Star actors descend on Kinlochbervie to film new Netflix series
Big screen and television stars descended on north-west Sutherland this week, bringing with them a little Hollywood glamour.
A new film starring acclaimed Hollywood actor Jamie Dornan (41) has started filming in the area.
The Netflix drama The Undertow began shooting near Kinlochbervie and will also be filmed on the Isle of Mull. Producers said that both locations were chosen for their “breathtaking beauty”.
The film also stars Scottish actors Gary Lewis and Iain De Caestecker and Canadian actress Mackenzie Davis (37).
A section of the Oldshoremore Cemetery Road (U1106) has been closed for more than two weeks to allow for filming to take place.
The Undertow is a crime noir series in which Dornan takes on the dual roles of identical twins Adam and Lee, who are estranged from each other.
Adam’s loveless marriage to Nicola, played by Mackenzie Davis, is threatened when Lee comes back into their lives. The three share a tangled romantic past.
After Adam dies in a terrible accident, Nicola and Lee try to convince police that Lee died instead of his brother.
Over the course of one week Nicola and Lee are forced together and struggle to maintain a web of secrets and lies.
Filming on Tuesday was centred around Tarbet where a seasonal ferry runs to the bird reserve of Handa Island.
The Shorehouse Restaurant at Tarbet Pier was transformed into a tourist centre called Bagh Nan Dobhran.
The production crew also created a surf shop. There was also a fake police vehicle, possibly related to a scene where a body is apparently found in the water.
Gary Lewis and Mackenzie Davis were spotted filming on Tuesday but there was no sign of Dornan, who is perhaps best known for his infamous role as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise.
He has also starred in the Netflix spy thriller Heart of Stone and the BBC thriller The Tourist as an Irishman with amnesia fighting for survival.
Mackenzie Davis, 37, co-starred as Yorkie in the Emmy Award-winning Black Mirror episode San Junipero.
In 2021, she had a lead role in the miniseries Station Eleven, for which she won a Critics' Choice Super Award for Best Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series.
Gary Lewis has had roles in films including Billy Elliot, Joyeux Noël, Gangs of New York and Eragon, as well as major roles in the television docudrama Supervolcano and the Starz series Outlander.
The drama is to be released next year and is based on The Nordisk Film Production AS television series, Twin.
The Undertow is one of three Netflix productions soon to be shot in Scotland. These include Department Q starring Matthew Goode and Kelly Macdonald, in Edinburgh and Lockerbie, based on the events surrounding the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
A spokesperson for Highland Council said: "The council is pleased to welcome productions to the region to continue the successful growth of the industry, however, for reasons of confidentiality, we are unable to comment on the details of this individual project."
Sarah Dollard, Hanna Jameson, Scout Cripps, and Kam Odedra are writers on the series, with Dollard also executive producing. Jeremy Lovering is directing.
