I have finished documenting every exterior location in the whole series. What this means is that for every exterior scene or location, I have grabbed at least one screen capture and put it on the site, along with text describing the whole story. So now the story is comprehensively told through text and screen captures as well as showing many of the locations they were filmed at.

I have also been adding the outstanding locations from those screen captures to the ‘Help Me Find” page, so now I have a complete list of the remaining locations left to find.

As always, if you can help me out with any of these I would be most grateful. Use the comments facility to send me a message.

I had a quick email conversation with Andrew Morgan, Production Assistant and stand-in Director for some episodes, about which studio was used for the interior sets.

You could tell which scenes were shot in a studio, and which were on location. The studio scenes were a lot more crisp visually and the lighting a lot better for interior scenes.

The intention was for there to be a lot more studio work involved in the series. The Greek Film Centre stated that as they had funded a large proportion of the production, most of it should be filmed there. And thankfully it was, as we get to see so much more of Crete’s beauty. It’s hard to see where more studio scenes could have been filmed, really.

I asked Andrew where the studio scenes were filmed – were they in Greece or in the UK? The end credits held the clue – “BBC Birmingham” was displayed at the end. He said it was filmed at Pebble Mill studios in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

The BBC acquired the lease to the site for a peppercorn rent in the 1950s, and plans were drawn up for a new National Production Centre in 1967. Construction was completed in 1971 and was officially opened by Princess Margaret on the 10th June 1971.

There were 2 main studios, A and B. A measured 6,500 square feet, B measured 40 x 25 feet, and was used for local news and sport programmes. Studio C was added later – the foyer was converted into a studio once the reception was moved elsewhere. This is where programmes like ‘Pebble Mill at One’ were filmed.

Pebble Mill closed in 2004 once all technology from the site was transferred to The Mailbox in Birmingham City Centre and the BBC Drama Village at the Selly Oak campus of the University of Birmingham. This was due to various factors – problems with the lease, the way in which TV programmes were now being produced, and also because of ‘concrete cancer’, which affected parts of the site. The building was eventually demolished in 2006.

The site is now home to a dental hospital.

Photos from the Birmingham Mail, there are more on their website.

Just before Haldane gets to the orange grove and meets Annika for the first time, he stops to allow a shepherd to move his flock of sheep across the road.

This is near Selinari Canyon, on the old road that runs parallel to Motorway 90 / E75.

This is also just north of an earlier shot of Haldane driving on the motorway.

Check out the Episode 1 page for more photos and Street View / Maps views.

When Haldane leaves the Kera Monastery, he stops to get a bite to eat.

This is the Cafe Mezedopolio in Vrachasi, and is just down the road from Annika’s house.

The people watching him are actually sat across the street in a separate seating area. The mountains behind them are the same ones that are visible from Annika’s house.

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Check out the Episode 1 page for Street View and Maps images.

I’ve found photos of Haldane’s cottage on estate agents Zoe Napier‘s website. The property is called Miranda Cottage, and was last sold in 2020.

Description (from Zoe Napier website).

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY A charming three-bedroom waterside cottage with a wealth of history and character, dating back to 18th Century, albeit not listed. The property was originally one of the six historical public houses in Heybridge named the ‘Chelmer Brigg’ and more recently owned by the same family for the past 50 years. ‘Miranda Cottage’ now forms part of a row of cottages down by the lock, having a defining weather boarded front façade with rear elevations providing accommodation behind the line of its neighbouring properties, known as a flying freehold. Another great benefit to this property is the two part cellar with power, plumbing and lighting and to the rear, the property benefits from having parking and a garage, together with additional permit parking adjacent to the lock.

SETTING AND LOCATION The property is situated in an enviable location, adjacent to the Chelmer & Blackwater Canal Lock with its traditional Towpath at the mouth of the Canal which flows into the Blackwater Estuary. A popular coastal & waterside destination with views across the estuary from the property, allows for immediate walks alongside the canal and along the sea wall with numerous places to rest and enjoy the surroundings, together with a choice of pubs and Tea Rooms for refreshment. The village is also home to the Blackwater Sailing Club with the river being an active hub for boats and yachts of varying sizes, together with holiday barges enjoying the canal. Across the water from Heybridge is Northey Island which is run and owned by the National Trust, being accessible from Maldon at Low tide. The Essex Coast Path passes the property and continues east to Goldhanger and the marshes at Tollesbury and to the west is Maldon and beyond on to The Dengie Hundred.

Local amenities can be found in Heybridge for day to day needs with a further choice of larger supermarkets and shops found 3 miles from the property in the Maritime town of Maldon. Heybridge has its own primary school with Maldon offering both primary and secondary education. The nearest rail station is at Witham with train journey times into London being approximately 45 minutes.

At the beginning of Episode 2, Hebden stages a mock attack on a “Jerry Halftrack”, using a bus as a substitute..

This location is off Motorway 90 north-west of Limnes.

Check out the episode 2 page for Street View images.

I emailed the BBC’s written archives department in Reading this week to enquire whether I could visit and view any documents related to the series in their archives. I was specifically looking for records of call sheets, filming locations, anything that may have any details that would help in my quest to find the locations from the series.

I received a letter today that unfortunately, the BBC had not retained any production files for the series.

I still have a couple of other avenues to follow. I’m contacting the Greek Film Centre to see if they have any documentation, and would also like to find the whereabouts of the Greek Production Manager, Petros Raptes (or Raptis) to ask him questions related to the series (if indeed he is still with us). There are other production staff whose names are in the credits and IMDB – Andrew Morgan, Michael McDermott and Colin Dudley.

When looking for this location, I found that the town of Neapoli itself was too low against the mountains compared to some of the scenes of the house. However, after finding the right elevation in Street View, I could work out the general area that the crew would’ve filmed from.

It was clear that the general area was Vryses. Scanning the streets, I couldn’t see anything similar using Google Maps around the town so I decided to check the more famous landmarks – it was evident that the series was also used as a tourism vehicle so it did use quite a few famous places (Gorges, Churches and so on).

On checking photos of the Monastery of Kremasta, it looks like the archway we see every time in the series is still there.

Notice the same details in the Tripadvisor photo below. The style of archway, the telegraph pole and the door to the right are all still there.

In other episodes, we see another view from the other side of the archway door. We frequently see Matheos climbing the stairs and turning to the right behind the building on the upper level.

At the beginning of episode 6, Haldane and Annika are driving on the Elounda to Fourni road. They find Bernard Kingsley / Duncan Neve lying injured on the floor next to his truck. The road has been found – check out the episode 6 page for more information.

I actually found this location completely by chance. I was actually looking for the two locations of the scenes where the Police cars are driving to the funeral in Dafnai (Fourni). This location was on what I believed to be the same road.

I started to document the route and sequence of the drive from Annika’s to the crash site. I think I’ve found pretty much nearly all of the route now which is one of the key sequences of the whole series. Check it out on the Episode 7 page, it’s pretty thorough.