The cast and crew tell all.
When British doctor Matthew Nolan (Richard Armitage) is accused of manslaughter by the Chinese authorities in ITV’s Red Eye, DC Hana Nolan (Jing Lusi) accompanies him on the return flight from London to Beijing to face justice.
But Nolan is adamant that there was no one in the car when he crashed, which raises the question: what’s really going on?
“Red Eye is a brilliantly addictive thriller,” said ITV’s head of drama Polly Hill. “Thanks to Peter A Dowling’s scripts, the story will have the audience gripped and continually surprised throughout.”
Armitage, Lusi and co pitched up in a number of different locations during filming, which you can read all about below.
Red Eye location guide: Where was the ITV thriller filmed?
Filming was stripped across multiple locations, one being the plane, which you might be surprised to hear wasn’t a set.
“Before we started filming, we weren’t too sure how the space was going to work because it wasn’t a purpose-built set where you can remove the walls for cameras, it was a real plane,” explained Lusi.
“Every time we filmed a scene, someone would have to close the doors manually, so it didn’t look like there was a door open on the side of the plane in mid-air. Thanks to the director, cinematographer and the phenomenal crew, they made true magic out of that small space.”
Read more:
- Red Eye star says viewers are “never going to guess” the outcome
- Richard Armitage on what Red Eye shares with Harlan Coben thrillers
Armitage confessed that he expected filming on the plane to be “hell” because of the length of the shoot, which was five to six weeks, and the fact that they were living through a “hot spell”.
“But by the second day, we’d made our home in the business class cabin and we just loved it, it was brilliant,” he added.
“Kieron [Hawkes], our director, and the crew developed a special camera rig so that they could create these seamless shots moving through the aeroplane, which was very much in the vein of Flightplan [which was written by Red Eye’s Peter A Dowling], so I think it looks really good.”
Armitage praised the level of “detail”, such as the “lighting palette”, which made it look like they “were above the clouds”.
“I believed everything I was looking at, and it was always a surprise to me after a take when they opened the doors and we walked down the steps into a black sound studio, it really felt like we were in the air,” he added.
Executive producer Lachlan MacKinnon also said that on the surface, a plane can be “quite a boring space”, so it was about “finding different camera angles and ways to bring it to life”.
“Luckily Pete knows the plane so well, so there were interesting areas to explore like the crew quarters, which most of us don’t even know are there, and the hold, which we all know exists but what’s it like inside?” he explained. “It takes you to a whole new level.”
Some of the cast also pitched up at Stansted Airport, which stood in for Heathrow, where they were based for two days.
“It was a real working airport, they didn’t shut it down for us, so we were filming among real people with flights coming in. It was completely unpredictable,” said Lusi.
The director also revealed that the authorities couldn’t give them “specific times in advance” of when they could shoot “because of planes coming in”.
“So we had to be nimble on the day, it was an ever-changing schedule, which made it very difficult,” he said. “It was terrifying, but also exhilarating. Definitely one of the maddest filmmaking experiences I’ve ever had.”
Lusi discussed a scene in the airport in which Nolan wriggles out of Hana’s grasp and sprints to the departure lounge to spread the word of his arrest.
“There were about 150 supporting artists around Richard and everyone else was a real passenger waiting for a flight,” she said. “We had a sign up saying we were filming, but if they were anything like me when I’m travelling, they might have had noise cancelling headphones and their head in a book. Then they would have suddenly seen Richard yelling like a crazy guy and people dressed as armed police swooping in.
“I would have probably wet myself, but there were people applauding after the takes. It was like being part of a violent flashmob.”
Armitage described it as “quite a big ordeal” and one that felt comparable to his time on Spooks, “where they didn’t have massive budgets, but they would set up a long lens and dive into very public places”.
“It was like live theatre but for people that haven’t consciously bought a ticket,” he said. “We rehearsed what we were going to do in a different corner of the airport, but we only had half an hour’s notice before we could shoot, and I knew we only really had one or two chances to get it right.
“When I watched it back weeks later, my heart was still thumping because I just remembered that feeling beforehand, knowing that I couldn’t screw this up and something could go wrong. It was nail-biting.”
And despite China playing a key role in the drama, filming solely took place in and around London.
“It’s always nice to travel, but actually it wasn’t really necessary for this shoot,” added Armitage. “The world they created for Beijing was pretty amazing. I walked onto that set, and it was a ‘wow’ moment. I really felt like I was down a back street in Wangfujing, it was fantastic.
“I was more disappointed we weren’t up in the air in the aeroplane, but that would have been a six-week flight. I still feel like we should have got some air miles from somewhere for the amount of time we spent in that business class cabin.”
Red Eye airs on ITV1 and ITVX from Sunday 21st April 2024.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.