First look at new Netflix crime drama The Irregulars – filmed at Wentworth Woodhouse
and live on Freeview channel 276
The long-abandoned servants’ quarters at the stately home in Rotherham were used to shoot scenes for the eight-part drama, which will hit screens from March 26.
Inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the plot follows a gang of troubled street teens in Victorian London who are manipulated into solving crimes for the sinister Doctor Watson and the elusive Sherlock Holmes.
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Hide AdIt comes from the executive producers behind hit shows including Peaky Blinders, Doctor Foster and My Mad Fat Diary.
The crew descended on the Grade I-listed property, which is finally being restored to its former glory after years of neglect, between autumn 2019 and February 2020.
Designers created an outdoor set where a series of workrooms dating back hundreds of years cluster around open courtyards.
They transformed the old Slaughter House off an area called Back Yard to create the Duck and Quiver Inn, a principal filming location.
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Hide AdThis fascinating part of the site, which once bustled with servants going about their daily lives, will be unfamiliar to even the most keen-eyed of visitors as it remains off-limits to the public.
Sarah McLeod, CEO of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, which bought the house and gardens in 2017, said: “The ground in front of the Slaughter House was covered with a very un-Victorian layer of Tarmac, so the location team did us a great favour and removed it, revealing the original cobbles.
“We were thrilled to host the world's leading streaming entertainment service and hope they return if there’s a second season.
“Filming is a very important source of income for the trust. We will be glued to The Irregulars. It’s always exciting when we have film crews with us, but even more so when we finally get to see the production on screen.”
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Hide AdThe show does offer viewers a peek at some of the building’s Georgian finery too.
The Green Dining Room, formerly a dressing room lined with wallpaper which was coloured using arsenic, features as the bedroom of Irregulars character Prince Leopold.
The crew even left behind their curtains, which were deemed much better than the 20th century pink velvet ones inherited by the trust.
The Irregulars is set in Victorian London, with filming also having taken place in Liverpool, Manchester, Chester and north Wales.
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Hide AdThe blurb for the series describes how as crimes take on a ‘horrifying supernatural edge’ it is up to the Irregulars to ‘save London, each other, and potentially the entire world.
The cast includes Henry Lloyd-Hughes, who was Roger Davies in the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and school bully Mark Donovan in the TV sitcom The Inbetweeners, as Sherlock.
Bea, the leader of the Irregulars, is played by Thaddea Graham, who received rave reviews as Kat in BBC1's adaptation of David Nicholl's novel Us, starring Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves.
The show was written and executive produced by Tom Bidwell, whose previous work includes Watership Down My Mad Fat Diary.
It is also executive produced by Jude Liknaitzky (My Mad Fat Diary, Doctor Foster) and Greg Brenman (Peaky Blinders, The Honourable Woman).