The new crime drama Benidorm is Murder, from the creator of Death in Paradise, airs on Channel 5 tonight, Thursday, July 30. Starring John Hannah as a former detective turned bar owner, the series is set in the coastal Spanish city of Benidorm.
Where is Benidorm is Murder filmed?
The series was partly shot in and around Benidorm, a city in the province of Alicante on Spain's Mediterranean coast, though the first two weeks of filming took place in Gran Canaria.
Carolina Becquer, who plays Rosa, said of filming in her hometown of Gran Canaria: 'I remember when I got the call and they told me I got the job, I didn’t want to celebrate, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it was real until I was on set, it was so surreal, not just my first big role but my first job basically.'
Director Simon Delaney added that Becquer had hired a minibus to take cast and crew on a guided tour of Gran Canaria. She said: 'It was a dream come true, and having the first two weeks back at home, that was amazing. It was a soft launch and very, very special.'
What the cast and crew say about the locations
Delaney spoke about his changed preconceptions of Benidorm: 'Before I’d been to Benidorm at all, I had some - most people do - preconceptions about it which are not always, to be really honest, on the positive side but almost as soon as I first went there, I thought that this has a unique energy.' He added: 'It’s a cliché about it being like another character in the show, but it’s got an energy of people who work hard, want to spend their hard-earned money on a holiday and want that holiday to be in Benidorm.'
John Hannah said: 'I hadn’t really been there before, I’d been in the hills before. The other thing I think it gives, being a real place with its own kind of dynamic and vibe… you get some very broad characters, and I think in other shows they tend to create eccentricity for the sake of it, to create a kind of quirky character who comes in and does this.' He continued: 'You can find anybody in Benidorm, and that helps with that energy. You’ve got such a broad canvas that any of those quirky characters fit in that canvas.'
Benidorm is Murder airs on Channel 5 on Thursday, July 30 at 9pm.
