Residents of an upmarket road in north London have slammed makers of new BBC comedy series Amandaland for transforming it to appear ‘grubbier’ so that it resembles a more deprived part of the capital.
The show, which is a spin-off from the popular sitcom Motherland, sees Lucy Punch reprise her role as Amanda, the overbearing and competitive mother who was a viewer favourite in the original series.
She is forced to navigate a major lifestyle change after her divorce and has to downsize, swapping leafy Chiswick, in west London for South Harlesden, northwest London which is considered a less salubrious postcode. In recent years it has also acquired a reputation for violence and crime.
Amanda refers to the new area in which she sets up home as ‘So-Ha’ in an attempt to give it a more glamorous veneer. In Wednesday’s opening episode she apologises to her children for making them live there telling them: ‘I know you miss Chiswick.’
But she adds: ‘I’m done with W4 (the post code for Chiswick). I’m all about So-Ha.’
Her bossy mother Felicity, played by Joanna Lumley, is less diplomatic about her daughter’s new locality, saying: ‘Quick, let me in before I get stabbed.’ She also quips that ‘it smells of buses’.
But filming for the show last summer actually took place on Ferntower Road in Islington, north London, an elegant tree-lined thoroughfare where houses cost anything up to £2million.
Locals revealed that shopping trolleys and bags of rubbish were strategically placed along the road during three weeks of filming to make it appear more rundown.
Residents of an upmarket north London road slammed makers of new BBC comedy series Amandaland for transforming it to appear ‘grubbier’ so it looks like a more deprived part of the capital
Filming for the show last summer took place on Ferntower Road (pictured) in Islington, north London, an elegant tree-lined thoroughfare where houses cost anything up to £2million
Locals revealed that shopping trolleys and bags of rubbish were strategically placed along the road during three weeks of filming to make it appear more rundown
Laura Cain, 31, who has lived on Ferntower Road for most of her life, told MailOnline: ‘I loved Motherland, but I haven’t watched Amandaland yet but I’m sure I’ll love it too.
‘But it is a bit of a joke that they used our lovely clean road to make it look more like Harlesden. It’s actually very posh around here and quite middle class. A lot of people weren’t happy when filming was taking place because it caused a lot of nuisance. And now people are annoyed at the way they’ve portrayed our road.’
Lorna MacFarlane, 50, another long-term resident who was returning home with her son Enzo, 15, said: ‘It’s a bit cheeky of the BBC to present our road as if it’s in Harlesden. I used to do outreach work there many years ago for a drug rehabilitation project and I can assure you that it’s nothing like that around here.’
She fumed: ‘Our road was made a lot grubbier during filming and to be honest, the whole thing was a pain in the neck. Not only did they cause a lot of mess, but they also took up all the parking spaces.’
The outside of Amanda’s new home which appears on the show is actually number 48 Ferntower Road while filming inside her home took place in another nearby property.
The resident of number 48, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I saw Motherland and loved it and we’re very happy that the outside of our home was filmed for Amandaland.
‘But I don’t understand why the programme wasn’t filmed in Harlesden if it’s set there. It just doesn’t make sense. I’ve never been to Harlesden, but it can’t be that dangerous and I’m sure it’s very nice, although probably not as nice as around here.’
Local resident Thandie Keet claimed that Ferntower Road and the surrounding area have undergone major gentrification over the past few years, and it was not that long ago that it was considered in the same category as areas like Harlesden.
Long-time resident Lorna MacFarlane said of the TV crews: ‘Not only did they cause a lot of mess, but they also took up all the parking spaces’
The resident of the house which served as main character Amanda’s home in the show said: ‘I don’t understand why the programme wasn’t filmed in Harlesden if it’s set there. It just doesn’t make sense’
Local Thandie Keet said: ‘They probably thought it safer to film here than Harlesden and decided to mess our road up’
A pensioner who lives on the road said: ‘It’s silly and a load of nonsense to make our road out to be Harlesden’
She said: ‘I’ve been here all my life and 30 years ago more than half of Ferntower Road was made up of council houses. Now you’ve got £2million properties here.
‘We had a lot of social problems and there was a lot of crime. But all that’s changed now and even a hot chocolate will cost you £5 in the fancy cafes around here. If people are complaining about our road being made to look like Harlesden, then that’s just Islington snobbery for you.’
She added: ‘They probably thought it safer to film here than Harlesden and decided to mess our road up.’
Her neighbour, a pensioner, who did not want to be named was equally scathing of the makers of Amandaland.
She said: ‘It’s silly and a load of nonsense to make our road out to be Harlesden. Why didn’t they just go and film there in the first place?
‘But that’s TV for you, they can make anything appear to be real. I watched Amandaland the other night, recognised some of the houses on my road and just thought what a load of old rubbish so I switched off after ten minutes. I’m too old for that kind of nonsense.’
One resident posted pictures of filming taking place on Ferntower Road last summer along with a rubbish bag and overturned trolley to give it the ‘Harlesden look’.
He wrote: ‘The sequel to Motherland is being filmed on our road, which is quite exciting as we’re big fans of the show.
‘But the production designers have decided to make our street very rundown, with discarded shopping trolleys, etc! Amanda has obviously fallen on hard times…’
