The Heath in Runcorn is a popular hub for film production

Press Release

Runcorn: May 7th, 2024: Acknowledged as one of the UK’s most successful independently run business and technical parks, The Heath in Runcorn has also been a leading filming location for the past 20 years.
Home to over 125 individual businesses supporting more than 2,000 jobs, the 60 acre site also offers its buildings and facilities for use by production companies and has appeared in numerous high-end television series and films. The Heath is a one-stop shop for all filming needs and its location, close to regional motorway, rail and air networks means it has easy access to the North-West including Liverpool City Region, Cheshire and even North Wales.

Situated in a 24-7 secure environment, it can be adapted for multiple scenarios for internal and external filming. The site provides Production Base accommodation with over two acres of Base Parking with Prop Storage facilities and Set Building space along with specialist on-site support services from skilled tradesmen across multiple disciplines. The Heath has its own café, conference facility, gym and logistics centre. It’s a location with offices, laboratories and lots of green space with flexibility to offer environments suitable for various scenes including reception areas, stairwells, corridors, basements, labs, offices and much more.

Originally the location for popular BBC police drama Merseybeat and the iconic sit-com Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps series starring Sheridan Smith, The Heath has more recently been the location for major hit TV productions including The Tower and Sherwood.

The Heath is owned by SOG Group, a business that also specialises in masterminding site regeneration schemes. In recent years SOG played a key role in regenerating a major former pharmaceutical site in East London and utilised the vacant facilities as locations for high-end television and cinematic film productions. Productions filmed there include Doctor Strange, Avengers, Humans, Black Mirror, Roadkill and Bulletproof as well as many other films, TV dramas, commercials and comedies.

SOG’s initiative at Londoneast-UK led to the construction of London’s largest film and TV production centre which is currently underway with studios being developed by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council in conjunction with global real estate leader Hackman Capital Partners. The studios sit at the heart of a film and production village which will ultimately create thousands of jobs.

Ryan Lewis, who heads SOG’s filming division, says he sees no reason why the template SOG created in Dagenham cannot be replicated in the North-West to make the region the most powerful base for filming outside of the capital. “I cannot see a reason why we can’t replicate something like that here as long as we all share the same vision, have common goals, and the determination to make it work. It is amazing what can be achieved between the public and private sectors when no one wants to take the credit,” says Ryan.

It’s a vision shared by Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram who believes the North-West can become ‘the Hollywood of the North’. Liverpool has a long history as a significant filming location. The city was the backdrop for iconic 1980’s film Chariots of Fire and more recently featured in The Batman among a host of high-end TV and film productions.

Ryan adds: “The Heath benefits from being geographically located mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester. Runcorn is situated in the centre of England with superb transport links to London and the rest of the country with two international airports within a 30 minute drive. We’ve developed good relationships with the film offices of both cities and The Heath is now a key and highly respected filming location within the North-West.”

SOG’s facilities at Runcorn have been adapted for police stations, court rooms, morgues, laboratory scenes, roof top filming and much more. SOG’s secret for success as a film location is its ‘can do’ attitude and its ability to provide the level of support production houses require on a site that has 24-hour security and CCTV monitoring.

BFI, The British Film Institute, say film and TV contributed over £6b to the UK economy in 2022 with Adrian Wootton, CEO of the British Film Commission, stating that filming contributes more to the UK economy than the oil and gas industry. Filming makes a significant contribution to the Liverpool City Region economy too.

Ryan says: “The North-West is currently the fastest growing region for filming in the UK and with Liverpool City Region’s ambition to build a new studio and production facilities, this can only strengthen and reinforce the North-West’s position as a leading player in the industry, SOG’s aim is to attract even more production houses to utilise our unique location offering at The Heath.”

The Heath has received numerous plaudits from production houses who have used the location.

James Muirhead of Tower 2 (a drama written by Patrick Harbinson who also wrote Homeland), says: “The Heath Business Park offers a plethora of locations within. There is ample room for a unit base, crew cars along with techs. In striking distance of the city of Liverpool, it offers an excellent base to work from production offices too.”

Claire Newton, Location Manager for Channel Four’s Hollyoaks, says: “Filming at The Heath was a dream for me. It has everything I could need – an abundance of parking, a variety of different looking locations including a large empty building that you can have to yourself and friendly, accommodating staff who bend over backwards to help accommodate your crew requirements even at very short notice!”
Liverpool Film Office says The Heath has become a popular production hub. “The team at The Heath have always gone the extra mile to support production at the location, and the site has so much to offer including production office space, location, set build space. The Liverpool Film Office look forward to continuing to work with The Heath and attracting more production to film in the Halton area.”

To find out more about filming at The Heath visit https://theheath.com/filming/
For more information on The Heath Business and Technical Park and filming visit: www.theheath.com

Filming contact: Ryan Lewis T: 07809 622343/E: r.lewis@sog.ltd.uk

Media contact: Paul Smith Associates (PSA) +44 (0) 7771 623 007
paul@paulsmithassociates.co.uk