Producer Alex Rendell Talks New Strike Adventure The Ink Black Heart

Shooting In The Big Smoke

Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike returns for a new TV adaptation this week, The Ink Black Heart, and here’s its producer Alex Rendell on the new series courtesy of the BBC website…

What practical difficulties do you find across production and shooting in London?

London can be expensive to film in, particularly when you need to be more central and servicing locations can be tricky.

Obviously, the Strike books are rooted in London, his office is in Denmark Street and Jo includes some very specific London locations that she will have researched. We always try and visit some of them whilst filming, depending on permissions and budget!

You’ve filmed at Highgate Cemetery, because it plays such an important role in the book. How did those conversations start?

They were very helpful. It appears they have quite a lot of filming there and in fact, one of their volunteers John Waite, who has a small role as a guide, told us that several Hammer horror films were filmed there many years ago.

As a producer managing logistics and budgets, when you read “They turn up at ComiCon”, does that make your heart sink?

No, but I do of course have to be realistic and as much as I’d like thousands of people to recreate Comic Con we have to work within our means. Our director Sue Tully was very keen to do this sequence, and heads of department worked hard to find a way to make a version that looked great and was financially manageable.

Lucasfilm were very helpful in giving us permission to use Star Wars costumes which was great because Strike was scripted, as in the book, to wear a Darth Vader outfit.

We also had some wonderful supporting artists from Live Action Role Playing, LARPing, who came with their own costume designs.