If you tune into a TV drama or head to the cinema at the moment, there's a good chance that you’ll be looking at Liverpool.
The city has become an increasingly popular destination for television and film productions and is now the UK’s second most-filmed city, behind London.
Around 250 TV shows and films were made in the city during 2021 , despite the pandemic ’s impact.
READ MORE: ITV's The Ipcress File filming locations you can visit across Merseyside
This meant that £18.7m was brought to the city in inward investment in 2021 - up 87% on the £10m generated in 2020.
It also meant that iconic Liverpool landmarks have popped up more frequently on the big and small screens, while the city’s historic and varied architecture has become the backdrop for many period pieces.
With that in mind, we take a look at how three recent productions used Liverpool and why they chose to film in the city.
The Batman
The latest reboot for DC’s caped crusader opened in UK cinemas on March 4 and topped the box office on its opening weekend.
Starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, the film used many locations across Liverpool to act as the fictional Gotham City.
Filming took place at St George's Hall, Anfield Cemetery and the Liver Building in 2020.
St George's Hall features as Gotham City Hall in a scene which features Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne and Colin Farrell as the Penguin, while Batman and Catwoman's stunt doubles drove motorbikes through Anfield Cemetery.
However, the most eye-catching part of filming was when Batman stood atop the Liver Building, which doubled for Gotham's police headquarters.
A stuntman in full Batman costume was secured to the building by a harness and was filmed by a helicopter while the platform above the clock was lit in a deep red, which has become synonymous with the film and features as a motif throughout it.
Liverpool's combination of historic Gothic architecture, its character as a city - having been through spells of boom and bust - as well as the neoclassical grandeur of St George's hall led to its use for filming, alongside Glasgow and London.
Production designer James Chinlund told the BBC : "The idea [was] that in the 1920s and 30s, there was this incredible boom. So we wanted this base layer of crumbling, decaying ornament."
"And at various points in Gotham's history, the idea was that there were these attempts at revival and renewal."
"I started looking around that area and it started slowly revealing itself, how rich that world is and what an amazing city Liverpool is in terms of [how] it follows the story. It had this incredible boom period, and then it's fallen on hard times over the years, and the patina that existed in the buildings, and obviously the heavy weather... it all just fitted like a glove."
Before the film was released, director Matt Reeves said in an interview: "It's (Gotham) just as important as any of the Rogues Gallery, it's sort of like the nature of this place is and the history of it is critically important to our story."
The director added: "One of things I really wanted to do because it is the centre of this story, especially the history of corruption in the city, was I wanted to present it in a way that was really fleshed out.
"I wanted it to feel like an American city you'd never been to.
"Let's say there's like a Gotham Square, so that's like Times Square, right, now if we shot it in Times Square then you'd be like I guess Gotham is New York.
"But in our case it's actually going to be Liverpool and the idea is to go to Liverpool, where there is all the foundation of the Gothic architecture and then add all of the more modern structures through CG."
Munich: The Edge of War
Liverpool was said to have "made a very convincing Whitehall" in this Netflix film adaptation of Robert Harris' novel.
The film is set in September 1938, as Britain, France, Italy and Germany come together to sign the Munich Agreement, which allowed Adolf Hitler to claim the border regions of Czechoslovakia in an attempt to curb any future territorial ambitions.
The pact was seen as an act of appeasement from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Munich: The Edge of War was released earlier this year and made use of Exchange Flags and Martins Bank, while office scenes were filmed around the Liver Building and the Cunard Building.
Guardian photographer Sarah Lee, who worked on the film, said: “We started in Liverpool, which was doubling for 1930s London. The historic Liver Building, which stood in for Gotham city in the forthcoming Batman movie, made a very convincing Whitehall”.
The Ipcress File
Based on the Len Deighton novel which was initially adapted as a 1965 film starring Michael Caine, all six episodes of The Ipcress File were released on ITV Hub this month.
A Cold War spy thriller, the series was partly filmed in Liverpool, which was transformed into 1960s London.
The Bluecoat Chambers, Hope Street, Falkner Street, Exchange Street, Lime Street, Rodney Street and Brunswick Street all doubled for the capital, while the Wirral village of Burton was also used.
Executive Producer Will Clarke said: “We had the full support of the people of Liverpool and the Film Office based in the city.
“It was incredible when we looked at the locations, the buildings which double for London, and the interiors as well.
“They capture something almost frozen in time with the 1950s and 1960s architecture. We wanted to embrace the iconography of London without being subsumed by it.”
One of the show's stars - The Thick of It actor Tom Hollander - also cited Liverpool's historic feel as a reason that it worked as a period location.
He said: "There is a whiff of what bits of Britain looked like in the 60s. It's a city full of layers and layers of history - and we were using a band of them."
Filming took place throughout the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that Tom hopes to return to Liverpool when he can experience the city at its best.
He added: "I didn't know Liverpool, but I wish that we hadn't met in lockdown because it's full of amazing buildings and history.
"Modern Liverpool is thrilling as well, but it was sleepy and on pause while we where there."
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