Where is The Rig filmed? Scottish filming locations for Amazon thriller series - was it shot on a real oil rig

The Rig is Amazon Prime’s latest big-budget thriller series following workers on an oil rig who find themselves caught in a fight for survival against forces beyond their comprehension.

The six-part series, which is available to watch now stars Iain Glen, Emily Hampshire, and Martin Compston and was directed by John Strickland and Alex Holmes. Recreating the setting of a perilous oil rig was a major challenge for the production crew, and some of the cast have their own war stories from the filming process. This is everything you need to know about where The Rig was filmed:

Where is The Rig set?

The Rig is set on a fictional oil rig, the Kinlock Bravo in the North Sea, miles from the Scottish coast. Workers on the rig are preparing to return to the Scottish mainland when a mysterious fog engulfs the rig.

Unable to get back to Aberdeen, the rig workers find themselves completely cut off from all communication to the outside world. When supernatural forces emerge from the fog, the crew’s endurance and loyalty will be tested to the limit.

Where was The Rig filmed?

The Rig is the first Amazon original series to be filmed entirely in Scotland, with most filming taking place in Edinburgh. Filming began in March 2021 and wrapped in summer that year.

Scenes set on the Kinlock Bravo oil rig were filmed at FirstStage Studios, an 8.5 acre facility in Leith, a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. A large prop oil rig was created at the studio.

Mark Bonnar, who plays deck foreman Alwyn Evans in the series said: “The art department built this incredible kind of three-storey oil rig. Everything that you see is real, apart from the sea. The VFX do the most incredible job. It was very atmospheric.”

FirstStage Studios opened in Scotland in 2019 - other productions filmed at the studio include Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, and big-budget Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War.

Another upcoming Amazon series has also been filmed at FirstStage - Anansi Boys, a six-part series about two sons of a spider-god, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, will land on Amazon Prime later this year. Other TV shows that have been filmed in Edinburgh include Highlander, Downton Abbey, The Crown, and Monarch of the Glen.

Speaking about the series last year, Director of European Prime Original Series at Amazon, Georgia Brown, said: "I think The Rig will prove to the world that shows can go out that are hyperlocal: north of Inverness in a place that people probably will never have heard of with very Scottish accents, very thick accents."

Filming The Rig has not been all plain sailing, as several cast members suffered accidents on set. Bonnar explained that whilst shooting one scene at the studio in a pool of water using wave machines he became pre hypothermic, and had to stop filming to warm up. Additionally, Iain Glen, who plays offshore installation manager Magnus MacMillan, fell from a crane in another mishap. He said that he had initially resisted the crew’s request to wear a harness but they had convinced him to wear one. The harness certainly saved him from a nasty injury.