Sandra Oh, who starred in Grey’s Anatomy for 10 seasons, was drawn back to a hospital in her new series Killing Eve, starting on BBC America tonight.
Filmed largely in London, the hospital scenes were shot at Guy’s Hospital in Southwark. You’ll glimpse them, along with other London locations, in the trailer here.
FilmFixer manages the film office service for many London boroughs that hosted the shoot. FilmFixer director Karen Everett says, “Sandra Oh is a desk-based, middle ranking spy operative, sent on the apparently simple task of sitting with the girlfriend of a murdered Russian politician.
“In the hospital bathroom, an intriguing nurse suggests she should wear her hair down. And when she gets back to her witness’s hospital room, everyone, including the guards, has been murdered. The nurse was character Villanelle, Oh’s nemesis in the cat and mouse spy series.”
Even before broadcast, a second series of the show was commissioned. Jodie Comer stars as the assassin Villanelle, and Oh’s character is Eve Polastri.
“Being a real hospital of course, Guy’s lends brilliant credibility, along with its central location, overlooking the Thames river and the City,” Karen Everett continues.
“Other scenes shot in the capital include a bus stop in Templewood Avenue in Hampstead, where an agitated Sandra Oh punches the glass – this features in the trailer too.
“A large funeral scene was filmed in Hampstead Parish Church on Church Row, in the borough of Camden.
“It wouldn’t be a London-based drama without pub scenes, so, also in Camden, Sandra Oh gets together with onscreen colleagues David Haigh, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Darren Boyd, at the Old Nick Pub in Sandland Street.
“Still in Camden, Oh is filmed striding along Clerkenwell Road, and café scenes were shot in Andrews Restaurant on Grey’s Inn Road.
“Oh’s onscreen husband Owen McDonnell is a generally kind bridge instructor – although he’s a bit shouty in the trailer – who teaches cards in the Mildmay Club on Newington Green in Islington.
“The action moves into Fabric nightclub in Islington’s Charterhouse Street, where there’s a stabbing.
“And more Islington scenes were filmed in the back garden of a Highbury Hill home.
“In Haringey, the production moved into Old Hornsey Town Hall for three days, again for scenes visible in the trailer. It’s a fantastic space, used in the show as a hotel lobby, a restaurant, bar, hotel corridor and hotel bedroom.
“This series really packs a punch. Cast and crew ranged from 50 to 60, shooting in FilmFixer client boroughs between July and November last year.
“The critics are already impressed by the episodes they’ve seen. Here in the UK we are looking forward to the series starting on BBC One later this year.”