Express & Star

Film crews descend on West Bromwich for filming of new BBC series by Peaky Blinders creator

Film crews have descended on the Black Country once again for a new six-part drama series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.

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Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.

Scenes were being filmed for This Town at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich which has been turned into "The Happy Trooper".

The show – which explores the UK's ska and two-tone music scene in the region – has previously been spotted filming in Wolverhampton.

It comes after a casting call was issued last month to find "skinheads and people with shaved heads" in and around the West Bromwich area.

Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.
Filming taking place at the Coach and Horses pub in West Bromwich – which has been renamed 'The Happy Trooper – for the new Steven Knight drama This Town.

New pub signs, lighting, and a classic car were all spotted at the scene at the junction of Kesteven Road and Essex Junction on Wednesday.

The new BBC programme – This Town – tells the story of an extended family and four young people who are drawn into the world of ska and two-tone music, which exploded from the grassroots of Coventry and Birmingham in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, uniting black, white and Asian youths.

Mr Knight, who grew up in Walsall, has previously used the region for the filming of Peaky Blinders – especially at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.

He said: "This is a project very close to my heart. It’s about an era I lived through and know well and it involves characters who I feel I grew up with. It’s a love letter to Birmingham and Coventry but I hope people from all over the world will relate to it."

It has been described as both a "high octane thriller" and a "family saga" and opens in 1981 at a moment of social tensions and unrest. It tells the story of a "group of young people fighting to choose their own paths in life, and each in need of the second chance that music offers".

Resident Jaspreet Sing, 31, said: "It's amazing that they are filming this here. This area is known for having a bit of a bad reputation so it's nice that we get this kind of publicity.

"I didn't even know it was being filmed in the pub until they started putting up all of the sheets up and started all the work, it's amazing how hush hush it was."

Pete Brown, 62, who frequents the pub, said: "It is a nice pub, it's nice that the pub is doing this for the new show, it was talked about a little bit but I didn't really know too much, I just knew they would be closing on some of the days.

"I think they have revamped some of the inside by the looks of it, I was mostly surprised by the sign change to be honest, I thought someone had bought the place."