Quay Street Productions’ Manchester-made thriller The Stolen Girl has arrived on free-to-air television, with the six-part drama now airing on ITV and ITVX after its original launch on Disney+.
Produced by Manchester-based Quay Street Productions, the series was filmed extensively across Greater Manchester alongside locations in southern France, using the region as the backdrop for a story that unfolds across Europe.
The drama follows Elisa Blix, a working mother whose decision to allow her daughter Lucia to attend a playdate turns into a nightmare when the child disappears. What begins as an ordinary sleepover becomes an international abduction case, triggering a manhunt that stretches from suburban Manchester to the south of France.
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Greater Manchester plays a central role in the production, with locations in Stockport, Whalley Range and Manchester city centre used throughout the series. Cheadle Hulme School was used as the children’s school, while a detached red-brick property in Stockport served as Elisa’s home. Sunlight House doubled as the newsroom of investigative reporter Selma Desai.
Actor Jim Sturgess, who plays Fred Blix, said filming in Manchester helped ground the series.
“We were given this incredible house to film in, and the crew had done the most amazing job of creating Fred and Elisa’s life. There were so many photos on the wall of us, as well as kids’ drawings and paintings and mess. The minute we got into that space; the family relationship started to feel very real.
“It was also nice to go back to Manchester. I have a deep connection to the city because I grew up with all the music and culture and went to college there for that reason. Going back there in a professional capacity was a full circle moment for me.”
The production also spent several weeks filming in France, where the story follows the abducted child and her captor. Holliday Grainger described the experience of filming overseas:
“I quite enjoyed learning French as I’ve never spoken French before so that was quite an interesting challenge!
“We were in France for five weeks. I think I only did three days in Manchester and the rest was in France, which was great. For most of the time we were at this amazing beautiful Bastide – this huge house that was so gorgeous and perfect for a bohemian family home. The idea of Nina and the life she was expecting made so much sense in the house with this beautiful artwork and the kids’ rooms with murals. Walking through the town to a French bakery for fresh bread and pastries for the kids. When you’re there, you kind of fall into that world.”
Executive producer John Woodward said the contrast between locations helped define the series. “One thing that is very specific that we really loved about it, is that it has very unusual locations – two very distinct places. One is ‘posh Cheshire,’ as I call it – quite a comfortable, middle-class world outside of Manchester where the family is. Then you’ve got this completely different world in the South of France. Both are unusual.”
Supervising Locations Manager Kevin Jackson added: “The fact it was set in two different countries made it feel different to other dramas. [It’s] really striking the difference between the two locations. There were some challenging locations too – the two main houses in the series are very specific and there are airport scenes.”
He said Manchester locations were carefully selected to match the story’s characters.
“We did a lot of walking around because a lot of it is set in Manchester City centre. It was great to get a feel for things. A great example is Selma’s flat. We always spoke about it being in the Northern Quarter because she’s a young, trendy professional and that’s where the young trendy professionals live, but we couldn’t find a flat. Based on what they were after, I said, we’ll find it in Whalley Range in a large house that’s been split into flats. Sure enough, we dropped 100 letters into properties there and the first house that came back to us, we ended up using.”
The series is adapted from Alex Dahl’s novel Playdate, which was originally set in Scandinavia, and marks another major scripted project produced in the North by Quay Street Productions.
Key filming locations in The Stolen Girl:
- Selma’s flat was filmed in Whalley Range, Greater Manchester.
- The children’s school scenes were filmed at Cheadle Hulme School in Cheshire.
- A detached red-brick house in Stockport served as Elisa’s family home.
- Sunlight House in Manchester city centre doubles as the newsroom where investigative reporter Selma Desai works.
- The Glass House in Fulwood Park, Liverpool, featured as Rebecca’s home.
- Marsden in West Yorkshire was used as the fictional village of Eyton.
- The Dalton Building at Manchester Metropolitan University’s All Saints Campus stood in for Manchester Metropolitan Police Station.
- Blackpool Airport was used for airport scenes set in both the UK and France.
- Shrewsbury Prison was used for the drama’s prison scenes.
- The road between Lower and Upper Rivington Reservoirs in Lancashire appears in episode two.
- The Port of Dover ferry terminal was used for scenes showing a car boarding a ferry.
- Additional scenes were filmed in southern France, including a pastry shop and bar in La Seyne-sur-Mer near Toulon.
