The gripping new Netflix thriller Run Away, adapted from Harlan Coben's best-selling novel, launched on 1 January 2026, offering a tense start to the New Year for streaming audiences. The series, a collaboration between Netflix and Manchester's Quay Street Productions, transplants the action from New York to the north west of England, following a father's desperate search for his missing daughter.
From Page to Screen: A Northern Backdrop
Starring James Nesbitt as finance expert Simon Greene and Minnie Driver as his surgeon wife, Ingrid, the eight-part drama required a vast array of locations to depict its sprawling mystery. Producer Guy Hescott emphasised the production's scale, noting the challenge of creating a "massive world" for the search. The shift from Manhattan meant finding UK equivalents for the book's settings, from luxurious family homes to gritty urban estates.
The drama opens with a pivotal scene in a park, where Simon, tipped off about his daughter Paige's whereabouts, spots her busking by a fountain. This sequence was filmed at Alexandra Park in Oldham, using 200 extras, cranes, and drones to create a bustling atmosphere. In a distinctly Northern twist, Paige performs Elbow's anthem One Day Like This, after securing the rights proved easier than for the Beatles song featured in the book.
Key Filming Sites Across the Region
The production utilised locations across Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire, and the Peak District. The Greene family's affluent home, an Edwardian manor, was found in Altrincham, though interior shots were filmed in a house in Alderley Edge. The imposing Manchester Crown Court on Crown Square doubled as the fictional Bank Street Police Station, with interiors built in a Northern Quarter property.
University scenes were a composite: the exterior of "Lanford University" is the former St Katharine's College in Liverpool, while interiors and courtyards blend Hope University in Liverpool and Manchester University. Chilling estate scenes, where a murder is discovered, were shot on Hill Street in Dukinfield, with the production team adding graffiti and mess to smart, well-kept flats to fit the narrative's "chaotic world."
Liverpool, Cheshire and the Climactic Finale
Liverpool provided several backdrops. Café scenes featuring Ruth Jones's private investigator were shot at the real Café Minna on Lark Lane, while her plant-based eatery, Finch and Leaf, is actually Evelyn's in the Northern Quarter. A tense tattoo parlour sequence used a real parlour in Liverpool, selected for its specific layout.
In Cheshire, Tatton Park Farm stood in for "The Corval Inn" animal park, and the Alderley Park science park became the hospital where Ingrid works. The series builds to its climax at a disturbing cult compound, filmed at the Thornbridge Hall Estate near Bakewell in the Peak District—a location far removed from its sinister on-screen portrayal.
Other notable spots include a remote moorland pub, the former Great Western Inn in Marsden, for the first day of filming, and a creepy cottage in Altrincham previously scouted for another Coben adaptation. Run Away is streaming now on Netflix, showcasing the north west's versatility as a dramatic landscape.
