News / television
New Apple TV thriller filmed in Bristol
The Underfall Yard, St Werburgh’s City Farm and St Nick’s Market were just some of the familiar spots featuring in the new Apple TV series Down Cemetery Road.
The eight-part adaptation of the 2003 novel of the same name by author Mick Herron was filmed at The Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove and at various sites across Bristol and the surrounding region.
Bristol’s streets doubled as Oxford in the thriller which tells the story of Sarah Trafford (Ruth Wilson) whose life as an art restorer in the city is forever changed when a neighbour’s house explodes.
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Also starring Emma Thompson, the drama was produced by London-based 60Forty Films and filmed in our city between June 2024 and February 2025, with support from Bristol Film Office.
The team said 250 crew members who worked on Down Cemetery Road over a 12-month preparation and production period were from the local region.
Adela Straughan, Bristol Film Office manager, said: “Such a significant production helps keep Bristol firmly on the screen tourism map.
“We’re working with more and more visitor destinations and heritage sites to help them bring in valuable revenue from filming hire which is much needed in the current climate.”
The series stars Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson who took up the roles of private investigator Zoe Boehm and weary housewife Sarah Tucker – photo: Apple TV
Describing what filming hire means to the charity, director of St Werburgh’s City Farm Jenny Howard Coles said hosting filming location “provided unrestricted income which we could use wherever we needed it most – keeping the lights on, the gates open and all our community services running.
“Bristol Film Office has advocated for us throughout and helped make the process as smooth as possible, and we’re grateful to the whole production team for being so mindful of our work and community.”
St Nick’s Market and surrounding streets, including All Saints Lane, hosted filming for day and night sequences.
Other locations included the University of Bristol’s Arts & Social Sciences Library on Tyndall Avenue and Baltic Wharf, which featured green screen filming.
Further afield in the South West, filming also took place in Bath, Somerset and Cornwall’s Polperro and Holywell Bay near Newquay.
Down Cemetery Road is the latest in a long list of high-profile series to be shot in the city, recently including Sex Education and Film Club.
‘Down Cemetery Road’ is streaming now on Apple TV
Main photo: Apple TV
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