The TV drama set in Norfolk but filmed in Ireland

4 hours ago

News image — Made by production company Playground, the series was filmed in Ireland in 2024

BBC/Playground Productions A man and woman walk side by side towards the camera in a publicity shot released by a production company. The man has brown hair and is wearing a suit and white shirt unbuttoned at the neck. The woman is wearing jeans, a grey hoodie and a black jacket. They are on a gravel path, with fisherman's huts behind them. — Made by production company Playground, the series was filmed in Ireland in 2024

A TV crime drama set in Norfolk and East Anglia would be expected to feature the beautiful coastline, big skies, and even its distinctive accent.

But eagle-eyed viewers thought it was a rum ole do when they tuned into the BBC's new Lynley series - supposedly based in the county and wider region - to be confronted with unrecognisable hills and not a hint of the local twang.

Despite the opening credits showing the Norwich skyline and Broads-like scenes, the series was almost entirely filmed in Ireland.

Michael Hunter, of Horsford, near Norwich - where Lynley's large fictional police station is based - said he felt it was wrong, adding: "If you got a thing that says it's in Norfolk, it should be filmed in Norfolk - and get the accent right."

"The wife said 'that's filmed in Norfolk, let's see if we recognise anywhere'.

"Soon as we saw it we thought 'that's not Norfolk, that's too hilly, we're flat'."

Shaun Whitmore/BBC A man and a woman standing outside on brown stone slabs, with the woman to the the left of the image leaning with her elbow on the metal counter of a food and drink stall. She is wearing a grey coat, black gloves and a black hat and is smiling at the camera. The man to her right is wearing a dark green coat, his left hand in the pocket and his other hand holding a black and white dog on a lead. He has grey hair and tinted glasses. — Jean and Michael Turner said authentic locations mattered to them

Jean Hunter agreed. "It doesn't seem genuine it me - there's no Norfolk accent in there and no Norfolk scenery, that I've spotted," she said.

"It's not depicting something that's accurate, it needs to be accurate. Ireland is beautiful, but it's not Norfolk.

"People who live in Norfolk won't be happy with that, we love our county so get over here and film it in an accurate location.

"We haven't got a police station," she added, laughing.

"I thought 'I don't recognise anywhere', so we turned over on that basis."

On social media, viewers pointed out the vast "Norwich city morgue" seemed to be aimed at a US audience, and the 0115 area code on estate agent signs was not local (it's not, it's Nottingham).

The vaguely rural accents were also mocked, with one person noting: "Thought we were going to get a rendition of I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester when blokey got arrested."

The four-part series, available on iPlayer, follows detective Tommy Lynley, who arrives from Oxford to work for the Three Counties Major Investigation Team, covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

He and Norfolk native Sgt Barbara Havers are a "mismatched duo" but are "bonded by their desire to see justice done", according to the BBC.

The drama was commissioned by Britbox in the US and made by Playground, which have been approached for comment.

Laura Rycroft, a managing director at Epic Studios in Norwich, said locations were important but "very creative" art departments could help create the illusion that a scene was shot elsewhere.

Asked if it was a miss for Lynley not to shoot in Norfolk, she said: "It is disappointing but a lot of the time it comes down to scheduling and logistics, getting from A to B.

"I think, for us living in Norfolk, we definitely notice it more than others do, but there are things that are shot here that are set somewhere else," she added.

Andrew Turner/BBC A crowd of people in summer clothes standing on a beach, facing a building on the promenade. A sign across its red-tiled roof says Pier Hotel. The sky is blue. — Gorleston-on-Sea is one of several "forgotten" seaside towns in Yesterday

Norfolk scenes have featured in Alan Patridge: Alpha Papa, Fighting with My Family, and the upcoming instalment of BBC crime series Strike.

More commonly, however, Norfolk has provided a backdrop for productions which are not set in the county.

A tulip field near King's Lynn transformed into Munchkinland for Wicked, with Holkham beach - a favourite for filmmakers - featured in Deadpool and Wolverine and Shakespeare in Love

King's Lynn's Outer Purfleet became a Victorian waterfront for The Personal History of David Copperfield, and director Danny Boyle praised Gorleston-on-Sea, where 6,000 local extras filled the beach for Yesterday.

Lynley's East Anglia with an Irish flavour is not the first time supposedly Norfolk-set scenes have felt a bit off.

In 2024, Snetterton poked fun at a Netflix series about Ayrton Senna, which depicted "monumental, Himalaya-rivalling peaks" rising behind the racetrack where the Formula 1 driver honed his craft in the 1980s.