Where Is Criminal: UK Filmed?

Catching a criminal is one thing, but getting a confession out of them is completely another task. Netflix’s ‘Criminal’ focuses solely on this part of solving a crime and, with each episode, gives one suspect to its detectives, whom they have to break in the interrogation room. The show takes the form of psychological warfare where the cops are running out of time and the pressure increases on the suspect with every passing minute. If you are wondering where this tense show has been filmed, here’s the answer.

Criminal: UK Filming Location

In the legion of crime dramas available for the audience, ‘Criminal: UK’ sets itself apart by letting go of all the other parts of the investigation and boiling it down to the interrogation. The entire story takes place inside one building and we only find the characters shuttling back and forth from one room to another. The only thing we know about the location of the crime is that it has happened somewhere in or around London. However, when it comes to the real location of the show, the filming didn’t even take place in the UK. The entire series has been shot in Spain. Madrid serves as the primary filming location of the show.

Madrid, Spain

One of the most intriguing things about ‘Criminal’ is its limited set-up. The show uses the confined spaces to its benefit and creates a sense of claustrophobia that creates pressure not just for the suspects but also for the cops interrogating them. All of the action takes place in the interrogation room, the observation room, and the corridor. Despite its several versions for different countries, the show was filmed entirely in one location. Netflix’s production hub at Ciudad de la Tele in Madrid was employed for this purpose. All the episodes of Criminal UK was filmed at Secuoya Studios in Tres Cantos, Madrid.

Limiting the location was something that the creators of the show always had in mind. They didn’t want to go too grand with the idea and the more constraints they could place on the movement of the characters, the more focus they could put on the interrogation that becomes the heart of the show. Moreover, co-creator George Kay believes that “you don’t need any more than three rooms in any kind of drama.”

After giving a lot of thought to exactly how much space they wanted for the stories, they decided to go with three key places. Kay said: “After chatting we had the idea to film it in three rooms because one room would have been just too crazy. We had this really neat situation where we’ve got the action in the interview, the irony in the observation room and the corridor which links the two. We made a rule that’s where they tell the truth. That unofficially became a space for people to breath and react honestly.”

Read More: Is Criminal Based on a True Story?

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