Naman Shrestha
The Matt Charman creation, Netflix’s ‘Hostage,’ follows the British prime minister, Abigail Dalton, who is known for prioritizing the National Health Service (NHS), as she works on a solution for the lack of cancer drugs in the country. In order to do so, she decides to collaborate with the French president, Vivienne Toussaint, with whom she meets at an international summit. In an unexpected turn of events, while the two women discuss the future, Abigail’s husband gets abducted in South America. The team of abductors demands that she step down from the role of the Prime Minister.
At the same time, Vivienne is also blackmailed over a scandal that could jeopardize the elections. Now, both women must work together and make some tough choices if they wish to get to the bottom of the abduction and blackmail and protect their respective futures. Since the British political thriller drama series involves some powerful figures, various official and government buildings become the visual heart of the narrative, including 10 Downing Street.
Hostage Filming Locations
The shooting for ‘Hostage’ took place in England and Spain, especially in London, Hertfordshire, and La Palma. Principal photography for the Netflix production got underway in March 2024 under the working title ‘The Choice’ and continued for about four months before wrapping up in July of the same year. Sharing a few pictures from the shoot, the director Isabelle Sieb expressed her gratitude, stating, “And also to say the briefest thank you to the most sensational group of people whom I have watched work tirelessly on this project both in front and behind the camera these past few months. It has been an absolute privilege.”
London, England
London served as the primary filming spot for the Netflix production. In particular, a portion of the shooting was carried out at Shoreditch Town Hall, at 380 Old Street in the eponymous neighbourhood. Standing tall since 1866, the Grade II-listed building is not actually a town hall but a magnificent space that has been hosting cultural, live, and community events for decades. The capital city of the United Kingdom and England is no stranger to assisting productions of varying genres and scale. Over the years, the locales and landmarks of the metropolis have made an appearance in numerous television shows and movies.
Hertfordshire, England
As the political thriller miniseries mainly revolves around the abduction of the spouse of the British Prime Minister, several sequences are set at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Ministers of the UK. However, the shooting actually didn’t take place on location. For safety and security purposes, it is not possible for filming to take place on Downing Street. However, the production team hoped they could take the measurements of the area to construct the same for the show. In an interview with TV Guide, Set designers Arwel Jones and Laura Mayall opened up about the meticulous process. When they weren’t granted permission to measure the area, Laura carved out the rough dimensions through the mapping platform Google Maps.
Laura revealed, “While we watched a lot of footage and looked at a lot of images online, the main resource for us in recreating it was Google Maps.” Shedding light on how they overcame the hindrance, she further added, “That was able to give us the relative position of everything. Then we had to work out how much we needed to build… In the end, the set was about 55 metres in length. We replicated both sides of the street, and ended up building it to the height of the ceilings of the first floor. We got the scale correct by counting bricks and paving stones in images of the real 10 Downing Street. You literally count how many bricks there are between the windows and work it all out from there.”
As per reports, the exteriors of the setting were constructed utilizing the state-of-the-art services of Bovingdon Airfield Studios, a former WWII airbase turned filming complex, to complement the real-life structure. Located at Old Bovingdon Airfield, Chesham HP3 0GH in the heart of Hertfordshire, the facility spans 100 acres and offers first-rate production services, purpose-built stages, and a backlot to support the creation of a variety of projects such as ‘Hostage.’
A significant portion of ‘Hostage’ was taped in and around Langleybury House/Mansion in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. Arwel expressed that the most difficult aspect during production was figuring out how to tackle the contrast between the famous yellow staircase at Number 10 and the “grand, sweeping country house staircase” of the 18th-century mansion. While they weren’t quite keen on keeping it on the show initially, they realized they had to have it to ensure the transitions between scenes were smooth. He explained, “You’d see the ground floor with a few stairs and then we’d shoot on the first floor and they would be separate entities. However, it became apparent due to the flow of the shoot and to keep the frenetic pace of following the Prime Minister as she’s walking around, that we needed one.”
The team worked hard to fix the issue without affecting the aesthetic and damaging the Grade II-listed structure. As per reports, it was held together by interlocking wedges and fittings firmly to prevent them from falling apart. They had to adopt a different approach for the House of Commons. While they had explored the actual spot in Westminster in the centre of London, they had to alter their plans due to a change of governing body. Thus, similar to their handling of the situation with Downing Street, the team constructed the site from scratch.
Laura divulged, “This time we were able to scale it up from just one measurement I found online. It’s the distance between the two party’s benches. The whole set was built from that.” Arwell added, “Viewers won’t necessarily know that all the plaques on the back wall are exactly like the plaques in the real House. Or see the beautiful artwork on the pillars and panelling which is all as accurate as possible.” He went on to state that they had a great time building it, and the team was extremely proud of their work on the House of Commons set upon witnessing that the final creation was worth the time and effort they had collectively put in.
La Palma, Spain
After wrapping up the shooting in England, the production team of ‘Hostage’ traveled all the way to the Canary Islands, where they set up camp on the island of La Palma in Santa Cruz de Tenerife province in May 2024. According to reports, the abduction scenes set in French Guiana were taped on the island. From what we can tell, the crew members built the dilapidated structure, where the abductors kept the hostages, in the municipality of Los Cancajos.
Talking about the scenes shot on La Palma, the director Isabelle Sieb told The Daily Express, “On La Palma, there were logistical issues that were really time-consuming. For example, the car chase we shot there – which was one of my favourite things to do, because I love directing action – was tough because there’s only small roads on the island, and just getting access to them with our multiple vehicles lead to a lot of time delays – which is time we never got back.”
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