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How do you manage TV crews on a housing estate? Tom Lloyd visits the set of BBC drama Waterloo Road to find out.
Source: Asadour Guzelian
Letting TV cameras onto a housing estate might seem like asking for trouble, with tenants facing disruption, and a potentially negative portrayal of the area being beamed to millions.
But there can be benefits as well, as Rochdale Boroughwide Housing has been discovering. The arm’s-length management organisation has been working with TV company Shed, helping to provide locations that feature in a primetime BBC series.
The show in question, Waterloo Road, is a school-based drama, following the lives of teachers and students at a run-of-the-mill secondary comprehensive. The fourth series is currently being shown, and was filmed on the Kirkholt estate in Rochdale.
‘The thing about Waterloo Road is that it is not stereotypical, in the sense that every council house has snotty-nosed kids running around.’
Jamie Muirhead, location manager, Shed
Much of the filming took place in a disused school on the edge of the estate, but the production company is often after extra locations – particularly houses – where storylines that go beyond the school walls can be filmed. This is where the ALMO gets involved.
If Shed identifies an RBH-managed property where it would like to film it approaches the landlord before speaking to the resident. The company also taps into the ALMO staff’s local knowledge to scout locations across the borough.
Jane Howard, communications manager at the ALMO, says: ‘Shed uses RBH and the knowledge that the housing staff have. All the filming is being done locally, so they can ring up and say what they are looking for and we can suggest what would be good.’
The benefits of this arrangement for Shed are pretty straightforward. The company gets access to the locations it wants, when it can’t build suitable sets on the school site. It isn’t an easy way to film – logistically there is a lot to sort out – but it does mean you get the right look. But what is in it for the ALMO?
Ms Howard says that having Shed filming at the school is beneficial because it provides security, which is reassuring for residents who live nearby.
The show also features some high profile actors, such as Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrisey, and former Coronation Street actress Denise Welch. The cast do their bit for the local area by getting involved in events run by RBH, giving out prizes, and encouraging residents to come along when the ALMO is consulting on its plans for the future.
Principal housing manager Deborah Jamieson says the young actors can be particularly helpful here. ‘They get involved in encouraging young people to take part in consultation, as it can be difficult to get young people to give their views,’ she says.
Source: Asadour Guzelian
Ms Jamieson adds that filming Waterloo Road improves the profile of the Kirkholt area. ‘Although not everyone who watches it will know where it is, there are a lot of people that do,’ she says.
‘Kirkholt is a very green estate. There are a lot of green projects going on, and it makes a good backdrop to the programme. A lot of the residents are very proud of the area, and that there is a high profile TV series being filmed there.’
This would probably not be the case if Waterloo Road was presenting the residents of Kirkholt in a negative light, as Shed location manager Jamie Muirhead is quick to point out. ‘The thing about Waterloo Road is that it is not stereotypical, in the sense that every council house has snotty-nosed kids running around,’ he says.
‘People are also very happy to open their houses to us, the only problems that we come across are the logistical problems.’
He explains that these generally involve finding a house that is big enough to film in, but doesn’t have too many occupants who need to be kept out of the way. The production company often has to take over the next door property as well to have somewhere for actors to go when they are not needed.
In addition cars may have to be moved to allow filming in a road, and roads can be ‘held’ temporarily while filming takes place.
The production company pays residents to use their homes as a location – the amount is agreed on an individual basis and RBH does not get involved – and also provides security if cars have to be moved overnight.
In some cases it has also redecorated people’s homes, if the original decor did not suit the requirements of the storyline, and then redecorated again afterwards to suit the tastes of the tenants.
Filming on location doesn’t always go this well. Mr Muirhead says other programmes he has worked on have encountered problems as residents get fed up with the disruption, or feel left out if their homes are not used. But RBH’s experiences suggest that if filming is handled sensitively it can have benefits for all parties.
Tune into the new series of Waterloo Road on Wednesday at 8pm on BBC1
The actor’s view: Jason Done
Source: Asadour Guzelian
Jason Done, who plays English teacher Tom Clarkson in Waterloo Road, has been with the show since it first started. He says filming on the Kirkholt estate, and in the Rochdale area generally, has been positive.
‘People have really welcomed us and we have had very little resistance to us being here,’ he says. ‘Some other TV programmes have been met with resistance. I know there were some problems when Shameless first moved to Gorton. But this is being presented in a positive light.
‘I’ve worked on programmes where people are saying “you are making our area look poor and not well looked after”, so it depends how you [residents] are being portrayed…If you are being portrayed as scallies then it is not good for the area, and you can understand people get a bit upset.’
The resident’s view: Sharon Doyle
Source: Asadour Guzelian
Sharon Doyle’s home was used as a location by Shed. ‘It was just very bizarre,’ she says. ‘The location manager came to the house, and then I didn’t hear much from them. Then they said they definitely wanted to use the house, I came home from work one afternoon to meet the location manager, then by that evening I was put in a hotel.’
Ms Doyle’s home was eventually used for around two weeks, as a storyline that had only been expected to take a couple of days to film expanded, but she does not complain about the disruption.
‘My daughter was at school and I was at work, and nothing was displaced,’ she says. ‘They took photographs before and after so everything went back in the right place.
‘It was strange to see your own house on a programme, and see well known actors in the house. My daughter was over the moon, she was very popular at school because of it.’
In general she thinks Shed filming on the Kirkholt estate has been positive.
‘I think it is a good idea,’ she says. ‘I’ve lived on the estate most of my life, and I think this gives it a big lift. They [Shed] are obviously getting positive reactions from tenants and local business and so forth, and they are filming all around the borough, which is good because sometimes Rochdale doesn’t come under a very good light.’
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