The drama stars Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson and is adapted from the book by Slow Horses scribe Mick Herron

Apple TV’s thriller Down Cemetery Road, starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, filmed largely on location in Bristol and the SW, with some shooting at The Bottle Yard Studios where production was based.

The series is produced by 60Forty Films, and is adapted by Morwenna Banks from the novel by Slow Horses scribe Mick Herron. Natalie Bailey is lead director; the executive producers are Hakan Kousetta, Jamie Laurenson, and Tom Nash at 60Forty, alongside Banks, Herron and Thompson.

Thompson stars as private investigator Zoë Boehm, who is enlisted by Sarah Tucker (Wilson) to find a girl who disappears in the aftermath of an explosion in a quiet Oxford suburb.

The lengthy shoot took place over eight months from June 2024 with more than 250 crew drawn from the SW area and with support from Bristol Film Office.

As per The Bottle Yard Studios website, production on Down Cemetery Road was based at The Bottle Yard Studios’ TBY2 facility, with set-builds for interiors that appeared throughout the series including Sarah & Mark Tucker’s house, a London television studio, a train sleeper carriage and a hotel room.

As part of The Bottle Yard’s ongoing sustainability support to enable scripted production teams to complete as much workflow as possible locally, 60Forty Films were connected with Bristol virtual production specialists Distortion Studios, who, with partners iMag Displays built a 20m x 4m LED Volume in TBY2’s Studio 9.

As reported on the studios’ site, Distortion Studios’ MD Jonathan Brigden said: “Katherine [Nash, head of studios, The Bottle Yard Studios] and her team at The Bottle Yard were instrumental in our involvement on this wonderful project. We collaborated with the producers to create a full LED virtual production volume for all the car shots in the drama and were on set for about 10 days including the build. Our local team of experienced VP producer, VP supervisor and in-house operators ensured a very smooth experience, and the shoot was so successful that we were asked to provide screen content and LED build for a big newsroom shoot in the same studio a few weeks later.”

Karl Liegis, head of production, 60Forty Films, added: “From our very first conversation with The Bottle Yard Studios it was clear how active and passionate they are about the community and how aligned we were.

“Their ethos is more than a sales pitch, it is built into the foundations of the Studio and business. From power and energy to crew, local suppliers, and locations support through Bristol Film Office and skills development through All Set West; the Bottle Yard are supportive and progressive.

“Over the course of the 12 months we were based out of TBY2 [including prep], they worked closely with us to optimise any and all opportunities to move the dial and create examples of positive action of what can be done by Studios.”

Location filming took place in multiple sites across Bristol – sometimes doubling for Oxford – with major stunt scenes filmed at the historic boatyard, Underfall Yard. St Werburgh’s City Farm was the setting for a house explosion featuring emergency services, woodshed scenes and other settings at their Boiling Wells woodland and amphitheatre.

St Nicholas Market and surrounding streets including All Saints Lane hosted filming for day and night sequences. Other prominent locations included University of Bristol’s Arts & Social Sciences Library on Tyndall Avenue and Baltic Wharf, which featured green-screen filming.

Other SW locales that provided location backdrops included Bath, Somerset and Cornwall’s Polperro and Holywell Bay near Newquay.

60Forty Films also engaged with the pilot of the BFI-funded All Set West package, designed to unlock opportunities behind the camera for underrepresented talent in the West of England. After completing the scheme’s 5 week ‘set-ready’ training at The Bottle Yard Studios, 19 local entrants from underrepresented backgrounds were offered paid work-experience placements on Down Cemetery Road across a range of departments.

Source: The Bottle Yard Studios.