Film and tv locations to visit in Suffolk

Discover where the stars of the big and small screen have stood and find the locations where many favourite tv and film stories have been acted out when you visit Suffolk.

Suffolk has starred as itself and has also doubled up as scenes from across the globe, with much of the filming facilitated by Screen Suffolk.

Ed Sheeran performing outside Ipswich Cornhill in the Disney+ documentary The Sum Of It All 

ED SHEERAN – SUBTRACT: THE VISUAL ALBUM, THE SUM OF IT ALL

Has there been anyone to put Suffolk on the global map more than singer songwriter Ed Sheeran? We think not.

And Framlingham-born Ed has excelled himself as the unofficial ambassador for his home county with his latest work, a Disney+ documentary The Sum Of It All and accompanying videos to each of the songs on his latest multi-million selling album Subtract which were all filmed in Suffolk.

Ed Sheeran filming The Boat video at Southwold beach

The Sum Of It All four-part documentary features Ipswich town centre, Framlingham, Portman Road, the stadium of his beloved Ipswich Town Football Club, and The King’s Head pub at Laxfield.

Subtract: The Visual Album features videos filmed close to Southwold Pier, at Pin Mill on the River Orwell outside Ipswich, at North Denes Lowestoft Beach and Woodbridge.

See the videos with more Ed Sheeran locations on our blog – Walk in Ed Sheeran’s footsteps in Suffolk

In this feel-good comedy, Himesh Patel plays a struggling Suffolk musician who, following a freak accident, realises that he’s the only person on earth who can remember The Beatles. The film, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Richard Curtis, was filmed throughout the Suffolk Coast and Norfolk, and also starred Lily James and Suffolk’s world famous singer songwriter Ed Sheeran.

Yesterday being filmed in Halesworth with Lily James (c) Screen Suffolk

Spot the scenes in Halesworth High Street and the Ramsholt Arms Pub in Ramsholt, where you can sit at the same bench that Himesh and Lily shared whilst having a drink.  Other locations in the film are Shingle Street and Suffolk’s Latitude Festival.

The crew of Yesterday enjoying some Suffolk sunshine at Shingle Street

THE DIG

Netflix movie The Dig is based on the eponymous book and re-enacts the events of 1939 when the burial ship of Anglo Saxon king Raedwald was excavated at Sutton Hoo, arguably the UK’s greatest-ever archaeological find.

The film stars Carey Mulligan, Lily James and Ralph Fiennes and was directed by Simon Stone.

The Dig at Snape Maltings (c) Screen Suffolk

Featured locations on the Suffolk Coast include Thorpeness Beach, Shingle Street, a footpath at Snape on Suffolk Wildlife Trust land and an RSPB site called Boyton Marsh. The unit base was set up at Snape Maltings.

The story of the making of The Dig

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD

The Personal History of David Copperfield film was written and directed by Armando Iannucci, based on the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. The Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds was transformed for filming.

The Angel Hotel actually features in Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers and the writer stayed here when he did readings in the town at The Athenaeum.

Filming The Personal Life of David Copperfield outside The Angel Hotel in Bury St Edmunds (c) Screen Suffolk

Other locations in the town were Chequer Square opposite St Edmundsbury Cathedral and inside the Theatre Royal, which is the location bookending the film.

The Personal History of David Copperfield being filmed at Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds (c) Screen Suffolk

You can book a tour of Bury St Edmunds

Dev Patel as David Copperfield in Charter Square, Bury St Edmunds (c) Lionsgate

THE CROWN

In 2019, The Crown, based on an award-winning play (‘The Audience’) by showrunner Peter Morgan, has a scene filmed at Newmarket racecourse.  This lavish, Netflix-original drama chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II and shows her love of horses and racing.

Join Discover Newmarket on one of their tours around the racecourse and other attractions within the town.

The Rowley Mile at Newmarket Racecourses (c) Newmarket Racecourses

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

Chocolate-box Lavenham offers everything you could want from a place often called the Best Kept Medieval Village in England.  Lavenham played its party in the blockbuster movie, The Deathly Hallows Part 1 & Part 2, as Godric’s Hollow, the magical village where Harry Potter was born.

Lavenham in the Heart of Suffolk

MAGPIE MURDERS

Production company Eleventh Hour Films were looking for the ‘quintessential Suffolk village’ for Magpie Murders, the TV adaptation of Orford-based bestselling writer Anthony Horowitz’s crime thriller – and they found it at Kersey, which was transformed back to 1950s Britain.

Magpie Murders being filmed in Kersey (c) Screen Suffolk

In May 2022, the production spent two weeks in the village of Kersey, before filming a plethora of driving shots mostly around Mid Suffolk in a classic car, and also taking in Ipswich locations near Christchurch Park and the Willis Building, and Woodbridge train station.

Starring Lesley Manville, Conleth Hill, Tim McMullan and Daniel May, all six episodes of Magpie Murders – described as ‘a whodunnit, inside a whodunnit’ – are available on BritBox.

THE DETECTORISTS

Andy and Lance are friends who share a passion for metal detecting.  Much of the filming took place in and around the market town of Framlingham on The Suffolk Coast with its picturesque Framlingham Castle.

The Detectorists in Framlingham (c) Screen Suffolk

A BIT OF LIGHT

Oscar winner Anna Paquin and Ray Winstone lead the cast of ‘A Bit of Light’ (2022) which was filmed primarily in Suffolk.  The film follows Ella (Paquin), a newly sober mother who is living with her father (Winston) and focuses on an unlikely friendship with a teenage boy.

Cherry Lane Park in Ipswich is used throughout the film, directed by Stephen Moyer, and is the place where Ella first meets teenage boy, Luca Hogan, who finally gets her to believe in her self worth.

Leiston and Framlingham were also used as locations for filming.

WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Kentwell Hall in Long Melford plays Toad Hall with actors Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Steve Coogan and Anthony Sher in the updating of this wonderful children’s classic.  Kentwell Hall is a magnificent Tudor home hosting events and open gardens in the very heart of Suffolk.

The moated Kentwell Hall

PRIVATE PEACEFUL

Jack O’Connell, George MacKay, Maxine Peake, Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour starred in Michael Morpurgo’s affecting tale of Devon farm boys being called up to fight on the Western Front during the First World War.

Suffolk doubled up as Devon for this film and used Christchurch Mansion, in the centre of Ipswich for some of the scenes.

Christchurch Mansion is in Christchurch Park in the centre of Ipswich

TOMORROW NEVER DIES

In 1997, Pierce Brosnan is James Bond battling media mogul Jonathan Pryce. Bond finds himself at RAF Mildenhall which is doubling for a US airbase in Japan.

THE FOURTH PROTOCOL

Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan play a game of espionage chess in this cold-war thriller which features a squadron of SAS helicopters flying between the legs of the Orwell Bridge in Ipswich.

The Orwell Bridge in Ipswich

DAD’S ARMY

Many of the external scenes from Dad’s Army, the original series not the film were filmed in Thetford and the surrounding area of the Brecks.  You can just imagine the ramblings and sayings as you wander through the forests.

Thetford Forest stands in the heart of the strange landscape known as The Brecks (c) Ben Schofield