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Time Out
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
My Oxford Year: inside the filming locations behind the Netflix's latest romcom
This summer, Netflix is in the mood for transatlantic love. First, there was the Lena Dunham series Too Much, which follows a New Yorker seeking love in London. Now the streamer offers more romcom catnip, this time with an Oxford Blues- meets- Sabrina flavour. Fans a trip to the City of Spires, from the town's literature-rich universities, libraries, and even a fast food shop or two. What is My Oxford Year about? Based on Julia Whelan's novel of the same name, My Oxford Year is a new romance with an old-school flair, the kind of love story that is built on flirting over Tennyson and crying over Sylvia Plath. Sofia Carson stars as ambitious American Anna, a self-made girl who is already smart enough for a Goldman Sachs job waiting for her. But because banking isn't as romantic as poetry, the romcom ships Anna off to the dreaming spires of Oxford, where signs up for year studying literature. Once there, she crosses paths with the extravagantly wealthy Jamie (Corey Mylchreest), a charming local who also happens to be her professor (don't worry, he's a twentysomething professor). Where was My Oxford Year filmed? It doesn't take an Oxford-level genius to guess the film's main setting. As Anna and Jamie's love blossoms, audiences embark on a scenic journey through Oxford's hallways and libraries with some brief detours to Windsor, London and beyond. For Londoner Mylchreest, My Oxford Year is a nostalgic reminder of his uni days when he frequently visited the cathedral city to visit a friend studying there. Carson deliberately avoided visiting Oxford before filming to evoke a genuine first-time reaction. These are all the locations where the duo acted out this life-changing Oxford year. Magdalen College, Oxford The crown gem of the University of Oxford, Magdalen College features prominently throughout the Netflix film. This is where Anna attends most of her classes, dwarfed by the campus's central tower, a gothic landmark of the city. As the camera pans out to the lawns and surrounding buildings, the campus also presents an eye-pleasing fusion of other architectural styles, from the Palladian-style 'New Building' to Neo-Gothic quadrangles like St Swithun's Quad and Longwall Quad. It's easy to see how the college's grandeur might have inspired alumni like Oscar Wilde and our humble protagonists. Bodleian Library and Duke Humfrey's Library, Oxford Early on in My Oxford Year, Anna confesses that a long-standing 'library fetish' lay behind her dreams of studying in Oxford. Naturally, then, the Bodleian Library is on her travel checklist. It's one of the oldest libraries in Europe, dating back to 1602, and the second largest in the UK, after London's British Library. But being the Oxford native that he is, Jamie woos Anna by guiding her through the varnished 15th-century shelves of Duke Humfrey's Library, the Bodleian's oldest reading room. Anna's inner library nerd is awakened when Jamie leads her to a first edition copy by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, a move that makes Anna gasp. They also share their first kiss on the library grounds. King Neptune Fish and Chip Shop, Windsor The royal town of Windsor also features on the locations. It's at an unassuming chippy in the town that Jamie and Anna meet for the first time. Anna struggles to differentiate between haddock and cod as she places her order, while Jamie appears to be a cocky lad in his silver Aston Martin. Radcliffe Square, Oxford Oxford's cobbled square comes alive at night as Anna and Jamie have a wholesome rendezvous that ends at a kebab truck. Jamie assures Anna that trying out a doner is a quintessentially British experience, and sure enough, the initially skeptical Anna is wowed by her first kebab. Radcliffe Square is a portal to a medieval past, attracting tourists and film crews alike. Recent films shot at the square include Wonka, Tolkien, and Saltburn. Clarendon Building, Oxford In the heart of the city lies Clarendon Building, an 18 th century neoclassical edifice that backdrops several scenes in the movie. Look out for Anna walking past it as she rushes into neighbouring spots like the Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre. Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford No film set in Oxford is complete without the semi-circular, Roman-style theatre where all university students set foot into to graduate. From hosting recitals and lectures to annual graduation ceremonies, the Sheldonian Theatre is inseparable from the legacy of Oxford. The film features the Sheldonian's painted ceilings and gilded boxes as the university chancellor invites a new batch to step up, reminding them that they might forget their Oxford friends and the parties, but not their Oxford education. Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Showcasing the anthropological collections of the University of Oxford, Pitt Rivers Museum is famous for its vast displays of human skulls, shrunken heads and masks that stare into your soul. The museum has often faced questions around the ethics of displaying remains and ritualistic items from across the globe. However, My Oxford Year takes a light-hearted approach as the museum is where Anna discusses her love life with her friends. Her snarky classmate Charlie (Harry Trevaldwyn) hilariously points at a mask collection, asking which of these eyebrow-raising faces resembles his exes. Cue a montage of the museum's collection of Japanese Noh (a dance-drama) masks. Hammersmith Bridge, London A longstanding tradition for Oxford and Cambridge students has been the annual boating race, an aquatic standoff that passes several bridges over the River Thames in London. A dramatic leg of the race plays out in the backdrop of the Hammersmith Bridge. The green-and-gold bridge has featured in many London movies, but remains closed to motor traffic since repairs began in 2019. Rothamsted Manor, Hertfordshire Oxford's time capsule nature means that even the students can be found living in accommodation that's easily a few centuries old. One such spot is Rothamsted Manor, a red-brick building where Anna's medical student friend Tom (Nikhil Parmar) lives. The only catch is that the manor is located in Hertfordshire county and not Oxford. Knebworth House, Hertfordshire My Oxford Year features a 750 th anniversary ball (or 'septicentennial and 50 ball', as Jamie calls it). It's a big invite-only party at Knebworth House, the grandiose Tudor stately home that now hosts open-air rock concerts and film shoots. Here, the house grounds host a vibrant carnival, complete with Ferris wheel and carousel. Knebworth House has a rich cinematic history, doubling as Bruce Wayne's manor in Tim Burton's Batman, with its exteriors also featured in 28 Days Later and The Mummy Returns. In both The King's Speech and some episodes of The Crown, Knebworth stood in for Balmoral Castle. Hatfield House, Hertfordshire My Oxford Year 's connections with Tim Burton's Batman continue with Hatfield House, a lavish Hertfordshire establishment dating back to the 17 th century. Jamie drives Anna to his family's grand, Saltburn -esque estate. His familial home is a showy estate with sprawling gardens, chequered-floored galleries and armouries, and a labyrinth of a wine cellar. Hatfield House has served as a filming location in Batman, Sherlock Holmes, Paddington, Bridgerton, The Crown, Enola Holmes, and even MasterChef Australia. Was My Oxford Year also filmed outside England? Brief yet pivotal moments of the film also play out further afield. The dreamy-eyed Jamie tells Anna about embarking on a classic 'Grand Tour' across Europe that includes spending a night on the gondolas of Venice, wandering around the Temple of Poseidon overlooking the Aegean Sea in Greece, and paying a visit to the red-light district in Amsterdam. For the latter, Jamie's intentions aren't sexual, as he desires a pilgrimage to the historic and elegant Oude Kerk (Old Church), the Dutch capital's oldest structure. While this pan-European journey is just discussed earlier, My Oxford Year actually incorporates these locations for an emotional rollercoaster in the third act. Who stars in My Oxford Year? Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest lead the cast as Anna and Jamie. Breaking out with Disney's Descendants franchise, Carson is a Netflix regular with roles in originals like Carry-On, Purple Hearts, and The Life List. Mylchreest, on the other hand, played King George III in the Bridgerton spin-off Queen Charlotte. The ensemble also includes Dougray Scott (Ever After, Mission: Impossible 2) and Catherine McCormack (28 Weeks Later, Braveheart) as Jamie's parents. Anna's ragtag bunch of classmates includes Harry Trevaldwyn (The Acolyte, How To Train Your Dragon), Esme Kingdom (Fallen), and Nikhil Parmar (The Rig, Foundation). Is there a trailer for My Oxford Year? Yes, and you can watch it below. When is it streaming? My Oxford Year is available to stream on Netflix from Friday, August 1.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The man making American game shows in rural Ireland
Brat Pack actor Rob Lowe is best known for St Elmo's Fire and Oxford Blues, plus his long-running roles in The West Wing, Parks and Recreation. As leading dramatic roles have dried up he has also, since last year, presented The Floor, a Fox game show that offers a contestant a winning prize of $250,000 (£190,000). So far, so normal for a 1980s star. But all is not as it seems. Unusually for a glossy American game show – with an American host and contestants, plus suitably enthusiastic live studio audience – it is entirely filmed more than 5,000 miles away from Hollywood in Bray, just outside Dublin. Lowe, 61, remarked why he has to schlep so far away from his California home on a recent episode of his podcast. 'It's cheaper to bring 100 American people to Ireland than to walk across the lot at Fox, past the sound stages, and do it there,' Lowe said. 'There are no tax credits, so like, all those other places are offering 40 per cent. And then on top of that, there's other stuff that they do.' In comments made in March, the star pre-empted Donald Trump's announcement that he would slap 100 per cent tariffs on films made outside the United States amid an exodus of productions from the industry's traditional Hollywood home. 'It's criminal what California and LA have let happen – it's criminal,' Lowe said. 'Everybody should be fired.' Ireland has, in recent decades, managed to lure huge productions to film there, ranging from Game of Thrones and the Star Wars sequel films to the second series of Wednesday, Netflix's hit Tim Burton series starring Jenna Ortega. What has gone under the radar is how rapidly unscripted shows synonymous with the American style have landed in Ireland, with executives attracted by generous tax breaks and talented behind-the-camera crews. Filming such game shows – including Don't Forget the Lyrics, Name That Tune and Jamie Foxx's Beat Shazam – in Ireland rather than California can save producers as much as 25 per cent of the cost without compromising quality. Many American viewers do not even know that they are not made in the US, with a small line in the credits typically saying that they were filmed in Ireland. The architect of all this is Shane Byrne, an Irish producer whose career credits include reality behemoths such as Big Brother, The X Factor, The Circle, Britain's Got Talent, and Strictly Come Dancing. The American invasion of Ireland began in 2021, when Fox reckoned it would be cheaper to trial new reality formats by commissioning entire new series and airing them in a country with similar demographics to America. Byrne was tapped to be executive producer of The Big Deal, a talent show hosted by Vogue Williams and judges included Boy George, X Factor alumni Jedward and Aston Merrygold, formerly of JLS. For the cost of a single, un-broadcast pilot episode shot in the US, Fox got a whole six-episode run that ran on Virgin Media One in Ireland. After that experiment was judged a success, Fox bosses migrated production of Name That Tune – the long-running show in which contestants have to correctly identify songs being played by an orchestra or band – from Sydney, where it had been filming because of looser coronavirus restrictions on studio audiences, to Dublin. Then, Byrne says, 'they started to roll over the other shows that would come here'. Don't Forget the Lyrics and Gordon Ramsay's Next Level Chef are just some of the programmes that are being made in Ireland by production house BiggerStage for American audiences. Producers in Hollywood 'know that due to the unions they have priced themselves out of work', according to Byrne, while British and Irish crews tend not to be unionised, dramatically reducing costs. The Irish productions tend to have crews of about 300, from cameramen to caterers. American producers fly to Ireland with a small coterie around them, with 95 per cent of the crew being locals. An entire series, of between 12 and 16 episodes, can be shot in a fortnight and the budgets of up to $1 million-per-episode goes further than it does in America. However, the Irish programme-makers have to adjust from how they would create their own series. 'They have to be very high-end, very glossy and, essentially, look very American and expensive,' Byrne says. 'You need people that understand American sensibilities. Obviously, American television has a slightly different tone than the shows we would make for the UK or Ireland. You have got to get into that zone of making American television for an American audience.' With hosts and contestants being shipped in from the US, getting the live audience right is of paramount importance, especially as American networks still favour tight close-ups of those in the studio. Producers pay special attention to getting a mix of genders, races and ages among audience members. Unlike similar British productions, which advertise free tickets to members of the public, audiences on many of these Irish productions tend to be selected from open casting calls on websites hosting classified adverts for acting extras. Those chosen are paid for their time. 'When it comes to an audience, you have to make sure that, at a glance, if you were watching the show in America it doesn't stand out – that it wouldn't look like an 'American' audience,' says Byrne. 'As a producer, I pay particular attention to the audiences to make sure that they are a diverse range of people that are all having a great time.' Despite lamenting the state of California productions in his podcast, Lowe said that Dublin is 'great' and 'fantastic', while Jamie Foxx frequently posts selfies as he appears to enjoy working in Ireland. The A-list talent may not wish to be working so far from home but, Byrne says, they quickly adjust. 'I think they're perplexed sometimes. It feels quite random to them, but as soon as they're here they understand that it's here for a reason – because it's economical. There's efficiencies, and it allows the network to keep making the show and, essentially, keep them employed,' he says. 'When they're here and we're in the studio, we could be anywhere and we're just making the show as normal.' Byrne left BiggerStage (which tends to work with Fox) last year and has since co-founded Diffusion Media, which he says will come up with its own unscripted formats and offer similar production services to other large American networks. 'There are lots of other networks interested… They're all paying attention to what Fox has been doing and curious about what they're doing in Ireland,' he says. 'When you see comments like Rob Lowe's taking off, that is kind of good news for the Irish industry.' As with anybody doing business with Americans these days, there is a new element of unpredictability thrown into the mix: missives coming out of the White House. The film and TV industries had been relatively unaffected by the President's second coming until his mooted tariff plans at the start of the week. 'When Trump makes comments, everyone gets shaken up because they don't know what's coming.' The Irish government, for its part, is looking to lure even more unscripted productions from America with a new tax credit of up to 20 per cent on eligible spending. Byrne tells me that he is not overly concerned about the negative impact on his business from Trump's efforts to Make Hollywood Great Again. 'This whole thing ultimately doesn't make sense because production services – whether it's a film or a TV show – are so nuanced… it would be really hard to pinpoint what you put a tariff on and what you don't,' he says. 'People are curious to see where it's going to go. The random nature of Jon Voight being involved and submitting his ideas… the whole thing kind of becomes a bit farcical.' 'For a number of years, people have been leaving Hollywood to make TV and film in other places, and it would be naive to think that they're not trying to think of ways they can bring business back,' Byrne adds. 'But hopefully we can all meet in the middle.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
