This is one TV series that could well go as viral as the fictional app it takes its name from. Set in the North West town of Bolton, Red Rose is the latest offering from BBC Three and centres around a group of teenagers who get tangled up in the dark web, when a mysterious app ‘blooms’ on their smartphones, threatening them with dangerous consequences if they don’t meet its demands.
Written by brothers, Michael and Paul Clarkson, Red Rose is, as the BBC puts it, “ultimately a story of friendship told through the prism of a classic horror-thriller”. But it’s also a portrait of a town, featuring countless locations in and around Bolton, in the North West of Engand.
Putting Bolton on the TV map
The show’s creators say, “We’ve had the amazing opportunity to work in LA, but Bolton is our childhood home. We wanted to showcase the town that made us and explore the key issues facing young people today. Working with the BBC to bring this genre-led story back home to Bolton, and using our experience from The Haunting of Bly Manor, has been well good!”
As one of the UK’s leading agencies providing filming and photography locations outside of London, we were able to give the show’s producers plenty of options to choose from when they first enquired about residential locations they’d be able to reach easily from Bolton.
Two key Red Rose locations
Eventually, the team settled on two filming locations in Cheshire: location #2646 for character Becky Fox’s house and location #2865 for the opening sequence, which shows a young teenage girl jumping from the roof of her family home.
Keep an eye out for these high-end residential locations (if you’re not already hiding behind the sofa), when this new eight-part horror series gets its first outing on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer on 15 August! Not in the UK? Don’t worry, Red Rose will also air on Netflix across the world.
Watch the official trailer here – Red Rose