Where Was Netflix’s The Gentlemen Filmed?

The Gentlemen is back – Netflix’s TV spin off from Guy Ritchie’s 2019 film of the same name. Instead of Matthew McConaughey in the lead role, however, we have Brit Theo James playing Eddie Horniman, a former UN Peacekeeper who unexpectedly inherits his father’s Dukedom and 15,000 acre estate, with his deceased father’s will snubbing his first born son, Freddy (Daniel Ings). Eddie has mere minutes to settle into his new title of the Duke of Halstead before bumping into Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) and discovering the beloved family estate is a key part of a huge weed growing empire spearheaded by gangster Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone) – and that Freddy owes a different gangster £8 million.

What ensues is a baptism by fire as Eddie learns to navigate the eclectic and dangerous underworld, all the while protecting his family and their beloved country pile, Halstead Manor. In season 2, all of this is ramped up. ‘I just wanted this to be a bigger show in every sense,’ creator and director (episodes 1–3) Ritchie says. ‘I wanted it to be rich but never sickly, provocative, fresh and hopefully surprising. Central to it all, I wanted it to feel and to be completely aspirational and I wanted that to be reflected in every area of the show.’

Ray Winstone as Bobby Glass in The Gentlemen season 2. (Netflix)

In season 1, this was reflected in illustrious manor British houses and plush costumes sourced from British brands. But in season 2, again, we expand: from English countryside and the East End to Italian palazzos where the darkly ruthless Mafia loom large. ‘The emotions are deeper, the landscape is broader and the show itself is more fabulous this time around,’ Ritchie says. ‘Yet both the first series and now this one are underpinned by the quiet and insistent heartbeat of the show. Let’s call it the essential charm of The Gentlemen, or its DNA.’

As production designer Martyn John puts it, ‘In Season 1, we were “touchy-feeling” our way through it and trying to work out exactly what the series was about. In Season 2, we’ve been a lot more confident and sure of our ground and from a visual point of view, we’ve been able to kind of pump it full of steroids and take it to another level.’

Guy Ritchie behind the scenes on set of The Gentlemen season 2

Where Was The Gentleman Filmed?

Where the first season of The Gentlemen was filmed entirely in Britain, season 2 expands to Italy – specifically the uber-glamorous Lake Maggiore. A large, fingered lake at the south of the Alps to the west of the more widely known Lake Como, Lake Maggiore’s shores are dotted with grand villas, palazzos and hotels that have housed everyone from Donatella Versace and Princess Margaret to Ernest Hemingway and Walt Disney.

But of course, England’s rolling countryside and mammoth historic mansions are the beating heart of The Gentlemen, and we see plenty of these, too. Reflecting on Ritchie’s bigger, better, more bombastic brief going into season 2, production designer John reflects: ‘Basically, Guy told us he wanted the audience to always have something fabulous to look at and that, visually, he wanted the show to be even more aspirational than series one. He was after a kind of “magazine chic” – something less M&S, more Ralph Lauren – and for that to be reflected in the cars the characters drive, the clothes and watches they wear, the private planes they fly, the country estates and palazzos they live in, the boats they arrive in on.’

Guy Ritchie and Vinnie Jones behind the scenes of The Gentlemen. © Christopher Rafael/Netflix

English Countryside

The Halstead Dukedom isn’t real, and neither is Halstead Manor – but The Gentleman uses a real estate called Badminton House as a stand-in for Eddie’s ancestral home. Badminton like the sport? Yes indeed – the racket sport was invented in 1863 by the children of the eighth Duke of Beaufort in Badminton House’s Great Hall, with the shuttlecock perfect for not damaging any of the paintings. (That, or the sport was reintroduced here from India – the jury’s out.)

‘Badminton felt immediately right for Halstead,’ location manager Iggy Ellis said on season 1, ‘because it’s a proper, lived in, home, rather than a National Trust museum. So inside there’d be some walking sticks by the door or a few shotgun rounds from where they’d been out shooting. There were cracks and tired bits as you’d get in every family home. But there was also oil painting and history and majesty. It felt perfect for our story.’

This Gloucestershire manor house’s 52,000 acre estate is brimming with history, dating back to 1086 at least, when the property was recorded in the Domesday Book. Today, the estate is best known for hosting the Badminton Horse Trials. If you recognise it, that might be because it was also used for filming Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, The Remains of the Day, 28 Days Later, The Pursuit of Love and Pearl Harbor.

Badminton House starred in season 1, too. (© Christopher Rafael/Netflix)

Badminton House may not be home to the Duke of Halstead, but it is home to another (real) duke: the Duke of Beaufort, along with the Duchess of Beaufort. You cannot normally visit, unless it’s for a wedding, but the house does open its gardens three times per year – in April, June and September – where visitors can witness gorgeous tulips, roses and dahlias.

‘When you’re in these places it makes you very aware of this huge family lineage that dates back centuries,’ Theo James said on filming season 1 there. ‘There are oil paintings of ancestors on the walls, so you can literally see how wealth and land is handed down through the generations. The idea of how deep set privilege and class is in our society is really at the very heart of The Gentlemen and you feel it viscerally in those locations.’

Badminton House stands in for Halstead Manor

It’s not just Badminton House, though: more scenes were filmed on set and at different properties (especially Loseley Park near Guildford, which makes up most of the interiors in season 2) and spliced together to produce the Halstead estate we see in The Gentlemen. And Halstead isn’t the only English location in the series. ‘If you stop to count them there are probably about 100 locations in all, from country estates to car parks,’ Ellis says on season 2. ‘Where possible we tried to maximise every location because when you move around it costs money that could be on the screen. So we used a cottage in the grounds of Loseley for the exteriors of gamekeeper, Geoff’s cottage and built the interior in the studio because we needed lots of camera space and somewhere for Geoff’s menagerie of animals.’

Though it was dismantled after season 1, viewers will notice Halstead’s weed farm is back, too – rebuilt with the help of marijuana consultant The Dope Man. ‘We rehired all the fake marijuana plants we’d used in series one and the 3D printed seed heads from our friend, The Dope Man,’ John confirms. ‘He came back in and redressed the set and made even more plants for us. So even the weed farm is back, bigger and better.’

Kaya Scodelario in The Gentlemen season 2. (Netflix)

London

London features in The Gentlemen, too – especially for that spectacular car chase scene in season 2. ‘We created the auction house at the Adelphi Building, just off The Strand, and I wanted to use that network of streets around the Savoy Hotel, including a secret little tunnel that cuts between John Adam Street and the riverside,’ Ellis says. ‘It takes at least three months’ notice to get London streets closed for filming and there were some careful negotiations with everyone from Westminster Council to building owners and the Savoy Hotel itself. But that amazing chase really is one of the things I’m most proud of.’

The gang also go for dinner in the city – and this is a spot you might recognise. Italian-American and TikTok-favourite Marylebone restaurant Carlotta played host to the crew in season 2, complete with its mirror walls, curving booths and patterned carpets.

Elsewhere, a private mansion in central London hosted Lord Hawthorne’s kinky party, while on the city’s outskirts, Swakeley’s House in Ickenham appears as Freddie’s rehab centre, Bobby’s prison and is even used for the gun room in Halstead Manor.

Lake Maggiore

Italy

Where season 1 stuck entirely to country piles and East End underworlds, The Gentlemen season 2 jets overseas to Italy. Here, new characters emerge: Michele Morrone as Mafia foot soldier Cico, Marco Moretti as a Mafia boss, and Benedetta Porcaroli as his god-daughter the Contessa Isabella Savanza de Parme (AKA Bella). And off course, new locations come too.

Most of the Italy scenes were shot in Lake Maggiore – and that’s the sparkling, spellbinding backdrop we see in episode 6’s wedding, too. And the palazzo? That’s Villa Rusconi Clerici, a real 19th century palazzo mainly used for glamorous weddings.

Bella’s room looks out over Lake Maggiore (c) Netflix

‘We spent three full days looking at several amazing palazzos, including one on Lake Como. But as soon as I saw the one at Lake Maggiore, I knew this was the one,’ John explains. ‘It was in a much less touristy area and it had such great light and glittering water. You could point the camera anywhere and it just looked beautiful.’

Elsewhere, scenes were shot at Grand Hotel Majestic, Chiesa San Leonardo (the church for the wedding), Lake Maggiore’s harbour, the Piazza G.Garibaldi and the Mottarone Road, where the Ferrari zooms down the majestically winding roads.

(L to R) Harry Goodwins, Kaya Scodelario, Logan Dean, Michael Vu in The Gentlemen season 2 (c) Netflix

The drama could have gone anywhere. Why Italy? ‘The madness of Italy’s beauty, its culture, its history and its traditions were something I felt would fit perfectly into our show,’ Ritchie explains. ‘I had wanted to expand the canvas of The Gentlemen in this season. Italy was just an obvious choice. British gangsters colliding with the Italian Mafia just feels so right for our world. Some fruit hangs low and looks so tasty you just can’t resist for very long.’

Ritchie, who declares he feels ‘so much more informed’ about ‘the polar ends of the social ladder’ than the middle ground in between, adds: ‘So much of our show is about aspiration and, for all sorts of reasons, I find Italy hugely aspirational. It’s only an hour away on the plane, but it’s such a different world both cosmetically and in terms of its culture. And I wanted to enjoy that culture as much as I enjoy the English culture and to integrate the two into the show.’

Naturally, a stint in Italy was a treat for the cast to boot. ‘We had nearly a month there and filming was based around this same lovely little town where we all got to hang out,’ lead star James says. ‘I must say that our guys finding that particular spot for filming was quite something because it was truly stunning. To add to the pleasure, we all got to bring our families and stayed in the same hotel close to where we were shooting, which meant far too many Negronis in the evening. But it was generally lovely and completely memorable. An absolute perk of this season.’

Theo James in The Gentlemen Season 2 (c) Netflix

Where To Watch

All episodes of The Gentlemen are streaming now on Netflix.