SC on TV: 8 television shows filmed at the Southbank Centre

After all, here we are slap bang in the middle of London, right by the Thames, just down the road from a television studio; location scouts surely must fancy strolling down here and phoning it in once in a while.

No. Turns out we were wrong. Very wrong. There may be many rumours of our buildings’ appearance on the small screen, but we could find very little by the way of concrete proof, if you’ll pardon the pun.

And so our list is without episodes from recent television series including, Spooks, Unforgiven, Defending the Guilty, and Temple. We’re fairly certain they did have scenes shot here, but we can’t prove it, and we’d hate to be accused of peddling fake news your way. Thankfully though, we did at least manage to pin down eight examples from the last half a century, and here they are.

We kick off our list with shouty 1970s special agent show The Professionals, and the third episode of its second series to be precise. Titled ‘First Night’ the episode begins with an Israeli government minister arriving for a concert in our Royal Festival Hall only to be kidnapped as he does so.

Cue gunfire, balaclavas, and a lot of screaming as two armed assailants (undeterred by continuity that has the weather changing from sunny, to windy, to recently rained in the space of 30 seconds) bundle the minister into a waiting hovercraft on Festival Pier and speed away along the Thames. The episode was aired in October 1978, and gives you a great look at the river side of Royal Festival Hall before its pedestrianisation and the addition of shops, restaurants.

Watch the episode on Dailymotion

Opened in 1967, the brutalist architecture of Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery very quickly became the go to location of London-based television producers looking to portray a futuristic landscape.

One of the first shows to do so was Doctor Who, for their 1973 serial Frontier in Space, using the stark concrete of our arts centre as a 26th century earth prison, which seems a bit harsh to us. Still, you can get some good glimpses of our site’s brutalist buildings in their formative years as the Doctor attempts to escape whoever it is who’s holding him hostage this time (Orgons, Daleks, Draconians, we couldn’t keep up. Someone will write in, it’s fine).

Ooh look, we’re on Netflix! Perhaps they’re going to explore our amazing architecture, or show an incredible performance in one of our… oh… wait… no, someone’s been shot on the Queen’s Walk again.

This time it’s a civil servant and old flame of secret agent Keira Knightley (yes, that Keira Knightley) who duly spends the rest of the series Black Doves determining what happened to her, well, her ex ex, whilst a lot of other people get shot in the process. Not on the Queen’s Walk though, that becomes more of a go-to spot for wistful wintry contemplation for the rest of the series – poor Keira, she didn’t even get to stop by the Winter Market for a mulled wine.

Shut it! Time for another 1970s shouty police drama to make an appearance at the Southbank Centre. This time it’s The Sweeney, kipper ties and flared trousers, and the eighth episode of their first series.

Broadcast in February, 1975 ‘Cover Story’ sees Regan (John Thaw; owner of the toughest paper round in Britain given he was incredibly only 32 when this episode was filmed) become romantically involved with a crime journalist. But when she becomes implicated in a major (and yet non-specific) crime, Regan and Carter (Dennis Waterman) must tail her to a very quiet Southbank Centre (seriously, where is everyone?), where she meets a mystery man by the water.

Watch the episode on Dailymotion

From an early on screen appearance to a much more modern one and 2018’s Requiem. Though most of its six episodes are filmed in Wales the series begins here at the Southbank Centre, where lead character Matilda (Lydia Wilson), a leading cellist, is set to perform. However, unexpectedly, her mother Janice commits suicide, in front of Matilda, sparking a chain of mysterious goings on that leads the cellist away from the stage and back to her homeland.

‘Requiem was particularly impressive for conjuring menace and chills amid the brutalist modernism of London’s South Bank,’ said The Telegraph, who’ve clearly never faced off with a bunch of pigeons beneath Queen Elizabeth Hall before.

Doctor Who’s use of the Southbank Centre’s concrete brutalism to deputise for a futuristic earth prison, wasn’t the only use of our site by a popular 1970s science fiction series. In 1979, it was the turn of Blake’s 7, with a number of scenes from the eleventh episode of series two filmed here. ‘Gambit’ sees Blake and his crew land in Freedom City, one of the last places not under Federation control. But which Central London location could possibly deputise for the bleak streets of Freedom City? Yep, everyone back to Hayward Gallery again, as the stars repeatedly cower beneath one of our stairwells.

Watch the episode on Dailymotion

Given the many London locations that have been depicted in the televisual smash hit, Killing Eve, we’re a bit put out it took until series three, episode two to get a look in to be honest. Still, here we finally are, the setting for MI6’s Carolyn Martens’ (Fiona Shaw) typically awkward meeting with Audrey (Ayoola Smart), one of her son Kenny’s colleagues from Bitter Pill.

It may only be a relatively short walk and talk for the pair, from the doors of Queen Elizabeth Hall to those of Hayward Gallery, but to be honest it’s just nice to be shown off as something other than a bleak futuristic landscape or a location for criminal shenanigans.

Watch the episode on BBC iPlayer

No, no, we know what you’re thinking, but hear us out. Yes, this is an annual singing competition, but every edition of the contest has been broadcast, and it was originally conceived by the European Broadcasting Union as a light entertainment show. Plus, frankly, we were struggling for an eighth inclusion (see Requiem). So yes, we’re featuring it.

In 1960, the contest was hosted right here in our Royal Festival Hall, and the whole broadcast can be found on YouTube. But we’ll spare you that… and the singing… and instead share with you the intro which includes – despite a somewhat optimistic commentator using the phrase ‘you can clearly see…’ – some decidedly dark outdoor shots, but also a great look around the hall with our boxes allocated to different national broadcasters.