ITV crime drama Holding begins this week, based on Graham Norton’s bestselling book of the same name and starring Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones) as a shy police officer in over his head.
The series also co-stars Derry Girls‘ Siobhan McSweeney, Charlene McKenna, and Oscar-winner Brenda Fricker, and is set in the remote Irish village of Duneen, where nothing much happens – that is, until human remains are unexpectedly discovered.
But where was the ITV series filmed, and did it take place in County Cork, where Graham Norton’s book is set?
Read on for everything you need to know about where Holding was filmed.
Where was ITV series Holding filmed?
!["Charlene]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/03/Charlene-Holding-565abca.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413" "\"Charlene")
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Holding’s Conleth Hill revealed that the majority of the series was filmed in West Cork, Ireland, with most taking place in the likes of Skibbereen, Castletownshend, and Drimoleague.
“We filmed in two different villages in West Cork,” he said. “The main… shop and everything else, the bar – were all in Drimoleague. And then they – everything was on location. There’s no studio, there was no things [made] specially… It was all in and around Skibbereen and all West Cork, we didn’t travel very far.”
He continued: “I think that the landscape is definitely another character in it… The weird thing about West Cork is you’ve got this cosmopolitan element, but you’ve also this still very rural element. And so you have all these mixes that contradictions within that place.
“The way they talk about it within the script, you know, he [PJ] says that people looked at a map and decided this [West Cork] was the safest place to live in the world from fallout from nuclear [war]. So there’s an argument that it’s a place that people go to hide as well.”
!["Conleth]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/03/Holding-conleth-hill-clinton-liberty-7704f18.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413" "\"Conleth")
Speaking at a press event, series writer and executive producer Karen Cogan said: “It was case of getting there as soon as possible and making sure we film there [in Cork].
“The juxtaposition of dark and light is very typical [of] Ireland and especially Cork, there [are] so many contradictions to the place, it made us cement that tone of light and dark.
“It’s very inherently Irish and every new place we went to was exciting. It all lifted us up. Every place felt like a ‘tick’ that we were in the right physical place to do it.”
- Holding’s Conleth Hill: ‘This is the best role I’ve ever had – including Game of Thrones’ Varys’
Holding will begin airing on ITV on Monday 14th March at 9pm. You can find something to watch with our TV Guide.
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