Manhunt ITV filming takes over high street
A“MASSIVE” operation has transformed an Easton street for TV scenes set in London.
Around 80 to 100 crew members were spotted filming the second series of ITV’s Manhunt this week on Easton High Street.
The crime drama will see Martin Clunes reprise his role as DCI Colin Sutton, investigating a real-life serial rapist who targeted elderly people in south-east London for 17 years.
High Street was closed near Whitehall newsagents on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
One resident walked past at 5pm, when the crew was setting up its equipment.
He said: “I thought it was a movie. There were massive vans all the way down St Marks Road, lighting rigs and loads of people.
“There were about 80 to 100 in the crew. It’s clearly a high-end drama because it’s a massive operation.”
The 44-year-old passed by again to do some shopping at 7pm. He says the team was still setting up.
“I was on my way to St Marks Road, and I could see they’d constructed a cashpoint on the corner,” he added. “They put in a phone box too, which looked like one from the 90s maybe. There was a sign up on Whitehall newsagents saying ‘Lewisham’.
“I’ve always said, with the railway bridge there, it does look like you’re in London. It could be Shoreditch.”
He says the crew appeared to be using the Sugarloaf pub and Indian restaurant Thali to store its equipment.
“They were filming until about midnight. The crew said they’ll be filming again [on Tuesday] evening until 2am.”
The passer-by did not spot Doc Martin star Clunes himself, but says one of his neighbours did.
“My neighbour said they’d seen ‘the blond bloke with the big ears from Men Behaving Badly’, which I told them was Martin Clunes,” he laughed.
Last month the Manhunt team was seen filming in Berkeley Square, Clifton.
ITV says the second series is expected to premiere next year.
Manhunt first hit screens in 2019, telling the true story of the investigation into the death of French student Amelie Delagrange.
The police hunt eventually led to the arrest of Levi Bellfield for Delagrange’s murder.