Where Is The Long Call Filmed? | TV & Radio - Daily Express

The Long Call: Ben Aldridge stars in dramatic trailer

The Long Call is the new detective drama from ITV. The four-part show will premiere Monday night at 9pm and introduce fans to another iconic Ann Cleeves character creation. Following DI Matthew Venn (played by Ben Aldridge), the detective is forced to return home and face the town that rejected him years earlier for his sexuality.

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Where is The Long Call set?

The Long Call is a detective drama with a twist, as it follows one man confronting the challenges of his past during an emotionally traumatic case.

Matthew makes the reluctant trip home with his husband Jonathan Venn (Declan Bennett), but he will not be received by a warm welcome.

Years earlier, he had to leave his town as he felt he couldn’t be true to his sexuality there.

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Rejected by both his family and the local church, Matthew will come face to face with one of the most emotionally taxing ordeals in his life.

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The Long Call: Four-part mini-series (Image: ITV)

The Long Call: Based on the novel series on Ann Cleeves (Image: ITV)

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The town itself is set in North Devon, a small community that has not changed much in the 20 years following Matthew’s departure.

The seaside town is very much stuck in its ways, making life exceedingly difficult for anyone that doesn’t conform to their pre-existing ideals.

Viewers will get to see the beauty of the location over the course of the show's four episodes.

Inspired by the Ann Cleeves novel of the same name, viewers will be familiar with her work from shows such as Vera and Shetland, both also inspired by her other books.

The Long Call: Stars Ben Aldridge as DI Matthew Venn (Image: ITV)

Where is The Long Call filmed?

The bulk of the series was filmed in Bristol, while the majority of the external shots were filmed on location on the north Devon coast.

This included Ilfracombe Harbour, the beautiful seaside holiday destination.

Dennis Stephenson star Martin Shaw recently spoke about the filming of the series, gushing about the locations of the shoot.

Speaking to The Sun, Shaw said: "It’s absolutely beautiful. It just seeps into your souls.

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“On one particular day for the baptism scene, I was at one point up to my chest in the sea. The waves are coming backwards and forwards and knocking me off balance.

"It was cold, the weather was quite wild and we had a lot of takes because the weather kept changing.

“And I couldn’t get enough of it! I just wanted to get back in the water because it was just so primal and exciting. It’s a very beautiful place."

The fundamentalist Christian church of the series will play a major role in the plot and is one of the main reasons Matthew made the decision to leave the show.

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Speaking to ITV, writer Kelly Jones explained how she consulted a woman who grew up in a similar environment as a way to understand the clash of values.

Jones explained: "She told me the church was completely withdrawn from all aspects of modern life - no TV, no pop music, no trendy clothes, nothing ‘worldly’.

"Because their focus was always on the next life, the Second Coming. For her, it had been a stifling and repressive life and she had run away, aged 18, in the middle of the night, with a bin bag full of clothes, and made her own way - totally alone.

"Her story fascinated me - that a woman my age could have had this experience, in my ordinary Somerset town in the late nineties, when my only concern was trying to get into the (single, terrible) local club."

The Long Call premieres October 25 at 9pm on ITV.

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