Where is This is Going to Hurt filmed? London filming locations in TV series - is it a real hospital?

BBC One medical drama This is Going to Hurt is set in London.

The series is also understood to have filmed there, differentiating it from a number of dramas that are set in one location but film elsewhere, such as Ozark (set in Missouri but filmed in Georgia), The Teacher (set in Bradford but filmed in Budapest), and Doctor Who (often set in space but typically filmed in Welsh quarries).

It’s been reported that the production team were spotted filming This Is Going To Hurt in Camden (specifically on Bloomsbury Street) and slightly further afield on Marchmont Street.

Due to the pandemic, cast and crew of This Is Going To Hurt were unable to undertake their planned shadowing scheme, where they would’ve followed real doctors in real medical wards to try and learn more about the job.

It stands to reason, then, that they probably couldn’t have actually filmed the series in real-life hospitals – so presumably the series was filmed in custom built sets made specially for filming, rather than in a real hospital.

Production company Sister, who made This Is Going To Hurt, are based in London, so it’s a reasonable enough assumption that whatever studio space they used to shoot the series would have been in London as well.

Of course, there’s also the fact that Adam Kay – the former doctor who wrote This Is Going To Hurt and the memoir of the same name its based on; he’s the direct inspiration for the character played by Ben Whishaw here – did his medical training in London. Kay studied medicine at Imperial College in London.

Kay also worked as a junior doctor and acting consultant in London.

Fun fact: Adam Kay founded the musical comedy group Amateur Transplants, who were behind the comedy song “London Underground” that was big in 2005 (which was while Kay was still a doctor). So, lots of London in his life, really.

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