Bury St Edmunds On Screen

In July 2018 the streets of Bury St Edmunds were turned into a movie set and filled with film crew, extras, horse drawn carriages, directors, producers, cameras and some of Hollywood's top names!

Filming took place on Angel Hill outside The Angel Hotel, where Dickens stayed three times, The Athenaeum, where he did some of his readings, and in Crown Street and Chequer Square before moving to the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.

The Personal History of David Copperfield, was directed by the multi-award-winning writer, filmmaker and broadcaster Armando Iannucci and starred BAFTA Award winner Dev Patel as David Copperfield. And both were present during filming in Bury St Edmunds.

And Bury St Edmunds was chuffed when the first official photo was released featuring Dev Patel in costume in Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds. All thanks to Screen Suffolk, a team set up to attract major film and TV productions to the county.

Ed Sheeran fans got to see 'A Little More' of Bury St Edmunds in the latest release from his album Play.

Scenes for A Little More starring the Suffolk singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran, Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint, and Game of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel featured another star - Bury St Edmunds!

The video starts with a long shot of the iconic Bury St Edmunds landmark - the British Sugar factory. Later in the video there are scenes shot at the stunning Hengrave Hall - a wedding venue just outside Bury St Edmunds, gym Fitta Bodies, and a brilliant wedding scene with all three stars at historic St Mary's Church where Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Henry VIII's sister is buried.

Sheeran himself appears several times in the video, including as Grint’s therapist, a binman and the character’s partner in marriage.

One of the most famous TV series filmed in  Bury St Edmunds was the BBC classic, Lovejoy.

Hugely popular, this drama followed the lovably roguish Lovejoy, played by Ian McShane, as he solved mysteries while hunting for valuable antiques. Filming took place in many Bury St Edmunds locations during the course of the BBC show's run on Sunday evenings between 1986 and 1994 with 15 million viewers regularly viewing. They included Angel Hill, The Athenaeum, The One Bull and Bury St Edmunds Guildhall.

Nearby Lavenham regularly featured in episodes alongside Clare, Hadleigh and Long Melford.

Lovejoy is on Drama at 12pm and 5pm every day, and available to catch-up on UKTV Play.

The wonky timber frame houses of Lavenham are a sought-after set for historical movies and fantasy dramas. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, this medieval village, which made its wealth from the wool trade, was used as Godric’s Hollow.

Filming in Lavenham took place in secret in January 2010 and the the streets were used as a background for the scenes in the village of Godric’s Hollow in the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

Sadly the actors shot separately in a studio and were then superimposed onto the background where the Lavenham buildings had their appearance altered using CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery).

Lavenham was also an ideal backdrop for the 1966 thriller, The Witchfinder General starring Vincent Price.

Set during the English Civil War, the movie depicts the terror caused by Matthew Hopkins, who was appointed Witchfinder General by the Puritans under Cromwell.

Scenes were shot on the Market Place outside Lavenham Guildhall (including the infamous witch burning scene) and inside Little Hall Lavenham.

The crew and cast, which included horror star Vincent Price, stayed at The Angel Hotel in Bury St Edmunds and co-star Ian Ogilvy said that Vincent would hold court in the bar of The Angel with tales of Hollywood. Director Michael Reeves and cinematographer John Coquillin would watch rushes of the movie after each day of filming at the Abbeygate Cinema in Bury St Edmunds.

One of the most famous TV series filmed in Lavenham was the BBC classic, Lovejoy.

Hugely popular, this drama followed the lovably roguish Lovejoy, played by Ian McShane, as he solved mysteries while hunting for valuable antiques. Lavenham regularly featured in episodes alongside Bury St Edmunds, Clare, Hadleigh and Long Melford.

Almost 25 years before returning to Suffolk for Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick was in Lavenham filming his 18th century drama Barry Lyndon.

In the scene filmed at Lavenham Guildhall, the protagonist – played by Ryan O’Neal – undergoes a leg amputation after being wounded in a duel.

Pierce Brosnan stayed at The Angel while filming Tomorrow Never Dies at Mildenhall and Lakenheath.

Few people know that the scenes set in a US airbase in the South China Sea were actually filmed at Lakenheath air base , while the high-altitude, low-opening (HALO) parachute jump was filmed at Mildenhall air base.

While staying in Bury St Edmunds, Brosnan even popped out for a pint, visiting Chicago Rock Café, now Flex.

Angelina Jolie also stayed at The Angel during the filming of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Suffolk's Elveden Hall was transformed into villain Manfred Powell's home, played by Iain Glen, who is eventually killed by Lara Croft as she avenges her father..

The interior scenes were filmed in the Indian style rooms at the Hall. Maharajar Duleep Singh acquired the Elveden Estate in 1863 and he rebuilt the Hall in an Indian style.

Other films shot at Elveden Hall include Bond thriller The Living Daylights starring Timothy Dalton (the location of Pushkin's assassination during the banquet shooting scene), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999) starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (the setting for the secret society's gathering), Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (2017) starring Mark Wahlberg, Princess Caraboo (1994) starring Phoebe Cates, Jim Broadbent, Kevin Kline and John Lithgow, Netflix film Heart of Stone starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan and Netflix's The Crown shot some scenes at Elveden Hall as the site doubled up as locations in Ghana.

Over in Long Melford, Kentwell Hall made an ideal Toad Hall in The Wind in the Willows, starring Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Steve Coogan and Anthony Sher.

Kentwell Hall also appears in Witchfinder General (1968) and appeared fleetingly as the outside of the Professor's house in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).

The hugely popular TV series Dad's Army was largely filmed in nearby Thetford, just 20 minutes from Bury St Edmunds.

Thetford locations included The Anchor Hotel, St Mary's Church, Newtown, Nether Row, and Guildhall. But the crew also filmed at The Six Bells Pub in Bardwell (a photograph of the cast hangs in the bar) and the Sugar Beet Factory in Bury St Edmunds, among other locations.

Thetford is also home to The Dad's Army Museum run independently run by an enthusiastic and dedicated platoon of volunteers commited to keeping the momery of this beloved British TV series alive.

Bury St Edmunds was the birthplace of a Hollywood legend.

Bob Hoskins was born here during the Second World War, after his mother was evacuated during heavy bombings. He was born in Bury St Edmunds on 26 October 1942, the son of Elsie (née Hopkins), a cook and nursery school teacher, and Robert Hoskins, a bookkeeper and lorry driver.

Very sadly Bob died in 2014 at the age of 71, but his movie roles in such classics as Pennies from Heaven (1978), The Long Good Friday (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Mermaids (1990), and Super Mario Bros. (1993), Brazil (1985), Hook (1991), Nixon (1995), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), A Christmas Carol (2009) will live on.

Actor John Le Mesurier, known for his starring role as  Sergeant Arthur Wilson in Dad's Army, spent his childhood in Bury St Edmunds.

He initially followed his father's wishes and worked as a solicitor's clerk at Greene and Greene in the town, but ultimately pursued his passion for acting. He lived near the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds in St Mary's Square and, according to his autobiography, his early memories included interactions with actors from that very theatre, which fueled his desire to act.

Discover more Suffolk locations where famous movies, TV shows and music videos were filmed at Visit Suffolk.