Ridley filming continues in Bolton's Victoria Square

The crews were spotted on Victoria Square right in front of the town hall the afternoon of Thursday September 28 filming ITV series Ridley, staring Adrian Dunbar best known to audiences at Line of Duty’s “Ted Hastings.”

This marks the latest time that crews have been seen in the town dubbed by some to be “the Hollywood of the North.”

Cllr Nadeem Ayub, Bolton Council cabinet member for culture, said: “We’ve got fantastic architecture around Bolton, so it attracts a lot of filmmakers to come to the town.

“We’ve had Coronation Street, we’ve had detective dramas and we’ve had independent filmmakers as well.

“It builds up our economy and really helps to put Bolton on the map.”

Film crews discussing the scene (Image: Newsquest)

He added: “It brings celebrities to the town and also helps to attract more visitors to Bolton and increases footfall.”

Over Thursday afternoon Victoria Square doubled as “Copelton Magistrates Court”, the fictional North West town where Ridley is set.

The building has doubled as Copelton Magistrates Court (Image: Newsquest)

The public have still been able to travel freely through the town square while filming takes place.

The town centre’s spectacular architecture proved a suitably dramatic backdrop as actors and crew members went about their work.

Crew members have been parked in front of town hall (Image: Newsquest)

ITV had already announced earlier this month that they were planning to film series two of the drama series in Bolton, having already filmed parts of the previous series in the area around the former Bolton Magistrates Court.

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Previous film sets around Bolton have produced  BBC historical drama Ridley Road (not to be confused with ITV’s Ridley), Netflix’s Red Rose and episodes of Coronation Street among many more.

Red Rose, created by Bolton born twins  Perry and Michael Clarkson, made a particularly strong use of the town with filming taking place on Bridge Street, Churchgate, Scouts RO and Le Mans Crescent.  

One of the most high-profile cases was when Cillian Murphy came to town to film parts of the final series of Peaky Blinders.

Many of them have made particular use of the spectacular scenes around the town hall and Le Mans Crescent for historic backdrops.