Channel 4 dramedy Screw, starring Nina Sosanya and Derry Girls’ Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, offers a darkly funny insight into the British prison system.
As Caroline Hollick, Channel 4’s Head of Drama, explains: “Screw offers the audience an insight in to the challenges and struggles faced behind bars for both prisoners and officers; told with humour, humanity and hope.”
The gripping series is set almost entirely within the confines of the fictional Long Marsh Prison, and viewers will no doubt be left wondering about where the show was filmed, and whether Long Marsh is a real place.
Read on for everything you need to know abut the filming location for Channel 4’s Screw.
Where is Screw filmed?
!["Screw,]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/01/Screw-on-Channel-4-c431280.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Screw,")
The Channel 4 prison drama was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, in a “life-size replica of a prison wing,” according to Screw cast member Nina Sosanya (His Dark Materials).
“It’s a life-size replica of a prison wing, the sort that might have been built in the mid-19th century where it’s about the railings and the steel steps,” she explained. “It was built over three levels within this huge hangar in Glasgow, and goes around two corners. Once you step through the gates, you’re actually in this sort of living, breathing, breathing prison with 100 or so cells, most of which can open and lock.
“There are offices and pool tables, classrooms and medical stores… You’d be forgiven for thinking that the series is going to look claustrophobic or samey, but it’s exactly the opposite because these three levels allow the camera to sweep from one place to another… You can go from level one to level three, into a cell and out to the office, all in one. It makes it really dynamic.”
Sosanya’s co-star Jamie-Lee O’Donnell added: “Every single time someone walked onto the set for the first time, you could see their jaw drop as they took in the vastness of it. You forget that it’s not a real building because it’s so well made and authentic – even the doors are really heavy. I slammed my finger in one of them on the last scene of the last day, which was pretty painful!”
Is Screw prison Long Marsh Prison real?
The prison at the heart of Channel 4 drama series Screw, called Long Marsh Prison, is fictional.
The prison was filmed in Scotland, including both interior and exterior shots.
Screw will premiere on Thursday 6th January at 9pm on Channel 4. While you wait, take a look at our other Drama coverage, or find out what else to watch with our TV Guide.