Is London the new Hollywood?

0:02Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Michael Gargiulo stalked and slaughtered his female neighbors in L.A. in the 2000s until one survived. She painted a picture that you could never imagine. In a first on Mind of a Monster, we dive into a case that's still active. Did Michael's murderous rampage start in the 1990s when he was just 17? His impulsivity and his rage was starting to peak around that age. Listen to Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood Ripper, wherever you get your podcasts. Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com

0:58at this year's academy awards there were 40 nominations for uk talent and boy did britain deliver on sunday night so is london a credible rival to hollywood

1:16hi and welcome back to the standard podcast i'm tomorrow kormornyk all the latest news head to standard.co.uk coming up is london the new hollywood

1:38There was a significant British presence at this year's Oscars. Many films nominated are UK Productions or Co-Productions, who filmed on the streets of London or in its world-class studios, or had cherry-picked specialist UK-based crew to help bring the magic to the movies. In today's episode, I speak to Laura Martin, a freelance culture writer, who wrote a piece for The Standard and Why London is the New Lollywood. I wanted to discuss whether this theory stands post-Oscar ceremony, and of course, talk about some of the British successes from the night. On the other side of the coin, I've made sure to speak to Lisa Walters, a former head of production in TV, who is one of many film and television professionals who have left the industry over the past year due to a work drought.

2:32But first, here's my conversation with Laura. Hi Laura, thanks so much for jumping back on The Standard Podcast. It's great to have you. Yeah, great to be here again. So, Laura, having read your article, I think it was about a month back, you spoke about the idea that London is becoming the new Hollywood, and I've eagerly been waiting for this moment and this moment exactly, the Academy Awards, to really put this theory to the test. So on reflection, do you think London is a credible rival of Hollywood in terms of film production? Well, I have to admit, when I first went into this story, I was a little bit sceptical as well.

3:21So according to the BFI Research and Statistics Unit, 6.5 billion pounds was spent on film last year but what was I found was even more interesting is the amount of films that being made in LA like Hollywood where we all expect films to be made versus what's being made in England so in 2025 just 83 films and TV series were made in LA whereas in London 71 live action films and TV series were shot in the UK which now makes the UK the second largest place to shoot films and TV than Hollywood, which is quite surprising, right? Yeah, I mean, the numbers are pretty well matched. Yeah. And apparently on any given day, the BFI estimates that there are approximately 27 film crews shooting on location in London, which is just crazy.

4:14Oh, you only need to walk around really to see something happening. It almost feels sometimes a bit uh like being in new york actually with street closures and camera crews you do see them around so yeah um that stat is not so surprising to me yeah and then if everything kind of feels quite buzzy at the moment because there's quite a few big films that are being made here so over recent years we've kind of seen more of the marvel uh universe films being shot here all the star wars spin-off ones um and then there's other big tv shows such as lord of the rings the rings of power being filmed here.

4:50And right now, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is doing the new Tomb Raider series for Amazon, which is kind of, you know, a lot of people are excited for that. But I think I would say the biggest film that's being filmed here at the moment that just everyone's obsessed with is Sam Mendes' The Beatles. So that's the fourth film cinematic event, which they're calling. So yeah, there is so much interest around this. So we've got Paul Muskell as Paul McCartney. We've got Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. are Harris Dickerson as John Lennon and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. And it just looks amazing. Even if you're not the biggest Beatles fan, like this is going to be such an event when it does eventually come out.

5:31So all four films are going to be released in April 2028 at the same time. So I think we're going to see real Beatles mania sort of taking over not just London, but the UK and the rest of the world as well at this point. And, you know, that kind of really signals to me that such a huge film being made in the UK and a lot of it's been shot in Elstree Studios and then obviously up in Liverpool as well. Again, production like that will really kind of cement the UK and London specifically as the heart of this new industry. And also putting a really big bet on cinema and, you know, getting people back into screens.

6:17We've had, obviously, you know, the Barbie film and Wicked and lots of these big blockbuster films that have brought people back into cinemas. Yeah, and it's interesting you bring up Barbie because Greta Gerwig, who was the director of Barbie, is currently shooting the new Untitled Narnia film in and around London. So that's going to be very interesting to look at. And again, lots of people are going to be hyped for that one, her next big follow-up from Barbie. Lots of Americans in London. Yes.

6:59we're having this conversation obviously off the back of the oscars where there were a whopping 40 nominations in total for uk talent so i want to talk about some of the winners yes we've got jesse buckley winning the best actress for hamna obviously she is irish but this is very much a uk production yes um that's probably the the the most kind of visible uk production of the night really Yeah, I would say that was probably the big one. I mean, and how amazing was that to see her get that award? Like so well deserved, like such an incredible film. And then aside from her, there were some other winners.

7:37So there's the London born British American filmmaker Adam Sumner, who sadly died in November 2024. But he was one of the big producers on One Battle After Another, which obviously just like swept the board, took so many awards. There's also from Ireland Richard Baynham, who was among the team that won for visual effects Oscar for Avatar Fire and Ash. There's also a UK sound mixer called Gareth John. He earned best sound Oscar for Formula One or F1. And then we had Mike Hill, who was one of the winners of the makeup and hairstyling Oscar for Frankenstein. so yeah so where we may not have seen like massive winners Jesse Buckley was probably like the biggest one these are all still great accolades for the UK and Irish film industry and the people that work within it and then also we have Amelia de Moldenburg so chicken shop date girl she is Hollywood's darling now and she was the red carpet correspondent at last night's Oscars so she was on the carpet interviewing everyone and you know it really feels like she's kind of cemented her place as like you know a proper slice of London life in Hollywood now as well which is kind of quite nice for that uh that kind of cultural exchange as it were I think it's just important that we touch on you know one of the big reasons why these productions are coming over to the UK and it's these tax breaks it's cheaper for these hollywood films to be made in the uk yes so the tax breaks that the uk offer film the us film industry they're some of the most attractive in the world so the net value of tax relief can be actually up to 39.75 percent um so let's be honest that's probably one of the main reasons why they're coming over here the big studios but i think also we need to point out as well so many studios in and around London and around the UK have been growing so we're now like second to none in the world for these incredible studios and then the people that work within them again a lot of the people I spoke to in the article they mentioned the production crews are seen throughout the world some of the best in the world so I think the financial lure is the biggest appeal for the Hollywood studios coming over here but then it's backed up with the studios that we have, the production teams.

10:08And speaking of US productions, looking ahead, Laura, what effect do you think that the Netflix Warner Brothers deal and the Paramount Skydance merger might have on UK-based productions? Do you think it will be a case of, you know, we slide back a bit into kind of COVID times where things weren't necessarily being commissioned and there was just a lot of reliance on streamers just kind of running material in the archive? Or do you think these mergers are going to be something that's really invigorating for the industry and there's going to be more content, more ideas, and that studios will take a chance on things as well?

10:51I think audiences are a bit sick of the same adaptations or reboots of things that they've already seen, right? Mm hmm. Yeah, I think that is a really difficult question, because the answer is no one really knows. And I think there's a lot of trepidation in what these deals are going to bring in, how things are going to change. I know there's lots of concern about the idea of it kind of being a monopoly, especially in the US with, you know, just a couple of people overseeing all these different production houses, studios, streamers. you know is there going to be clash of conflicts is there going to be issues with politically where where they're aligned you know we've already had Donald Trump saying that you know he wants to place huge tariffs on films that aren't shot in America so the answer is no one really knows what effect that's going to have so everyone's very trepidatious about it and seeing kind of what's going to come out from that.

11:54Going back to your question about whether you think we're going to see more innovative TV shows and films but you just need to look back over the past couple of years of TV and film in the UK we've produced some absolutely incredible things so I think some of my personal favorites that have just shattered all ideas of genre are something like Michaela Curls I May Destroy You we've got Richard Gad's Baby Reindeer and then obviously most recently we've had Adolescence and you know three TV shows which to me you've never seen anything like this you you know, they get debates going. You know, we've seen these TV shows being discussed in, you know, the houses of Lords, in schools, endlessly discussed in media because they've really, really touched on something that hasn't been covered before or it's kind of brought a new awareness to it.

12:44So I have faith and I have hope that we're going to keep on seeing things like this. And hopefully, you know, if the streamers keep, manage to, you know, keep bringing in money and taking chances on like the underdog, that's the only way that you're going to come up with some truly creative films in TV series like we are seeing alongside all the kind of big blockbuster movies. Yeah, definitely. I'm with you on moving away from the churn.

13:14Well, Laura, thanks so much for giving us all of your insights on the industry here and also the look ahead to some exciting productions. And who knows, Londoners, you might see these films being made on the streets. Thanks for having me. It's great to chat about what's been going on. But yeah, I think we all need to be ready for a good onslaught of lots of great films coming our way soon. Bring it on.

13:49We'll take a quick break. coming up i speak to lisa walters a former head of production in factual television who after a 30-year stint in the industry recently decided to make a drastic career pivot due to lack of work opportunities we'll be back here in just a moment

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14:51welcome back so while we can celebrate the success of uk film and tv productions the story on the ground is very different at one point last year nearly half of the uk's tv industry professionals were out of work according to beck to i wanted to learn more about the discrepancy between british successes and the british industry professionals who are struggling and one of these was Lisa Walters, a former head of production of Factual TV, who is fighting for the contribution of production staff to be formally recognised in award ceremonies. Now, Lisa has recently switched careers as a result of the lack of work opportunities and has recently turned her hand to office management for a tree surgeon and she's training to be a forest therapy practitioner.

15:42Here's my conversation with Lisa. Hi, Lisa. Thanks so much for jumping on The Standard Podcast. It's great to have you. Thank you. Good to be here. Lisa, tell us a bit about you, how many years you worked in the TV industry and the types of things you worked on. So I have been in the TV industry for 30 years, started off as a production secretary to get my foot in the door, worked my way up through production management and eventually becoming a head of production. I've always worked in factual I did dabble a little bit in drama and a little bit in music and arts the last 13 years I've been working at Humblebee Films which was purely natural history and it's been great but then streamers came into the mix which was really interesting then COVID hit of course we were very lucky we had a commission that we were still able to in fact two that we were still able to do throughout covid one of which won an emmy um for netflix congratulations awesome thank you um but after that then of course you had the writer's strikes followed by the actor's strikes and although it hit drama um hard it also had a ripple effect um and affected you know the tv industry as a whole um and then Then just when we thought it was getting better, people just stopped commissioning.

17:18All sorts of things just started to disappear. I mean, not restricted to Bristol, of course, but Little Independents just couldn't manage anymore. And unfortunately, there's a fair few out there that have closed. I know we were told for a long time that budgets hadn't been set so they couldn't commission anything there were lots of mergers and acquisitions happening within the industry so it was desperate times and it still is desperate times there's a little bit of movement now from what I understand but it's been really hard and there are really good people there are camera operators who've retrained to be driving instructors or are working on the motorways the great editors that you know have now gone into hypnotherapy for example and just the jobs out there are so far and few between and from what I understand from some of my London counterparts as well the work isn't there like it used to be.

18:14And what impact is this having on rates and do you think that it's possible or realistic to sustain a career in film and tv now um that's a really interesting question so i think you know the rates were driven up by the streamers then covid hit um and then the strikes as i say and then suddenly the work wasn't there so all these people that have been coming in and demanding rates which you had to pay because there was so much work previously, suddenly it all disappeared. And so people had to rethink, well, actually, nobody can pay my rate. So what do we do? And it's hard on the production companies.

19:00It's hard on the freelancers. It's hard on the crews. It's been tough. And as to your question now about sustaining a career in the industry now, I think for those coming into the industry now, actually, it's quite an exciting time because there's virtual production, everything is digital, YouTube has risen. I mean, you know, sort of these platforms that never really had content now do. People go to their mobile phones, you know, to watch on YouTube or TikTok or whatever. So, I think the younger ones who are really knowledgeable about that area can probably really carve a career out for themselves.

19:41And Lisa, I'd like to chat a bit now about your advocacy for production. You have been asking BAFTA to create an award for production crew members and you weren't ecstatic at their response? Not initially. I mean, to be fair, I tried emailing and, you know, I was just kind of battered away. So then I thought, I'm just going to put it out on LinkedIn. And then I had the open letter. And to be fair, Sarah Puck, the chair of BAFTA, eventually invited me to go and have a chat at BAFTA HQ. The problem is that BAFTA are obviously very visual. It's all about what it looks like. It's all about how you act or, you know, the direction of it or the editing and the camera work.

20:36And it's everything that you can see. And the biggest argument that I've had is, but how can we judge it? Which is totally fair enough. Actually, it's quite straightforward. You know, you show a clip of the programme and then you have that description to say, you may think you know this looks beautiful and it must have gone without a hitch but actually were there budgetary constraints was there some sort of emergency because we've dealt with horrible accidents out on location in far-flung places and it's the production management team that extract those people and get them out and allow the production to still continue with minimal disruption you know the logistics behind it or the fact that you know a volcano erupted and what did we do to get around that?

21:24And it all comes back to us. I might not have the weight behind me anymore because I'm not in the industry, but there are so many people out there that are willing to help, hopefully to step up and like, you know, push it forward. So yeah, that's where I am with that. Well, as a producer myself, I'm completely biased that producers do deserve credit. Lisa, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so much for being so candid and sharing your experience with me. You're very welcome. Thank you very much for having me. And that's The Standard. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk.

22:03If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at podcasts at standard.co.uk. We'll be back here tomorrow morning. We'll see you then.

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23:17Boost up to$150 ,000. Cash account offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC. Member FINRA SIPC, not a bank. ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Michael Gargiulo stalked and slaughtered his female neighbors in LA in the 2000s until one survived. She painted a picture that you could never imagine. In a first on Mind of a Monster, we dive into a case that's still active. Did Michael's murderous rampage start in the 1990s when he was just 17? His impulsivity and his rage was starting to peak around that age. Listen to Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood Ripper, wherever you get your podcasts.

24:03Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.