A crew filming a new ITV sitcom set in a Bristol call centre has wrapped production with a day filming on the steep streets of Totterdown - and the star of the programme has revealed a bit of a secret about it.
Ruby Speaking is about to be one of ITVX’s latest comedy offerings, and stars Bristol’s own Jayde Adams and Joe Sims in an ensemble of workers at Hellocom, a fictional call centre somewhere in South Bristol.
The series has largely been filmed inside a regular office for the past few months, but last Saturday, the crew came to Totterdown to film the exterior shots, and filled the terraced streets behind the Thunderbolt pub up to Vale Street for all the action that takes place outdoors.
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But while Ruby Speaking is going to be just the latest programme - both fictional and non-fiction - which has showcased Bristol to the rest of the country and the world, there’ll be something a bit different about this particular one.
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Almost every programme that’s been set in Bristol - from The Outlaws to A House Through Time - has utilised the classic shots of the Avon Gorge, the harbourside and the Clifton Suspension Bridge, but not Ruby Speaking.
“We had a rule that there would be none of that - no shots of the Suspension Bridge or any of that,” said Jayde Adams. “We wanted to make this about very specifically South Bristol, so it’s set in South Bristol, and the outside bits you see are just Totterdown. We really wanted to get a landscape of Bristol from a different point of view, one that you don’t often see.
“I know that The Outlaws did do bits in South Bristol, but it wasn’t placed there like this will be. It was very satisfying to finish this series off back in the streets I grew up in,” she added.
“I wanted it to be a thing that is very much South Bristol, and not be something where we’re working in a call centre and look out of the window and there’s a shot going over the suspension bridge, because that’s not what it’s like. I wanted it to be centred in South Bristol because this is where a lot of the real culture of Bristol comes from,” she added. “So we didn’t have any exterior shots that show those classic views - in fact, we banned them completely.”
The filming day on Saturday saw Totterdown resident Joe Sims give the entire cast and crew a guided tour of the streets, including Vale Street, which is the steepest residential street in England.
And as well as Joe and Jayde, who grew up in Bedminster, Ruby Speaking involves a range of Bristol people in the rest of the cast and crew, including Bristol actor Keira Lester, and fellow Old Vic alumni Sam Swainsbury.
But Jayde Adams said her proudest bit was finding Dan Hiscox, a chef from Pucklechurch. “I’m so glad we held an open call out to everyone in Bristol, because Dan walked in and he was just completely magic from the start.
“He just magicked his way through all the weeks of filming. I thought at the start that he couldn’t possibly be so amazing a person and an actor and it would flag after a couple of weeks, but he didn’t, it’s just what he’s like. He worked as a carer in a home, he’s gone back to being a chef now we’ve finished, but expect great things from him. I’m just only glad we found him and everyone is going to completely fall in love with him. He’s so wonderful and empathetic and he’s on his way up,” she added.
With filming now done, both inside the call centre and on the streets of Totterdown, the sitcom heads into post-production with the strict rule of no drone shots of the Suspension Bridge added in later still in place. It will be on our TV screens later this year.
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