Where is Banged Up filmed: location of prison in Channel 4 documentary series with Peter Hitchens

Channel 4 prison documentary series Banged Up, sees Tom Rosenthal, Sid Owen, Marcus Luther, HRVY, Peter Hitchens, Neil Parish, and Johnny Mercer spend over a week behind bars to experience the realities of life in Britain’s jails.

They will be locked up with a variety of real ex-cons who have since reformed following their time inside, but even though the star’s jail time was made for TV, it was no walk in the park.

Hitchens, who recently found himself in hot water for sharing a video of himself in a 2013 interview with Matthew Perry, in which he dismissed drug addiction, less than a day after the Friends actor’s death, said that he found the experience extremely real and disturbing.

The reason for the documentary's hyper-reality is the show’s setting - it is not filmed on a studio set but in a real facility that, for more than 100 years served as a prison for high security inmates.

Where is Banged Up filmed?

Banged Up was filmed entirely at HM Prison Shrewsbury - a former men’s category B and C prison that has since been decommissioned and is now a tourist attraction and sometimes film set.

The Victorian era prison in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, north east of Birmingham, first opened in 1877 and was decommissioned in 2013. 

An earlier prison was constructed on the site in the late 18th century before being demolished and replaced with the current building. For the first 45 years of Shrewsbury prison’s existence it housed female prisoners but since 1922 was a male only facility.

63 prisoners were executed at the site, with seven prisoners hanged on the grounds in the 20th century for the crime of murder - four of those executions were carried out by the infamous hangman Albert Pierrepoint.

Infamous prisoners to serve out their sentence at Shrewsbury included George Riley, the last person to be executed there before capital punishment was abolished, and Lee Davies, a corrections officer who was caught smuggling phones and drugs into the jail before ending up behind bars there himself.

Since being decommissioned in 2013 the prison opened as an interactive tourist attraction, with around 78,000 visitors coming to the site annually. It is not expected to be reopened as a prison and will continue to serve as a tourist attraction.

The prison is used for ghost tours, historical guided tours, and an escape room experience, but has also been taken over by film crews on several occasions.

What else has been filmed at HM Prison Shrewsbury?

HM Prison Shrewsbury has been used as a filming location for several crime dramas and reality TV series in the decade since it was decommissioned.

It was used as a setting for ITVX crime miniseries Without Sin, the second season of Manchester-set drama series Prey, starring John Simm, and several episodes of Coronation Street in 2019, in which David Platt, played by Jack P. Shepherd was locked up.

The biggest drama to be filmed at the jail is Time, the first season of which starred Stephen Graham as a prison warden and Sean Bean as a meek prisoner. The drama has returned for a second season set at a female prison and starring Bella Ramsey, Jodie Whittaker, and Tamara Lawrance.

The prison has also been used as the setting for reality shows including paranormal series Most Haunted, season five of  Celebrity Hunted, and one episode of season 17 of The Apprentice.