fairground bristol uni campus

Fairground on Bristol Uni campus is the set for a new BBC drama

There’s a literal fairground outside the physics building


A fairground that has been set up on the Bristol Uni campus is the set for a new BBC drama called Showtrial.

The five-part series is being filmed on campus this week, and is from World Productions, the same production company behind smash-hits Line of Duty and Bodyguard.

The set that has been constructed outside the physics building drew attention on Twitter yesterday, with many confused about why there would be a fairground on an empty campus.

The story revolves around a trial following a murder on a university campus, and a security guard told The Bristol Tab that the scenes being filmed at Bristol Uni are flashback scenes.

A BBC press release describes the show as “a timely look at how wealth, politics and prejudice conspire to distort the quest for justice.”

The story focuses on a fictional character called Talitha Campbell, described as “the arrogant daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur, [who] is arrested following the disappearance of fellow student, Hannah Ellis, the hard-working daughter of a single mother.

“From Talitha’s arrest to the jury’s final verdict, Showtrial switches between both sides of the legal battle, as defence and prosecution fight for their version of what really happened to Hannah, and the truth about Talitha: Falsely accused? Or callous murderer?”

Creator and writer of the series, Ben Richards, said: “The right to a fair trial and the idea of reasonable doubt lie at the heart of a civilised society. Showtrial explores how they can be distorted by other factors, in a world where concepts such as fairness, doubt and reason are afforded such diminishing value.”

Cast details have not yet been publicly announced.

Bristol Uni has hosted many high-profile productions over the years. In early February, the second season of the Amazon Prime series, Alex Rider, was being filmed at Goldney Hall.

Last week, Bristol Uni rejected a Freedom of Information request from The Bristol Tab asking how much money the university makes from productions filming on campus.

They said that disclosure “could be potentially destructive to the relationship built with the filming production and location companies that we work with and could ruin any future opportunities for us.”

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