I have a confession to make, I have not seen a single episode of the highly regarded series ‘Peaky Blinders’. There’s so much television out there that I’ve simply not been able to make the time. I have, however been to many of the show’s filming locations across the north-west of England, mainly because there’s been so much filming around Merseyside and Greater Manchester it’s hard to avoid. Given I’ve never watched it I didn’t feel qualified blog about it, until now. What changed? Well sometimes a film location is on your doorstep and becomes impossible to ignore.
In September 2024 a letter came through our door from a production company called Oblik Productions Ltd informing us that filming would be taking place in October at the former Pilkington Glass Factory in St Helens, Merseyside. It explained that there would be eight night shoots from the 7th to the 16th October and warned us that there would be loud noises such as simulated gun fire. All very exciting!
Now filming in St Helens is not uncommon, major productions have arrived in the town quite regularly over the years. https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/24664897.locations-st-helens-used-film-crews-tv-netflix-film/ There are often telltale fluorescent signs appearing on lamp posts across the area which direct crew to where they need to be. Some locations get reused often and the one chosen for ‘The Immortal Man’ was the former Pilkington Glass factory site, known as the Watson Street Works. https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/23460011.pilkington-relocate-operations-watson-street-site-greengate/ This industrial site, used since the early 1800s, was only formally closed in early 2024. The area and buildings have been used most notably in the following;
Official Secrets 2019 film starring Keira Knightley and Matt Smith. Based on the true story of a whistleblower in the run up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Pilkington site doubles for a scene where characters visit an Iraqi glass factory in the search for weapons.
Secret Invasion 2023 Marvel miniseries. Starring Samuel L Jackson, Emilia Clarke and Ben Mendelsohn. I wrote about the filming for this in a previous blog here. The Pilkington site doubled as a post nuclear disaster area in some generic eastern European country. The climatic final scenes include a CGI fight which sees one of the chimneys knocked down.
Blitz 2024 film starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by Steve McQueen. The World War II munitions factory that Saorise Ronan’s character works at is one of the derelict factory buildings on the Pilkington site.
Toxic Town 2025 Netflix television series starring Jodie Whittaker and Aimee Lou Wood. The programme is based on the true story of the terrible impact the inadequate clean up of a former steelworks in Corby had on families living there. Some of the Pilkington site was used as the former steelworks.
That’s just a few prominent examples that I know of. You can see the location lends itself to a certain type of use – it’s self contained with open spaces and empty 19th century industrial buildings which haven’t had much modernisation and are now standing disused. From what has been rumoured about the ‘Peaky Blinders’ film it’s apparently set during World War II, which the location easily fits – as seen by its use for the ‘Blitz’ film.
Back to 2024 – now while it didn’t say ‘Peaky Blinders’ specifically on the letter, it only took a quick look online to find the connection. Many films use a code name while in production but as it turns out ‘The Immortal Man’ is going to be the actual title.
The letter mentioned they would be setting up from the 16th September, so we kept a look out for production vehicles and signage. In due course they started appearing; security guards in high-vis jackets, lots of white vans, and large lighting rigs by the looks of it. By the 4th October yellow location signs had appeared, they usually have a few letters that are an abbreviation of what’s filming or a code word, but these were curiously blank – except one for ‘Base’. The bright yellow signs alongside the road to St Helens Community Fire Station directed crew to another part of the Pilkington site, an area away from public view, which I presume became a compound for the cast, costume and make up etc.
Around the same time stories were being reported in the local media regarding filming in the centre of Liverpool, was it the same thing? On October 2nd filming took place in Liverpool city centre by St Georges Hall and the Walker Art Gallery – another well used location seen in recent films such ‘The Batman’ and Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Fountain of Youth’. Given it was a WWII setting, had some impressive explosions and plenty of extras wearing flat caps it was clearly filming for ‘Peaky Blinders’. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/gallery/explosion-outside-st-georges-hall-30076677
In the meantime, the preparations continued at the St Helens location. I went for a run past the site on Friday 5th October as they were putting black sheeting over a metal fence to stop prying eyes. By Monday 7th October (1st day on letter) there were plenty of crew and vans about so it looked like filming was imminent. The local newspaper, the St Helens Star, reported on the start of filming https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/24639078.filming-peaky-blinders-immortal-man-begins-st-helens/
Tuesday 8th October– my husband and I were out about 11pm after an evening in Liverpool and decided to take a slight detour so we could pass the location on our way home. We could tell, even from a distance, that something was happening – as the sky was lit up by some very bright floodlights.
There was indeed filming happening. We could hear someone giving instructions through a loud hailer, and what sounded like a scene being rehearsed and then shortly after, filmed. Even stood on the other side of the wall you could sense the energy of what was going on. There were lots of lights, and you could hear people (crew, actors and supporting artists) moving about. From what we heard being rehearsed, it seemed they were about to film something dramatic.
From the instructions being given over the loud hailer it seemed that the scene was some kind of standoff between two armed groups, a military force and the Peakys perhaps? Phone cameras at the ready we both managed to film the scene from where we stood across the road, it lasted less than a minute. Although we couldn’t see anything beyond the lighting rigs over the wall, we could certainly hear much of what was happening. I’ve made a short YouTube video of all the recordings made of what we witnessed – here’s the link. I’m going to assume the main voice we heard on the loud hailer was the director.
“And scanning the horizon.”
silence
“and hear come the Peakys.”
muffled dialogue – sounds of rifles being cocked
“and they’re twenty feet away.”
more muffled dialogue
“and they’re coming towards you!”
“FIRE!” (this may have been an actor?)
Sudden burst of gunfire which lasts about 10 seconds – very loud and echoing off the buildings.
Then someone shouts ‘cut’ after the gunfire ends and then the director says “stay on boarding(?), let me know when the armourer is happy, don’t rush in.”
Given the sound of the gunfire it was very clear why they thought it sensible to warn the neighbourhood!
We lingered around a little longer but guessed they’d got the shot they needed or had to reset for another take. We headed home, thrilled we’d actually got to witness filming and from what we heard there was absolutely no doubt that it was ‘Peaky Blinders’! I posted my video of it on “Twitter” (this account is now closed as I joined the defection to Bluesky not long after).
Wednesday 9th October – My “Twitter” post got over 23 thousand views overnight! The St Helens Star respectfully asked if they could repost my video to their website and it was included in an article here https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/24641861.footage-captures-filming-peaky-blinders-movie-immortal-man/ . We didn’t go back to the site that evening but we could hear a helicopter flying over a lot and wondered if that was part of the filming?
Thursday 10th October – Even at a distance from the site it was possible to see a yellow flickering light being shone on the warehouse building – it gave the impression of a fire. This was tested in the daytime when they were setting up and looked great at night. Walking past again in the early evening we couldn’t see much – filming seemed to be indoors. As we stood by the road outside a car pulled up with two young women inside, we got chatting and it turns out they had come by to try and see if they could catch any of the action – they’d seen the St Helens Star report with my video.
The original letter from the production company stated a series of action sequences would be filmed “entirely inside of the warehouse”. There are a couple of main buildings that this seemed to apply to and as we kept passing by over the next few nights we saw they appeared to be lit from inside and also the outside with external lighting rigs. We even spotted a blue screen on one occasion being held against windows with a crane.
Monday 14th October – we took another wander past the site in the evening and met a guy who’d apparently spoken to a security person and thought it was the ‘last night’. There were more people gathered around the gates this night, like us they were curious about the production. Something was being filmed as you could see the feet of supporting artists seemingly huddling together for warmth behind the railings.
Tuesday 15th October – my husband Andy went out again to see what was happening and spoke to other ‘watchers’ but there was nothing much to report. The weather turned and Wednesday 16th October was very wet, but there were still lights being shone into one of the buildings, including the ‘fire effect’ lighting rig. That seemed to be the last night of activity before the crew set to work dismantling everything and moving on.
Without pitching ourselves on the street all night, every night, I think we managed to do our best to get a general idea of what was going on. With most, if not all, of the filming taking place inside there wasn’t actually much to see. The fact we managed to catch a dramatic scene being filmed at all was just by luck. Hopefully it’s a scene we can pick out when we actually watch the film.
Film crews might only have a few more years opportunity to use the Watson Street site – regeneration is coming to St Helens. Plans have been drawn up to demolish much of the area, preserving only a few buildings and chimneys. Another decade or so and the area could look very different if they go ahead. https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/25000934.former-pilkington-glass-site-st-helens-redeveloped/ This will be great for a town and community that desperately needs investment, not so good for film makers. We’re perhaps experiencing the golden age of filming in St Helens, which won’t be repeated once the buildings responsible for creating it are gone. Sites such as the Watson Street Works are growing less in number across the UK as they’re being gradually being demolished and redeveloped.
With ‘Peaky Blinders – The Immortal Man’ due to be released in March 2026 I thought it was a little too ambitious to try and cram in watching 6 seasons (36 episodes in total) beforehand. I will be watching the film though, I don’t know how much sense it will make – not knowing any of the back story. If I’m inspired to go back to the beginning it could be the start of a new series of location blogs!
From scene to seen 