Bolton: BBC Princess Mirror-Belle filmed all over Bolton

All the interiors of Ellen's House including the Garden shed were shot on sets built at the Panalux studio in Kearsley.

Bolton locations have featured in several episodes in season two, with season one being filmed in Glasgow.

The CBBC production team often film all over Bolton and Greater Manchester.

Bolton School was used as The Pipperton Academy for Ellen’s school in episode two, "Love Potion Crisps" and in episode six, "Unusual Pet's Club".

Filming at Bolton School (Image: Public)

The offices above the old British Home stores/ Crompton Place Shopping Centre, opposite the town hall, were also used for the hospital location in episode 3 "Flying Horse".

The whole floor was dressed as a children's ward and other departments, even putting in their own lift to create the illusion, but Royal Bolton A&E was used in the opening shots.

Episode 9 "Frog Prince" was shot entirely on location in Bolton, with the exterior and Interior of Bolton Little Theatre and Queens Park featuring.

The Little Theatre and the park were dressed in lots of extra bits, including a big fountain working in the park for the for the first time in quite a while. 

Filming at Queen's Park (Image: Public)

In episode 10, "Sleepwalking Beauty", the interior of the old British Home stores was dressed as the car park/ Christmas Market, with some scenes shot in the Crompton Place Shopping Centre.  

Bolton Museum features heavily in episode 12, "Telling Tales", with the interior and exterior, but the Egyptian exhibits/spaces dominate.  

The author Julia Donaldson whose books and stories the series is based on also makes a special appearance in the episode.  

In episode eight, "Golden Goose", Ellen looks into her mirror holding a pair of binoculars the wrong way round, and a tiny Mirror-Belle appears.

A miniature version of herself, Princess Mirror-Belle is transported in Ellen’s yellow knitted cardigan with a bright pink pocket and joins Ellen’s Easter egg hunt, hoping to find a giant golden egg.

Featuring Dawn Elliott's cardigan (Image: BBC iPlayer)

The scene see’s Princess Mirror Belle poking her head out of Ellen’s pink and yellow cardigan before mischievously sneaking out of the pocket, for which the production team needed help to create a realistic prop to film with.

Westhoughton local and franchisee of Sew Confident Chorley, Dawn Elliott, was tasked with creating two giant arm-knitted blankets joined together to look like the pocket on the yellow and pink cardigan.

Sew Confident Chorley is a sewing studio that runs workshops and crafting classes helping people of all abilities to sew, knit and crochet.

Dawn said: “The opportunity came my way through a friend of mine, Sally Campbell, a costume designer who designed the costumes for Princess Mirror Belle.

“Sally knew about my arm knitting class and has seen the giant chunky blankets we create.

Dawn Elliott of Sew Confident Chorley recovering from a hard day's work (Image: Public)

“She thought it was the perfect solution to their desired prop so tasked me with replicating the mustard cardigan with the pink pocket that the character Ellen wore.

“I used a 10kg ball of yarn from a giant yarn supplier called ‘Woolly Mahoosive’ to create a 9ft x 9ft mustard blanket which took me about 5 hours to knit.

“I had to manually form and lay out the stitches across my 3 meters wide studio table.

“I then walked back and forward hundreds of times to form the stitches by hand.

“I did 30,000 steps that day.

“For the pocket it was a smaller blanket I used a 4kg ball which I managed to knit on my arms, I squeezed 27 stitches on my arm, and it was knitted in under 1.5 hours.

Still from the episode featuring the cardigan (Image: BBC iPlayer)

“Normally when we arm knit a lap blanket it’s 14-16 stitches, so it was a little bit of a challenge.

“It has been such a joy to be involved in this project and it was so rewarding to see the show air this week on tv.”

Tallulah Conabeare who plays Princess Mirror-Belle and Ellen said: “I can’t wait for everybody to see series two of Princess Mirror-Belle, it’s going to be even more fun, magical, and exciting than the first.

“Playing Ellen and Princess Mirror-Belle is doubly delightful, especially when you never quite know what Mirror-Belle is going to do next - I’m really proud of this new series.”

Sew Confident classes can be booked online at sewconfident.co.uk/chorley/.

Both series are available on BBC iPlayer.

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