Space Digital Scotland has completed the visual effects for Vigil Series 3, the latest instalment of the BBC One drama produced by World Productions, which premiered on Sunday 30 August and is now airing weekly on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Working across five episodes of the six-part series, the team completed over 150 shots, delivering explosions, gunfire, planes, helicopters and extensive environment enhancements.
The major recurring challenge was how to set the story in remote Svalbard with only limited time available to film on the Arctic Archipelago. Many scenes were shot in Glasgow, Stirling, East Kilbride and Hamilton, with Space VFX artists later altering or replacing buildings and adding snow and distant mountains to create the illusion of the story being set in a single location.
The team also altered the landscape captured in Svalbard itself, removing buildings and even whole villages to deepen the isolation central to the show’s atmosphere.
The project marks the studio’s first involvement with the VIGIL franchise.
Marcus Wilson, producer at World Productions, said: “Space Digital were brilliant partners on Vigil 3. From early conversations where we worked through the best approach to our environment work, to deep involvement in the filming and a creative postproduction process, they produced visual effects that supported our narrative and enhanced our story environment. My only disappointment is that they won’t get as much credit as they deserve, because so much of what they did was so seamless and credible that the viewer will never believe it wasn’t there.”
Matt Wood, head of VFX at Space Digital, added: “Vigil 3 marks our formal expansion north of the border and we couldn’t have hoped for a better project to start with. World Productions tapped exceptional local talent who worked hard to accommodate the sometimes-mysterious ways of VFX. It was a unique and rewarding collaboration, even extending to Space VFX artists directing drone shoots in Svalbard via live video call. As ever we hope audiences don’t notice what we did and enjoy their time in what appears to be a remote arctic outpost.”
Founded in 2025 in one of Europe’s most active current production landscapes,, Space Digital Scotland is the Scottish studio of Space Digital, one of the UK’s leading visual effects and production companies, established in Manchester over twenty years ago.
Vigil Series 3 airs on BBC One on Sunday and Monday evenings and is also available on BBC iPlayer.
