Film & TV Locations in Dorset

Dorset has been the star of many a film and TV drama and it's no surprise, with the unspoilt countryside, dramatic coastline and many impressive manor houses and gardens all offering a beautiful setting to really bring the script to life.

On Chesil Beach

Dorset's unique 17-mile shingle spit looked magnificent in the 2018 film adaptation of Ian McKewan's novel On Chesil Beach. Set in the 1960s, this powerful drama starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle confronts the emotional fears and conflicts of newly weds that come from very different family upbringings.

Broadchurch

West Dorset’s stunning coastline played a starring role in ITV1 drama, Broadchurch, starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman and written and created by Chris Chibnall.

Sites which featured in the series include a number of locations in and around the seaside resort of West Bay including East Cliff, West Bay Harbour and the Quay West development as well as other locations nearby at Eype and Freshwater.

Far From the Madding Crowd

In 2013, Hollywood film crews descended on Sherborne and Mapperton House near Beaminster to shoot Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Hardy’s fourth novel and first major literary success Far From the Madding Crowd.

Starring A-listers Carey Mulligan, Tom Sturrdige and Mathias Schoenaerts, film locations included Mapperton House, Sherborne Abbey, Castleton Church and Abbey Close, the streets of which were transformed into an 1870s market square in the town of Casterbridge.

Dunkirk

Dorset locations are also featured in a number of scenes in Christopher Nolan's 2017 wartime epic action thriller, Dunkirk, with both Weymouth Harbour and Swanage Railway making an appearance.

Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Harry Styles, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance and James D'Arcy (also known for his Broadchurch appearance), tell the story of Operation Dynamo, on land, sea and by air.

This is Hardy country

Dorset is Thomas Hardy's Wessex and with much of the landscape remaining unchanged it has been the location for many adaptations of his famous novels.

West Dorset and Purbeck have provided locations for the 2015 and 1967 versions of  'Far From The Madding Crowd', 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' for the BBC starring Gemma Arterton on and ITV's 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' starring Ciaran Hinds.

Adaptations of classic novels

Some lavish productions of Jane Austen's novels have also found a home here.

Johnny Lee Miller starred in 'Mansfield Park' set in Purbeck and the major film adaptation of 'Emma', starring Gwyneth Paltrow was filmed in Evershot and Dorchester.

Her classic love story, 'Persuasion', was filmed in Lyme Regis with Rupert Penry-Jones playing Captain Frederick Wentworth.

Lyme Regis was the home of author John Fowles and the 1980 film adaptation of his classic novel 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' was filmed locally with a cloaked Meryl Streep famously standing on the Cobb Harbour.

In 2017, Hayley Atwell and Matthew MacFadyen filmed scenes in Swanage for BBC mini-series, 'Howards End', a four-part adaptation of EM Forster's classic novel.

Big screen blockbusters

Durdle Door beach in Purbeck was used for ‘Nanny McPhee’ with Emma Thompson and Colin Firth!

Portland Harbour was the location for the British film directed by Richard Curtis ‘The Boat that Rocked’ starring Rhys Ifans and Bill Nighy.

Just a few more…

Bournemouth beach and pier featured in the first episode of the popular ITV series 'The Durrells'. The family then relocated from the famous Dorset seaside town to the Greek island of Corfu during the formative years of Gerald Durrells life.

In 2011, Dorset's towns and villages starred alongside Bond girl Gemma Arterton in 'Tamara Drewe', an adaptation of the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds and Dame Maggie Smith's latest feature film, ' From Time to Time', written by Dorset's own Julian Fellowes, was filmed at Athelhampton House in West Dorset.