If you’ve ever paused mid-episode and wondered where exactly is that house? — you’re not alone. Britain’s TV and film industry leans heavily on the country’s stock of stately homes, period townhouses, brutalist estates and quiet villages. Below is a tour through some of the locations behind the biggest hits of the last few years, plus how productions actually find them.
A note from the people who do this for a living
LC Locations is a London-based location agency representing 1000+ shoot-ready properties across the UK and internationally. We see briefs land for the kind of productions you’ve watched on Netflix, BBC, Disney+ and Apple TV+. The locations below are public knowledge — confirmed in interviews, press releases or end credits — but the patterns they show are useful for anyone wondering what the industry actually values.
Bridgerton
Shonda Rhimes’ Regency romance leans heavily on the National Trust roster and English Heritage estates. Confirmed locations include Castle Howard in North Yorkshire (the Featherington home exterior), Hampton Court Palace, Ranger’s House in Greenwich (the Bridgerton family home exterior), Wilton House in Wiltshire, and a dozen Bath locations. The look the show pioneered — sherbet-coloured wallpaper, formal gardens, ballrooms with parquet floors — sent demand for similar locations through the roof. We’ve fielded dozens of “Bridgerton-style” briefs in the past three years; usually they end up at one of our country estates, manor houses, or period properties.
Saltburn
Emerald Fennell’s 2023 thriller was shot largely at Drayton House in Northamptonshire, a privately-owned 17th-century country house standing in for the fictional Saltburn estate. The film triggered a wave of producer interest in palatial, slightly faded country homes — the kind that haven’t been touched up for the National Trust polish — and homeowners with that aesthetic suddenly found themselves heavily in demand.
The Crown
Across six seasons, The Crown sourced locations across Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Norfolk. Belvoir Castle stood in for Windsor; Ardverikie in Scotland for Balmoral; Greenwich’s Painted Hall for Buckingham Palace state functions. Most of these are publicly accessible heritage properties — but a substantial portion of the show’s residential and “smaller royal” interior work happened at private homes sourced through agencies. The show was one of the biggest demand drivers for Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire country houses for nearly a decade.
Sex Education
The Wales-based teen drama used the Symondsbury Estate in Dorset alongside extensive Welsh location work, including the Welsh Valleys and Cardiff. The show’s production base at Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff means most of its location work clustered within easy reach — a pattern that holds for almost every production: the location radius from the base studio defines what’s practical to shoot.
Top Boy
Most exterior work was filmed on the Summerhouse Estate in Hackney, with surrounding shoots across east London. The show’s commitment to filming on the actual streets and tower blocks rather than recreating them in a studio gave it its texture — and underlines why East London locations close to 3 Mills Studios remain one of the most-requested clusters in the country.
House of the Dragon
HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel filmed at Leavesden Studios with location work at Cornwall, Derbyshire’s Peak District, and a number of stately homes. Productions of this scale typically need 30+ “exterior” location options for a single season — a brief that lands at agencies like ours dozens of times per shoot.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Cruise productions famously source locations across the entirety of the UK and internationally. Domestically, much of the production work clusters around Warner Bros Studios Leavesden and Longcross Studios, with location days drawing on country estates and industrial sites within reach.
Why so many shoots happen in the UK
Three things, in roughly this order:
The UK’s tax credit for film and high-end TV is generous and well-administered — typically 25-40% of qualifying production spend.
The studio infrastructure is dense: Pinewood, Shepperton, Leavesden, Elstree, Eastbrook, 3 Mills, Longcross, plus dozens of mid-sized stages all sit within an hour of central London.
The location stock is almost uniquely varied — Britain’s mix of stately homes, brutalist estates, Tudor villages, Victorian terraces, modernist apartments, Welsh hills and Highland glens means a producer can shoot almost any era and almost any aesthetic without leaving the country.
How productions actually find locations
Three routes:
- Through a location agency. The fastest, most common path. Agencies like LC Locations represent properties exclusively or non-exclusively, vet briefs, negotiate fees, and handle the production. How a location agency actually works →
- Through a freelance location scout/manager. Often used for big-budget films where bespoke scouting is needed. Scouts often draw on agencies as their first port of call.
- Through direct owner outreach (rare, slow). Sometimes for iconic specific properties (e.g. Castle Howard, Highclere) productions deal directly with the estate.
If you’ve watched a show, paused on a beautiful interior, and thought “I’d love to shoot somewhere like that” — that’s exactly the brief that lands in our inbox most weeks. Have a look through our country estates, manor houses, or modern architectural homes for our nearest equivalents.
Frequently asked questions
How are filming locations chosen for big productions? By a location manager working with the director, production designer, and producer — based on aesthetics, practicality (parking, access, sound), proximity to the base studio, and budget. Agencies like LC Locations propose options for the manager to recce in person.
Can private homes be used in films? Yes — extensively. The majority of “interiors” in UK film and HETV production are filmed in real private homes, not on stages.
How much do property owners earn from filming? It depends on the property, the shoot type and the budget. Typical UK day rates run from £500 (small editorial) to £15,000+ (high-end TV drama and feature film). More on filming location costs →
Can I list my home as a film location? Yes. Get in touch with a location agency with a few photos and a short description. Step-by-step guide →
Where can I find filming locations near a specific UK studio? See our location pages for Pinewood, Shepperton, Leavesden, Elstree, Eastbrook, 3 Mills and Longcross.