Brian Billington, Charlotte Booth, The Crime Movie and TV Lover's Guide to London, Pen & Sword | White Owl, November 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

The Crime Movie and TV Lover’s Guide to London provides yet another source for understanding and exploring London through a popular and, at times, familiar, gateway. Previous books published by Pen & Sword have used other entry points, all of which were instructive, interesting, and worth following. This guide follows in their footsteps as a well thought out way of viewing London. The information can be used in two ways – as a wonderful instruction manual about the films and television series that have been made in London, and the localities and as a way of understanding the way in which films and television series may impact the environment in which they are made.

The sites are revealed by post code, making your own investigations easier. However, film and television series names are also reliable sources for discovering locations – a Piorot day, a favourite film day, or even a favourite actor day might be the way to enjoy using this informative and easily read guide.

Although my recent visit to London and further afield did not include tours based on this guide, I can imagine how exciting it would be to follow any of the sources. This is one of the beauties of this guide. It is the detail and variety of information that gives the Guide its unique position in bringing to the person following the trails, or one sitting at home allowing the imagination to roam, an insight into the films and television series, the locations and London as a city of fascination.

This was such an easy guide to read, I loved the photographs included too. Will be a great guide to look for places related to crime for my next London trip.

The amount of detailed work that went into this book is impressive. There are 76 movies (listed below) and 12 TV shows (including Luther, Killing Eve, and Poirot) listed, and each includes several scenes. A short description of each scene is provided—enough so that if you’ve seen the movie or TV show you’ll be able to recall it—and then we’re told exactly where the scene was shot. In some cases a photo is included. I’ll admit it’s disappointing that there are images for only a fraction of the scenes. There are over 600 scene descriptions, but only about 100 images. I suppose this would have been an enormous—and enormously expensive—book if it included images for all the scenes.

In addition to the lists by movie/show, there are indexes and a chapter guiding the viewer on a pub crawl of locations from the films/shows. If you want to make tours from other locations, you’ll have to make your own map from locations given in the book. There is no map in the book, but if you think about it, that’s not surprising. London is a huge city and it would be impractical to map out all these locations in a book. I suppose you could do it neighborhood by neighborhood, but that wouldn’t follow each movie/show, so I don’t think it would much suit the theme of the book.

I would say this book is best suited for someone who loves London and who has enjoyed a good number of the following films:

FILMS:
10 Rillington Place
101 Dalmatians
102 Dalmatians
11 Harrowhouse
The Bank Job
Bellman and True
Blue Murder At St. Trinian’s
The Bourne Ultimatum
Buster
Calculated Risk
Carry On Constable
A Clockwork Orange
Cockneys vs Zombies
The Criminal
The Crying Game
The Da Vinci Code
Death Defying Acts
Die Another Day
Dr. Crippen
Dr. No
Face
For Your Eyes Only
Fast and Furious
A Fish Called Wanda
The Football Factory
The Gentlemen
Get Lucky
GoldenEye
Goldfinger
The Great St. Trinian’s Train Robbery
Green Street
The Hatton Garden Job
Hot Fuzz
The Italian Job
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Jason Bourne
Johnny English
Johnny English Strikes Again
King of Thieves
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Kingsman: The Secret Service
A Kiss Before Dying
The Krays
Last Night In Soho
Layer Cake
Legend
The Living Daylights
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
London Boulevard
The Long Good Friday
Luther: The Fallen Sun
Men In Black: International
Mission Impossible
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Octopussy
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Peeping Tom
Quantum of Solace
Sexy Beast
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Skyfall
Snatch
Spectre
Spooks: The Greater Good
Thunderbirds
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tomorrow Never Dies
Trainspotting
V For Vendetta
Vendetta
The World Is Not Enough

A book that does what it says on the tin – takes you round the London of various crime films, letting you know where the key scenes were shot – provided they were actually filmed in London, and are still accessible and haven't been bulldozed for some traffic calming or some such. I mean, lots of people will prefer to pop into the Drowning Trout, as they're fans of "Snatch" (the movie, if nothing else by that name) and they can – as long as they go into the Jolly Gardener's instead, as that's the place's real-life name. Heck, they may have a fondness for "The Long Good Friday" and diving, and wish to combine the two, but the pool is now an Argentine restaurant, we're told.

Still, perhaps someone has filmed in the capital pretending to be in Argentina – the Antwerp of one film was actually rendered unto celluloid a spit from Warwick Avenue, Hornsey Town Hall probably looks more like a Soviet hotel than it ever thought, and Jack Ryan once got treatment in a London gym pretending to be a military hospital in DC. My short-lived career as a tour guide assured me that yes, people do love this kind of trivia – the scene starting here and now but ending a few frames and miles away, or the complete opposite – a long car ride being lensed all on the one street. It helps cherish the film when you know the tricksiness of those who made it.

Structurally, the book makes a few such convoluted moves of its own. It's mostly done film-by-film, in specific genres, so there is much repetition of, say, how the Aldwych tube has been used since it was written off. We have a chunk about Bond films (about whose London exploits a whole book could, and indeed has, been written), and cover everything from Bourne to St Trinians and football violence films. We then hit the world of TV, from Sherlock to Jonathan Creek and all points in between, and then have a mahoosive pub crawl of all the bars known for "Action!"; a similar trip for London's churches is the obvious penance.

I think the structure of this, as done film by film, proves it is more for the cinema trivia buff as opposed to the explorer, however much the thing holds store by indices for location and postcode. Even if we do, almost as if by accident, find where John Milton is buried, there is a lot of London trivia that could have been included to make this a great day out provider. But the negatives aren't major ones, the pictorial quality is strong with the photos included, and this might not be as definitive as it could, but is still highly serviceable.

This guidebook presents nearly 650 locations used in 76 films and 12 TV show, categorised by genre. Films are then listed in alphabetical order with locations in chronological order for each film. The amount of research that has gone into this book is amazing! Each location includes the full address and postcode and, in the case of businesses, website address. The authors chose not to include maps due to the sheer number of locations. While I understand the logic, I feel as though this made the book hard to navigate. It works best if you pick a certain film and then visit all of its locations, rather than selecting a part of London and visiting the different sites located there, although there is a list of locations by postcode at the back of the book and there are also some preset tours you can follow.

A recommend read for film and TV crime aficionados based in or around London.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Very interesting premise but I realized that most of the crime films were not as interesting to me as a reader. I would recommend this book to someone who is obsessed with knowing what filming locations can be found in a specific area when visiting.

I received a free copy of, The Crime Movie and TV Lover's Guide to London, by Brian Billington, Charlotte Booth, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. From 101 Dalmatians, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Fast and Furious. Movie from the 1900-present times, crime movie and tv shows that were filmed in London, are mentioned in this great book.

I requested this book before my trip to London to look for some inspiration. Unfortunately, I ended up using none of it. This may not be the fault of the book itself, but of the copyright laws that (I assume) didn't allow it to use original photos of the scenes it talks about. My mind was not able to identify the movies and the scenes it was listing, due to lack of context, and I turned out to be bored by it really quick. It assumes that the reader knows and remembers all the scenes it's talking about, when, in my case particularly, when I don't have a photo of a given scene, I won't know if I will be interested in seeing the spot by myself. This guide requires the reader to do a lot of additional research to decide if they even want to visit a given place, so for me it was not very helpful. Also the selection of the movies and shows is pretty narrow - it doesn't include anything from Slow Horses, which I was really hoping for.

Really interesting guide to places appearing in crime films and tv shows. I don't really watch these kinds of films and shows, but I actually found quite a few of the things I've seen.

The book is divided into chapters based on the types of films (gangsters, robberies, serial killers etc.), and there's one chapter for tv dramas. At the end we have a few ready tours (pub crawl, cemeteries, churches, and cinemas/theatres).

As for the descriptions, they're quite detailed; there's an address with a postcode, an explanation for the scene that featured this location, and sometimes a quick description of the place. The authors clearly did a lot of research, and I really enjoyed checking out this book. I will be sure to use it when planning the next London trip.

The only complaint I have is the lack of maps (I know that it's complicated for books like this, but maybe a few maps featuring different parts of cities, or at least for the tours at the end), and I would love to see more photos and shots from the films.

My son in law read this book. As an ex resident of our great capital city and lifelong movie buff this was right up his street. He was fascinated by the locations and loved the photographs of the locations. There were a few movies he did not know but intends to seek them out and watch them. A visit to London soon is likely on the cards too. A great book for movie lovers.

Kind of cool to see where scenes from some of my favorite movies were filmed but not as interesting as I'd hoped. Was neat to actually see the places when I used street view on an online map.

Those who enjoy TV and movies, London, and crime stories will delight in this book that offers a glimpse of the locations for many productions. Dip in anywhere or look at this one in order. Some of the chapter headings include Murder, Espionage, TV Dramas, Church Tour and more.

Enjoy the photos, read the text and learn about places familiar and/or new. There are over 650 locations featured covering 76 movies and 12 TV shows. This book’s intended audience will, I think, love this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for this title. All opinions are my own.

A good premise, a book that takes you through filming locations for popular crime film and TV series. Want to wander the street and and find filming locations for a Fish Called Wanda? Or the locations of Maddie’s flats in Jonathan Creek (St Mary’s Mansions, Paddington and Sutton Court Chiswick). Villanelle and Luther are covered. There is even a chapter on Pub Crawls and to counter balance a Church Tour.

My criticism of the book is that many of the photos are of obvious places, Trafalgar Square, Royal Albert Hall etc. Most people interested in this book would be quite familiar with just landmarks I would have thought.

⭐ - 4.5/5 - ⭐

I love this so much! It's such a great guide for those of us who love thrillers, horror, crime, and action movies and TV shows. It takes you on an in depth tour of London and the places that set the scene for movies and TV shows from classics like James Bond, to newer hits like the Netflix original series 'You'. This book would make an excellent gift for anyone wanting to take a exciting tour of this wonderful city.

Not really a good book for digital reads because tour books are usually meant to be tossed around, highlighted, bookmarked, etc, but reading it digitally allowed for searching and better quality pictures.

Thank you #netgalley and #penandsword and #whiteowl for the ARC of this book and giving me the chance to read and review it with my own thoughts and opinions