TV Dramas Filmed in Liverpool: From Boys from the Blackstuff to Now

There is a curved block of brick flats near Lime Street, St Andrew’s Gardens, that has spent the last few years appearing on BBC One as a place where Martin Freeman’s exhausted night-shift copper takes calls he would rather not. A short walk away, an Edwardian pub on Lime Street has been used as a location for a gangland drama, and a Georgian terrace up the hill was home to two flatmates in a 1970s sitcom. Liverpool’s television history is not hidden on studio backlots: it is in the streets, the pubs and the housing estates, and much of it you can walk past on an ordinary afternoon. This guide to TV shows filmed in Liverpool runs from Boys from the Blackstuff to the crime dramas of the 2020s, with the locations you can actually see.

It covers the classic Liverpool series (The Liver Birds, Boys from the Blackstuff, Brookside, Bread), the soap filmed here but set elsewhere, the modern dramas (Time, Help, The Responder, This City Is Ours), period productions that use the city as a backdrop, and the shows people assume were made here but weren’t. Production details were checked in October 2026 against the Liverpool Film Office, the broadcasters and published production histories. Film and TV locations change hands and get redeveloped, so check access before you make a special trip.

Liverpool on Television at a Glance

Why So Much TV Is Made Here

Liverpool has two things producers value: an extraordinary range of buildings in a small area, and a long tradition of writers who wanted to put the city on screen. Grand civic architecture, Victorian docks, Georgian terraces, post-war estates and modern glass all sit within a few miles of each other, so a single production base can stand in for several cities and decades. The Liverpool Film Office, run by the city council, helps productions with permits and locations, and in recent years a City Region production fund has backed dramas made here, including Time and This City Is Ours.

But the more important reason is the writers. Carla Lane, Alan Bleasdale, Phil Redmond, Jimmy McGovern, Tony Schumacher and Stephen Butchard wrote Liverpool from the inside, and their shows are about the place rather than merely shot in it. That is what makes Liverpool’s TV history different from the films that use the city as stand-in New York or Gotham, which our guide to films shot in Liverpool covers.

The Classics

The Liver Birds (BBC1, 1969–1979)

Created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor, The Liver Birds followed two young women sharing a flat in Liverpool, and ran on BBC1 from April 1969 to January 1979, with a short-lived revival in 1996. It was a sitcom of its time, and its importance lies in what it started: Carla Lane went on to become one of the BBC’s most successful comedy writers, and the show made Liverpool voices normal on prime-time television.

The flat was set on Huskisson Street, in what is now called the Georgian Quarter: long terraces of brick houses with iron balconies, a short walk from both cathedrals. It is one of the most photogenic streets in the city in its own right. Our Georgian Quarter guide covers the area.

Boys from the Blackstuff (BBC2, 1982)

If one programme defines Liverpool television, it is this. Alan Bleasdale’s five-part drama about a group of unemployed tarmac layers went out on BBC2 from October to November 1982, at the height of the city’s economic collapse, and it caught the anger and despair of the time so exactly that it became part of the national conversation. Yosser Hughes, played by Bernard Hill, and his “Gizza job” became shorthand for a whole generation’s unemployment. It was a sequel to Bleasdale’s 1980 single play The Black Stuff, made by BBC Birmingham, and shot on location in Liverpool.

More than forty years later, the story came back. James Graham’s stage adaptation opened at Liverpool’s Royal Court, transferred to the National Theatre and then to the Garrick Theatre in the West End in 2024. The original series is the place to start, though: watch the episode “Yosser’s Story” and you will understand more about 1980s Liverpool than any museum display can tell you.

Brookside (Channel 4, 1982–2003)

Phil Redmond’s soap launched on 2 November 1982, the night Channel 4 itself went on air, and ran for 21 years. What made it different from every soap before it was the set: instead of building a street in a studio, Redmond’s company, Mersey Television, bought 13 real houses on a new cul-de-sac in Croxteth, used six of them on screen as sets and ran the production from the others. Brookside Close was a real place with real problems, and the show tackled unemployment, drugs, abuse and politics in a way British soaps had not done before.

After the show ended, the houses were sold together in December 2008 to a private buyer for £735,000 and restored as homes, with residents moving in by 2011. Today Brookside Close is an ordinary residential street. In October 2025 it briefly returned to the screen when Hollyoaks filmed a crossover episode there for its 30th anniversary, with special permission. If you go to look, remember that people live there: view it from the road, do not walk up drives or photograph people’s homes at close range, and keep the visit short.

Bread (BBC1, 1986–1991)

Carla Lane’s second great Liverpool comedy followed the Boswells, a large Catholic family in the Dingle, getting by on a mixture of family loyalty, benefits and small-time scams. It ran on BBC1 from 1986 to 1991 and was hugely popular at its peak. The exteriors of the Boswell house were filmed on Elswick Street in the Dingle. Like Brookside Close, it is a residential street, so it is a place to glance at on your way to somewhere else rather than a destination.

Hollyoaks: Filmed Here, Set in Chester

Many viewers are surprised to learn that Hollyoaks, Channel 4’s long-running teen soap, is not filmed in Chester, where it is set. The majority of it is made at Lime Pictures’ studios in Childwall, in south-east Liverpool. Lime Pictures grew out of Phil Redmond’s Mersey Television, so there is a direct line from Brookside Close to the soap’s sets today.

The studios are a working production base behind gates, not a visitor attraction, and there is nothing to see from the road beyond the entrance. If you are a fan, the better bet is to watch for location filming in the wider city region, and check Lime Pictures’ own channels for any public events.

The Modern Dramas

Since 2020 Liverpool has produced a run of television drama that has given the city a new reputation as a place to make serious work. Several of these shows were backed by the Liverpool City Region’s production fund, administered by the Film Office.

Time (BBC One, 2021)

Jimmy McGovern’s prison drama, written with Helen Black, starred Sean Bean as a teacher jailed for killing a man while drunk and Stephen Graham as a prison officer. It began on BBC One in June 2021 and was filmed over four months in late 2020 across the Liverpool City Region. The Film Office describes it as the first prime-time show backed by the City Region production fund.

What is worth knowing: the prison wings and cells were not filmed in Liverpool but at the former HM Prison Shrewsbury. The Liverpool City Region locations included the Silver Jubilee Bridge in Widnes, the Mersey Gateway, Southport Pier and the Mount Pleasant car park in the city centre. Southport Pier is the easiest of these to visit as a day out; our Southport guide covers it.

Help (Channel 4, 2021)

Jack Thorne’s Help was a single feature-length drama rather than a series, broadcast on Channel 4 on 16 September 2021. Jodie Comer played a care worker and Stephen Graham a resident with early-onset Alzheimer’s in a fictional Liverpool care home during the first months of the Covid pandemic. It was made in the Liverpool City Region with Film Office support. It is painful viewing for anyone who lived through that spring.

The Responder (BBC One, 2022 and 2024)

Tony Schumacher, a former Merseyside Police officer, wrote The Responder from his own experience of night shifts as a first-response officer. Martin Freeman played Chris Carson, a burnt-out copper on the edge, in two series on BBC One, beginning in January 2022 and May 2024. It is a Liverpool drama in every sense: set here, written by a local, and filmed across the city region.

This is the easiest of the modern dramas to trace on foot. The Liverpool Film Office lists locations including William Brown Street (the street of the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum), St Andrew’s Gardens, Sweeting Street in the business district, the Baltic Triangle, Everton and Crosby, with filming across Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral and St Helens. William Brown Street and St Andrew’s Gardens are a short walk from Lime Street station, and the Baltic Triangle a little further south. Our Baltic Triangle guide covers what is there today.

This City Is Ours (BBC One, from 2025)

Stephen Butchard’s crime drama, starring Sean Bean as the head of a Liverpool drug-smuggling family, began on BBC One on 23 March 2025. The production spent around 17 weeks filming in the Liverpool City Region in 2024, with further scenes shot in Spain, and a second series began filming in October 2025. Butchard is from Liverpool, and the show uses the city’s pubs, waterfront and suburbs with a confidence that only comes from knowing the place.

Press coverage of the second series named the Vines, the ornate Grade II* listed pub on Lime Street, as one of its locations, and the Old School House on Lark Lane, on the edge of Sefton Park. Both are working pubs you can walk into for a drink. Our Lark Lane guide covers the area round the Old School House.

Period Dramas and Guest Appearances

Beyond the shows set in Liverpool, the city regularly plays somewhere else.

• Peaky Blinders. Powis Street in Toxteth played Watery Lane, the Shelby family’s street in Birmingham, from the first episode. St George’s Hall, Stanley Dock, Croxteth Hall and Port Sunlight also appear. Our Peaky Blinders locations guide has the full list.
• The Crown. The Cunard Building at the Pier Head appeared in the Netflix series.
• Doctor Who. The Royal Albert Dock has been used by the BBC series.
• House of Guinness. Netflix’s 2025 drama about the Guinness brewing family turned Stanley Dock into 1860s Dublin, among locations in Cheshire, Stockport and Dublin. It has been renewed, with a second series due to film from early 2027. See our Stanley Dock guide.
• Croxteth Hall and Knowsley Hall. The two big country houses on the city’s edge stand in for aristocratic homes across a range of productions. Croxteth Hall’s grounds are open to the public; see our Croxteth Hall guide.

The Writers Who Put Liverpool on Screen

Liverpool television is unusual because so much of it was written by people from the city. A handful of names account for most of the shows in this guide, and following their work is a good way into the city’s screen history.

• Carla Lane co-created The Liver Birds and created Bread, and went on to write Butterflies for the BBC. Her Liverpool was warm, chaotic and female, and her comedies made the city’s voices familiar in living rooms across the country.
• Alan Bleasdale wrote The Black Stuff and Boys from the Blackstuff, the definitive television account of Liverpool in the early 1980s. His work is political, funny and furious in equal measure.
• Phil Redmond created Grange Hill before founding Mersey Television, which made Brookside and then Hollyoaks. More than anyone, he built a television industry in the city rather than simply writing about it.
• Jimmy McGovern wrote for Brookside early in his career and became one of Britain’s most respected television dramatists. Time is one of his most recent Liverpool-made works.
• Tony Schumacher brought his years as a Merseyside Police officer to The Responder.
• Stephen Butchard, born in Liverpool, wrote This City Is Ours after years of writing drama set elsewhere.

Alongside the writers, the city has supplied a long line of actors to British television, and many of them return to work here. That combination of local writing and local performance is a big part of why Liverpool dramas feel authentic in a way that productions which simply borrow the streets do not.

Not Filmed in Liverpool (Whatever You Have Heard)

A few shows get credited to Liverpool online that were made somewhere else, or only partly here. Being right about these saves a wasted trip.

• Waterloo Road. The BBC revival is filmed in Greater Manchester, at a former school in Swinton, Salford. It has no Liverpool base.
• Mr Bates vs The Post Office. ITV’s 2024 drama was filmed in Llandudno and Conwy in North Wales and in Surrey, not in Liverpool.
• Adolescence. Netflix’s 2025 series starred Stephen Graham, one of Liverpool’s best-known actors, but its published filming locations are not in Liverpool.
• Time’s prison. As above: the prison scenes were shot in Shrewsbury, though the rest of the series was made in the Liverpool City Region.

A Self-Guided TV Locations Walk

This short city-centre route links the locations you can easily see on foot. Use a map app for the walking legs.

1. St Andrew’s Gardens, near Lime Street. The curved brick block used in The Responder. People live here, so look from the street.
2. The Vines, Lime Street. A short walk away. Step inside: the interior is as ornate as the outside, and it is a working pub.
3. William Brown Street. Cross Lime Street to the columns of the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum, another Responder location and a backdrop for many productions. The neighbouring St George’s Hall has appeared in Peaky Blinders and several films.
4. Huskisson Street. Take a short taxi or bus up the hill to the Georgian Quarter to see the setting of The Liver Birds, and walk along Hope Street between the cathedrals.
5. The waterfront. Finish at the Pier Head for the Cunard Building (The Crown) and walk south to the Royal Albert Dock (Doctor Who).

For a longer route that includes the film locations, see our film locations walking tour.

Further out

• Brookside Close, Croxteth. Best reached by car or taxi. Private homes: view from the road only.
• Elswick Street, Dingle. The Bread exteriors. A residential street; combine it with a trip to the south docks or Sefton Park.
• Southport Pier. Used in Time, and a good day out by Merseyrail from the city centre.
• Stanley Dock. Peaky Blinders, House of Guinness and a long list of films, and you can have a drink in the hotel there.

Watching Before You Go

If you want to get a feel for the city before a visit, a short viewing list does it better than any travel programme.

• For the history: Boys from the Blackstuff, especially “Yosser’s Story”. It is the city in 1982, and you will see the waterfront with different eyes afterwards.
• For the humour: an episode or two of Bread. Dated in places, but the family dynamics and the language are pure Liverpool.
• For the city now: the first series of The Responder. It is dark, and much of it takes place in the city centre at night.
• For the drama: Help. Ninety minutes, unforgettable, and a reminder of how good Liverpool actors are.

Keeping Up With New Productions

Liverpool is busy with new drama every year, and new series are announced and filmed all the time. The Liverpool Film Office posts news of productions it supports on its own site, which is the best place to see what is being made in the city now. Filming in public streets is usually short and unannounced; if you spot a crew, keep out of shot and follow the marshals’ instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What TV shows are filmed in Liverpool?

Classics include The Liver Birds, Boys from the Blackstuff, Brookside and Bread. More recent dramas filmed in the city region include Time, Help, The Responder and This City Is Ours. Hollyoaks is filmed mainly in Childwall, and productions such as Peaky Blinders, The Crown and House of Guinness have used Liverpool locations.

Where was Brookside filmed?

On Brookside Close, a real cul-de-sac in Croxteth, Liverpool, where Mersey Television bought 13 houses in 1982. The houses were sold in 2008 and have been private homes since 2011.

Can you visit the Brookside houses?

Only from the road. Brookside Close is a residential street and the houses are private homes, so do not walk up drives or photograph residents.

Is Hollyoaks filmed in Liverpool?

Yes. Although Hollyoaks is set in Chester, most of it is filmed at Lime Pictures’ studios in Childwall, Liverpool. The studios are not open to visitors.

Where was The Responder filmed?

Across the Liverpool City Region. The Liverpool Film Office lists locations including William Brown Street, St Andrew’s Gardens, Sweeting Street, the Baltic Triangle, Everton and Crosby.

Was Time filmed in a Liverpool prison?

No. The prison wings and cells in Time were filmed at the former HM Prison Shrewsbury. Other scenes were shot across the Liverpool City Region, including Southport Pier and the Mersey Gateway.

Is Waterloo Road filmed in Liverpool?

No. The BBC revival is filmed in Greater Manchester, at a former school in Swinton, Salford.

Related Liverpool Guides

• Liverpool Film & TV Locations
• Films Filmed in Liverpool
• Peaky Blinders Locations
• Film Locations Walking Tour
• Stanley Dock
• The Georgian Quarter
• Liverpool History Timeline

Photo Credits

St Andrew’s Gardens: St Andrew’s Gardens, Liverpool (1) by Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Brookside Close: Brookside Close – geograph.org.uk – 37506 by Sue Adair, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Vines, Lime Street: THE VINES PUB LIME STREET LIVERPOOL AUG 2013 (9601844326) by calflier001, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The entrance to Lime Pictures, Childwall: Entrance to Lime Pictures by Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Huskisson Street: 25 – 51 Huskisson Street 1 by Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.