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Bristol’s vast Bottle Yard studios are echoing again to the sounds of show production – but with strict measures to protect casts and crews from infection
Before Covid-19, thoughts of the future for Bristol’s Bottle Yard involved lasers and LEDs. How would they incorporate the matter transporter for Crystal Maze contestants to “beam down” to different zones, or the computer-controlled mechanism that makes the set turn? And could they accommodate yet more of the big productions, from Poldark to The Pale Horse, jostling for time at the well-equipped West Country facility?
“We were booming, hosting 10 to 12 productions per year with a full order book until the end of 2021,” says Fiona Francombe, who founded the council-owned studios a decade ago in almost three hectares (seven acres) of Whitchurch warehouses where Casualty was previously filmed, and will soon move to the Bristol Old Vic theatre school as its chief executive and principal. Since then, this quiet corner of south Bristol has been bathed in Hollywood lustre, courtesy of Dennis Quaid and Richard Dormer working there on the Arctic western Fortitude, and blessed with Bafta-winning shows including Broadchurch and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies. Continue reading...