Sexy Beast streaming prequel filmed at Liverpool studios

A streaming service has become the first long-term tenant of Liverpool's pop-up studios, filming its new drama, Sexy Beast.

Paramount+ has hired The Depot for seven months to film the prequel to the 2000 Ray Winstone film of the same name.

Since then, only television commercials have been shot at the Edge Lane site.

Producers will also film in several city locations doubling as 1990s East London, including the gardens of St Nicholas Church and Tower Gardens, Rumford Street and Anfield, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The eight-part series by Paramount +, Sexy Beast, follows the lives of small-time thieves who get mixed up in the London criminal world and the cast includes James McArdle who starred in BBC Two's Life After Life.

Councillor Harry Doyle, assistant mayor of Liverpool, said: "The Depot has been a real game changer and represents Liverpool's long-held ambitions to be a 24/7 film city."

He said filming of Sexy Beast at the studios was testament to the vision of the city's film office team.

Lynn Saunders, head of Liverpool Film Office, added that The Depot was always about "future proofing" Liverpool's prime position in film and television industry.

She said she believed The Depot "sealed the deal" to bring Sexy Beast to Liverpool and it would be the "first of many" productions to shoot in in the city.