Hugh Grant has been filming scenes for his new drama ‘A very English Scandal’ series right in the centre of Kingston.
Sources on the set beside County Hall told the Kingston Courier that “the ‘Notting Hill’ star has been here shooting for the past week”.
The Bittoms car park has become a swarm of vanity vans and actors in costume, though none would divulge the show’s secrets. An actor dressed in the attire of a policeman from the sixties said: “We started shooting a few weeks ago but I can’t give any details yet.”
The three-part series, announced by the BBC in May, features Grant – in his first TV role since the early 1990s – as MP Jeremy Thorpe, whose political career was ended by claims he had hired a hitman to silence a former gay lover.
The drama directed by Stephen Frears and written by Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies is “a work of fiction rooted largely in historical fact”, as told by the production team.
It is based on the bestselling book by the author and former arts editor of the Evening Standard and Sunday Telegraph, John Preston.
Sources said: “filming would be moving to North Devon in another few weeks”.
Kingston has been a popular location for movie sets – whether it was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince being shot at Surbiton station, a scene from Downtown Abbey in the County Hall, or Bollywood films on the Thames.
