhood of Ladbroke Grove, one of the capital’s plushest addresses. The production team sought out a home that had an open-plan feel with high ceilings, art on the walls and a dream kitchen.
Cavendish Close, Kilburn, London
Cavendish Close is the real-life location of Imogen’s modest home, although the garden gate proved trickier to find and the production team had to cheat and link the house to a garden gate in Acton.
Old Royal Naval College & Harefield House, Uxbridge
The Old Royal Naval College stood in as the cabinet office, while Harefield House acts as the Prime Minister’s office. For external shots of 10 Downing Street, the crew used John Adam Street, just around the corner from the real front door of Number 10.
Hayes, Middlesex
While the exterior shots of MI6 are legit, the interiors needed to be replicated to the best of the team’s ability in an empty brutalist 1960’s building in Hayes. Green screens were placed behind the windows in order to drop in the views across the Thames.
Roberts Place, Clerkenwell and Locale Southbank, County Hall
While a few scenes in Secret Service are set in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, the team needed to find a suitable location in the UK to film them. Ultimately, the team settled on the apartment interiors in a modern flat in Clerkenwell with a Scandinavian feel, while the exterior scene was filmed outside an Italian restaurant in Victoria. For the scene set near a Finnish lake, the team used a National Trust property near Guildford. Scenes set on the Russian/Finnish border were filmed in Hurtwood Forest, Guildford, while the scene set in a Moscow park used Battersea Park Fountain.
Dingli, Senglea and Rabat, Malta
The beginning of Secret Service takes us to the glittering Mediterranean island of Malta, where a Maltese locations team found an incredible villa near the coastal cliffs of Dingli with an infinity pool and numerous outbuildings. Production then moved to the historic streets of Rabat for the approach to the important meetings in the church, while church interiors were filmed in Senglea.
