Choosing York as the location for a new TV crime drama was a ‘no-brainer’, the production team has said.
Filming for brand-new show Patience took place in locations across the city in April – including near the Minster, next to Clifford’s Tower, on Shambles and by the river.
It is made by Eagle Eye Drama, a London-based production company who have brought us Suspect, Professor T and Hotel Portofino.
Patience is based on French show Astrid and Raphaëlle. It stars Ella Maisy Purvis as Patience Evans, who works in the criminal records office, and Laura Fraser as Detective Inspector Bea Metcalf.
Patience is autistic, and has hyperlexia, a condition which gives her enhanced reading skills, enabling to put clues together that others can’t spot.
The writer of Patience, Matt Baker, was brought up in Pocklington. His wife Jo McGrath, chief creative officer at Eagle Eye, went to the University of York.
So when they were looking for a location for Patience, a certain medieval city was at the forefront of their minds.
“It was a bit of a no-brainer in terms of choosing York.” Matt told the Yorkshire Post. “The idea of puzzle-solving is that the centre of the drama and it’s a crime procedural.
“We obviously know that the murder rate in a nice city like York is vanishingly small, but people like to watch brutal murders on television.
“So it’s one of those types of shows where you have a murder every week, and Patience puts her puzzle-solving skills and other aspects of her character and aspects of her autism to work to help the police solve these crimes.”
Jo said: “For us at Eagle Eye, setting a show in a city that has international recognition – which York does, it’s world renowned and instantly you think of its historical background – that’s a real plus two in terms of the international market.”
Matt added: “Considering it’s probably in the top five tourist attractions in the UK, I think it’s a bit underrepresented on screen.”
They said that all the characters in the show who are neurodivergent in some way are played by neurodivergent actors.
Patience is due to air on a British channel next year.
