Is The Blame based on a true story? No, but the six-part ITV drama was filmed mainly in and around London, with key scenes at Alexandra Palace, the Pentland Centre in East Finchley and Hertford. Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth lead the series as DI Emma Crane and DI Tom Radley, and the setting turns real places into the frame for a fictional murder case.
Producer Matt Strevens said, "You had to find a police station that was visually interesting because a good chunk of the drama takes place there". He added of the Pentland Centre, "We eventually found [Pentland Centre], this empty lakeside business park in East Finchley that felt like a campus with lots of different styles of building. The one that became our police station was just perfect."
Pentland Centre in East Finchley
Strevens said, "It had this 1970’s design and was completely believable as somewhere that had been built just on the outskirts of town." He also said, "The place was also surrounded by trees and fields, which allowed for a very easy link to the location work we were going to do." The Pentland Centre became the police station setting, giving the production one place that could carry a large share of the drama’s indoor work without losing the look of a town-edge facility.
The location choice fits the story setup. The Blame unfolds in the fictional town of Wakestead, even though the production was shot in and around London. That split matters on screen because Wakestead needed to feel like a believable market town where people would trust the local police force, while the real filming base had to provide a practical working backdrop for a six-part crime series.
Hertford and Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace appears through the ice-skating rink and exterior scenes, while Hertford carries some of the more intimate material. Strevens said, "One of my loveliest memories was going to Michelle's character’s home – we put her in a picturesque cottage by a river". He also said, "While filming there, all the crew camped out in an old coaching hotel called the Salisbury Arms."
Hertford also holds the first kiss between Emma and Tom, which gives the town a specific narrative function rather than serving as background dressing. Pubs The Salisbury Arms and The Old Barge also feature in the series, helping the production move between the police station, home life and social spaces without leaving the London-region footprint.
Sunday 20 September on ITV
The Blame airs on ITV and ITVX on Sunday 20 September, so viewers who want to track the locations will be able to watch how those real sites are folded into the fictional Wakestead. The clean read is simple: this is a London-made thriller that uses a police-station-heavy location strategy to support the story’s central investigation, and the real-world settings are doing more of the work than the plot summary suggests.
