Filming continued in Skegness in the early morning of the 23rd February, around 8am, on Skegness beach. Some of the crew had been there since 6:30am. It was breezy and very cold! The head of security told us that the sunrise had been amazing, a red colour, with the sun coming up on the ocean’s horizon and the wind turbines in the distance over the water. He recommended coming early the next day to see it, but I think we were too exhausted by that point to be getting up at 6am!

Tom and Holliday walked from the unit base on the car park across the sand dunes and began their scenes sat on the beach wall overlooking the sea with their fish and chips — and mushy peas for Robin.

 

The camera was later moved to a different angle, facing toward the sea instead of toward the beach and the Skegness Funland, rides, and the recognisable hot-air balloon wheel, like the previous takes/camera angle. The scene was shot in around one and a half hours. The scene itself takes a lot less time than the actual film location setup: setting up of equipment, the cleaning up afterward, etc. As mentioned, the location crew were there from 6:30am, some awake at 4:30am, and they were still packing and cleaning up for a bit after the scene was finished before moving on.

For this scene, Strike/Tom was seen dipping a chip in some mushy peas that Robin offered him, taking a bite and then disposing/burying the rest of the chip in the sand behind him. That soft southerner! 

Strike and Robin were then shot standing up and walking away along the beach path, the end of their time in Skegness.

Seeing this scene, which is a fan-favourite from the book as most of you will know, was really something quite special and was very moving. It is difficult to describe the emotions seeing one of the best scenes from the book brought to life. Really surreal.

A crew member told us that they were then heading back to the North Parade/The Allardice to continue filming there, as they had run out of time the previous day with the schedule being so tight. Multiple crew members told us that the filming in Skegness had been a very tight shoot and that time was very limited for them to get the shots.

So after filming wrapped on the beach, the crew packed up, Strike’s mushy pea chips were dug up from the sand by a crew member (we were tempted to go back and dig up any leftover chips for our imaginary Strike Museum), and the team headed to The Allardice guest house. The producer, Alex, took a shortcut across the beach toward the North Parade before filming at the beach even finished. It was either too cold for him on the sea front (would not have blamed him) or, most likely, he had to start setting up the scene at The Allardice for the next shoot.

When we arrived at The Allardice, the crew were already hastily setting up equipment outside the parked Land Rover.

Shots were filmed of the Land Rover moving forward slowly and then stopping against some sand bangs under the wheels. A few of the crew members were pushing the car backward and forward. We are not sure if this was because the Land Rover had broken down completely and couldn’t be driven 10 yards, or that the pushing of the Land Rover was a better option anyway. We assumed that this shot was when Strike and Robin first arrive on the North Parade road to keep a watch on the B&B for any sign of Steve Douthwaite.

The camera was then moved to face through the front windscreen while Strike and Robin keep watch of the Allardice. Strike/Tom had a McDonald’s coffee, but we’re not sure if that was part of the scene or just some caffeine to keep Tom going, but it did seem like it was part of the scene to us.

After the scene inside the Land Rover was shot, the crew moved quickly to the next location: the Courthouse on Roman Bank road, which is an old brick court building that became a cafe/restaurant at some point in its history.

The Courthouse cafe, however, has been temporarily closed, possibly due to Covid. Scenes inside the Courthouse were made up to be a police station, with Steve Douthwaite (Robin Askwith) being interrogated by the police.

We were not sure if Tom and/or Holliday were also there. We didn’t see them. 

Here are some photos of Robin Askwith in the Courthouse, from the Courthouse’s Facebook page:

Filming finished at The Courthouse around 2-3pm. Many of the crew then ate lunch from a catering stand; tacos were on the menu. The cast and crew were soon leaving Skegness to get back to North London, around Ware and Uxbridge, for further filming on Friday 25th.

You can follow Robin Askwith on Twitter here: @Robin_Askwith

We hope you have enjoyed these Skegness posts! In early March, we are heading to Cornwall to see the filming of Troubled Blood there too! So stay tuned for that and keep checking our social media (Twitter: CormStrikeFan, Instagram: detective.strike). If you would like to help fund our 10-day Cornwall trip for the filming, you can donate through the PayPal: [email protected]. Any amount would be a huge help. A trip to Cornwall for that length of time will be expensive, and we would like to keep you all as updated about the filming as possible, without any filming days missed.

Also, a massive thank you to those who have already sent money. You have made the trip to Cornwall possible, and we plan to get plenty of good content for you!

Here is our YouTube video from the Skegness filming: