Film-makers swoop on city for summer

SUMMER in Cape Town means not only the start of an influx of tourists, but also of film production companies using the Mother City as a location for TV series.

The latest production to start filming here is The Last Post, a new six-part BBC drama series set in Aden in the mid-1960s. Filming started on Monday and the series will be broadcast next year.

The Last Post is a historical drama series that centres on a unit of Royal Military Police officers and their families in Aden, the capital of Yemen, during the twilight years of the British empire.

“Their job is two-fold: half soldiers and half policemen who face constant insurgency and threat,” the BBC said in a media release.

“Danger is everywhere. Hand grenades, mines and sniper attacks are a constant threat.”

The series was written by award-winning English screenwriter Peter Moffat, and is based in part on his childhood memories. In a statement Moffat said The Last Post was a “close-up view of soldiering with strong contemporary parallels”.

“Young married couples in the heart of the sixties living in extremely close proximity in a very alien and dangerous environment has always struck me as ripe territory for drama,” Moffat said.

“Men full of vim, vigour and a desire to be heroes in a situation where that isn’t always possible; alongside young women who are starting to feel the emancipation of the sixties and a sense of new freedoms.”

Moffat’s father’s was an officer in the Royal Military Police in Aden during this period known as the “Aden Emergency”.

“My mum remembers standing on the balcony of our flat in her first week in Aden and seeing a hand grenade thrown (and) killing a 5-yearold boy and my dad rushing out to try and do something,” he said.

The series boasts an ensemble cast including Jessie Buckley, Amanda Drew, Ben Miles, Stephen Campbell Moore and Jessica Raine. It is directed by Johnny Campbell and Miranda Bowen, and co-produced by Bonafide Films and The Forge Entertainment.

Cape Town’s status as a destination to film TV series has grown over the years .

Earlier this year, the SyFy channel started filming its new 13-episode series Blood Drive – about a “cross-country death race”, in the Mother City.

Cape Town was also used as a location for some of the episodes for the third season of the Netflix science-fiction series Black Mirror.

jan.cronje@inl.co.za

Jessica Raine