Township triumph

The Gumedes have made Soweto their new home in season 2 of Gold Diggers.

Weekdays e.tv (*194) 20:00

The second season of Gold Diggers (2015- current) is shot on location in Orlando East, Soweto but not on a traditional set – the series is filmed in a real house that’s been customfitted for filming. While the owner had to vacate the premises when the crew moved in, the upgrades that’ve been made have been worth the trouble. Gold Diggers art director Anneri Gericke transformed the house from floor to ceiling, including building new rooms. “Renovations took three weeks to complete and didn’t cost more than R20 000,” explains Anneri. And in line with not breaking the bank, the crew also brought in pieces from their own homes that they no longer needed or sold them to the production company. NB! See more on p23. May (Tina Jaxa – left) and Ruth (Clementine Mosimane) have moved up in the world from a rural home to a shared house in Soweto, Joburg. “We completely changed the house,” says art director Anneri Gericke. “We built two extra rooms, paved the yard and repainted the house.” The home owner gets to benefit from the upgrade, but Anneri adds that she tried to keep the décor theme by making the extra new rooms as similar to the original setting as possible. “We had to build a proper building, not just a movie building, because someone’s going to live here when we’re done filming and we don’t want the roof to fall down on them.” Patrick’s (Mbongeni Ngema) walking canes are a memory of the late husband that Ruth shared with May and are a subtle reminder of the deceased character.