Creating Holby Blue's police station - Radio Times, May 2007

Features

Creating Holby Blue's police station - Radio Times, May 2007

Danny Scott discovers how an old MoD building was transformed into a modern police station.

"On screen, Casualty, Holby City and the Holby family's latest police spin-off, Holby Blue, are all based in the same city not a million miles from Bristol, but in reality, they're filmed in very different parts of the country. Casualty is, indeed, produced in Bristol, but Holby City is made at Elstree studios, and Holby Blue's brand-new police station has been built in deepest Surrey.

"It was a question of logistics," says producer Claire Phillips. "We needed a space that was big enough to build an entire police station, but we also needed to be that bit closer to London because that's where the production company Kudos [one of the names behind Holby Blue as well as such hit shows as Spooks, Hustle and Life on Mars] is based."

The space they found is an old Ministry of Defence complex not far from Chertsey. In the past, this was a genuinely top-secret establishment, used to test Britain's tanks and helicopters. When Phillips first saw the building, many of the windows were boarded up to stop prying eyes observing the military hardware.

Over six intensive months, this sprawling, hangar-like building was turned into Holby Blue's holding cells, reception, locker room, offices and car park. Most of the internal walls, corridors and offices have been built from scratch, and the crew even constructed a huge metal staircase. "The staircase doesn't actually go anywhere," smiles Phillips. "We have shots of people going upstairs, but then we have to cut to a room on the ground floor. Hopefully, we'll have a proper first floor if we get a second series."

Being in leafy Surrey also meant that camera crews had to be very careful where they pointed their lenses. "We're supposed to be in a built-up city," says Phillips, "but our police station is surrounded by rolling hills. It looks like we're in the flippin' Alps!" The "Surrey Alps" have been obscured by a couple of very believable false brick walls. Indeed, RT walked past them several times before realising the bricks were actually made of wood.

Holby Blue's car chases and arrest scenes were filmed in nearby Chertsey - the locations team looked for buildings that were similar to those they had found in Bristol - but the exterior of Holby's police station is actually part of Brunel University. "There are always lots of cheats on a project this big," admits Phillips. Indeed, take a close look at the unsavoury characters on Holby Blue's Asbo board, and you'll see quite a few of the Holby Blue crew!"

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