MobLand; IMDb
Filming at Strand on the Green
Production companies like to try and keep these things quiet, to deter rubberneckers from going to have a look and getting in the way, but the appearance of trucks unloading mountains of equipment kind of gives the game away.
From the look of all the gear deposited by the roadside at Strand on the Green on Friday, the film crew mean serious business.
The gear unloaded at Strand on the Green
Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Joanne Froggatt star in gangland drama
The Chiswick Calendar’s eyes on the film set tell us they are filming the next series of MobLand, the British crime drama series created by Ronan Bennett for Paramount+, and directed by Guy Richie, starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren.
The Harrigans, a London crime family, are in a deathly struggle with arch rivals the Stevensons. Tom Hardy plays Harry Da Souza, the family’s fixer – whose house, I am reliably informed, is for the purpose of filming 64 Strand on the Green. Joanne Froggatt plays Harry’s neglected wife Jan.
Pierce Brosnan and Tom Hardy’; Image: Paramount+, IMDb
‘Tom Hardy can be very persuasive’, wrote Jack Seale in The Guardian when the first series came out earlier this year.
‘This Guy Ritchie gangster drama is so cartoonish you could dismiss it as crass twaddle. But watching Hardy threaten people is irresistible.
‘In Taboo, people did what he said because he’d growled something intimidatingly gothic at them; in Locke, they knew he’d only phone back later if they didn’t give in; in the Kray brothers biopic Legend, there were two Tom Hardys and they were both holding claw hammers.
‘The idea that a Tom Hardy character cajoling, threatening or influencing someone is an art form in itself is the core of MobLand.‘
Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan as Maeve and Conrad Harrigan; Image: Paramount+, IMDb
‘There’s charisma aplenty in this star-studded cast’
Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren are Conrad and Maeve Harrigan. Though Conrad is on the face of it the head of the family, in reality it is Maeve, who in true Helen Mirren style, is the real boss.
‘The Harrigans are also unhinged in a fun, terrifying sort of way’, wrote David Opie in Empire Magazine. ‘There’s charisma aplenty in this star-studded cast’.
They were due to film at 64 Strand on the Green, aka Harry Da Souza’s house, on Monday 24 November and are filming at the Bell & Crown on Tuesday. The pub will be closed for the duration and also for a half day on 3 December, as the filming continues for a couple of weeks.
No easy task protecting it all from being nicked
On series one they cut it fine, with several of the episodes written during production and filming finishing only four days before the premiere. They also had filming equipment stolen on more than one occasion, leading to the sacking of the security team.
That may explain the looks I was getting from the guys unloading the gear as I took photographs, or maybe they were just getting into the spirit of the thing, practising their hard man stares. Let’s hope their filming experience in Chiswick goes more smoothly than it did in East London.
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