Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British action comedy directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Nicholas Angel, an exceptionally successful Metropolitan Police officer who is transferred from London to the seemingly peaceful village of Sandford because his outstanding arrest record makes his colleagues look incompetent. Paired with the enthusiastic but inexperienced Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), he begins investigating a series of suspicious deaths that the local police insist are accidents. The film also stars Jim Broadbent as Inspector Frank Butterman, Timothy Dalton as supermarket manager Simon Skinner, Olivia Colman, Paddy Considine and Edward Woodward. It is the second instalment in Wright, Pegg and Frost’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following Shaun of the Dead (2004).
Hot Fuzz (2007) was filmed mainly in Wells, Somerset, with additional locations around London and elsewhere in southern England. Principal photography began in March 2006, with filming in Wells taking place mainly between 7 May and 2 June. The small cathedral city, where Edgar Wright grew up, became the fictional village of Sandford, with its Market Place, High Street, churches and historic buildings appearing throughout the film. Additional locations in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Essex were used for interiors and scenes requiring buildings that were unavailable in Wells. The production also digitally removed Wells Cathedral from several backgrounds, allowing the smaller St Cuthbert’s Church to serve as Sandford’s principal church.
The opening montage showing Nicholas Angel’s career in the Metropolitan Police was filmed partly at Hendon Police Training College on Aerodrome Road in north London. The former Simpson House and Peel House buildings appear as Angel describes his police training, outstanding arrest record and eventual promotion. The production also used the college’s driving facilities and athletic track, together with the Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre in Gravesend, Kent. After learning that he is being transferred to Sandford, Angel travels west by train. The isolated railway platform where he changes trains was filmed at Denham Golf Club railway station in Buckinghamshire, rather than at a station in Somerset.
Angel arrives in Sandford at the Swan Hotel on Sadler Street in Wells. The historic hotel, situated close to Wells Cathedral, provided the exterior of his temporary accommodation while he waits for the cottage promised by Inspector Butterman. However, the reception and dining-room scenes were filmed at the former Edgwarebury Hotel, later known as The Manor Hotel, on Edgwarebury Lane in Elstree, Hertfordshire. This building provided the wood-panelled interiors where Angel meets hotel receptionist Joyce Cooper (Billie Whitelaw) and later eats alone after his investigation begins to alienate the local residents. Many members of the cast stayed at the actual Swan Hotel during the Wells location shoot.
The Crown at Wells, a fifteenth-century coaching inn overlooking Market Place, became Sandford’s local pub. It appears on Angel’s first evening in the village, when he discovers that several customers are underage and orders them to leave. After escorting the teenagers to the police station, he encounters Danny Butterman, who drunkenly reverses his car into the stone fountain in Market Place. The pub returns throughout the film as a meeting place for the police officers and townspeople. Although The Crown supplied the exterior, its interior was filmed at The Royal Standard of England on Forty Green Road near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. The historic timber-framed pub was used for the bar scenes in which Angel drinks cranberry juice while his colleagues socialise, as well as the confrontation during the film’s climactic shootout.
Wells Market Place is one of the film’s most frequently used locations. Its stone fountain, market buildings, Town Hall and surrounding shops appear as Angel and Danny patrol Sandford and investigate complaints from residents. The square is also where Peter Ian Staker (Stephen Merchant) reports his missing swan, and where Simon Skinner introduces himself to Angel outside his supermarket. During the final confrontation, Angel returns to the village on horseback, riding along Chamberlain Street before entering Market Place. Armed members of the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance open fire from around the square, including positions near the Town Hall and Bishop’s Eye Gate. The production used the actual streets and buildings for the extensive gun battle, which required temporary road closures and careful coordination with local businesses. According to Wright, filming occupied the square for approximately six weeks.
Another important Wells location is City News at 2A High Street, the newsagent where Angel and Danny regularly buy Cornetto ice creams. The shop appears in several scenes, including their conversations about the mysterious deaths and Danny’s admiration for American action films. Its entrance and interior were filmed at the real business, with the familiar notice limiting the number of schoolchildren allowed inside. High Street also features during Angel’s pursuit of shoplifter Peter Cocker (Ben McKay), who flees after being caught stealing from the local supermarket. The chase continues through Union Street, Whiting Way and several residential footpaths before Angel finally catches him. These locations were filmed separately and edited together to create a continuous pursuit through Sandford.
The supermarket operated by Simon Skinner was represented by the former Somerfield at 9–13 High Street in Wells, where Edgar Wright had worked as a teenager. The shop’s exterior, main entrance and rear car park appear when Angel first encounters Skinner and again during the final confrontation. However, the much larger interior was filmed inside a disused Safeway supermarket on Staines Road in Hounslow, west London. This building provided the aisles, checkout areas and storerooms used for the scenes involving Skinner and his employees. During the climax, Angel and the other officers enter the store to arrest Skinner, but the confrontation turns into another gun battle. The Wells supermarket exterior and Hounslow interior were combined to represent the same business.
St Cuthbert’s Church, near the western end of Wells High Street, was used for Sandford’s parish church and the village fête. The production filled the churchyard with stalls, fairground attractions and local residents, with Angel and Danny assigned to police the gathering. During the festivities, Danny wins a stuffed monkey at a shooting gallery, while journalist Tim Messenger (Adam Buxton) approaches Angel with information about the recent deaths. Before he can explain what he has discovered, a hooded figure pushes a section of stone masonry from the church tower, killing him in front of the assembled villagers. The churchyard and tower are clearly visible throughout the sequence, although a brief shot of the killer on a spiral staircase was filmed at Wells Cathedral. St Cuthbert’s Church also appears near the end of the film when Angel accompanies Danny to visit his mother’s grave.
The Little Theatre, at the junction of Chamberlain Street and Portway, provided the exterior of Sandford’s amateur theatre. Angel and Danny attend a performance of Romeo and Juliet starring local solicitor Martin Blower (David Threlfall) and actress Eve Draper (Lucy Punch). The production uses the real theatre entrance as the two officers leave after the performance and encounter Blower outside. The actual stage scenes, however, were filmed at The Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Shortly afterwards, Blower and Draper are killed in what appears to be a road accident. The scene was filmed on Constitution Hill along the B3139 between Wells and Dulcote, the same road where Angel and Danny had earlier stopped Blower for speeding.
Several other locations around Wells appear during the officers’ routine patrols. The recreation ground near South Street was used during the search for the missing swan, while a residential property at 30 Balch Road provided the exterior of Danny’s house. Here, Angel visits Danny after work and the two watch action films together, including Point Break (1991) and Bad Boys II (2003). The surrounding residential streets also appear during their conversations as they walk home from the pub. For the scenes at Sandford Police Station, however, the filmmakers used the former Headmaster’s House at the Royal Masonic School for Boys in Bushey, Hertfordshire. The building, also identified as Cadogan House, provided the police station exterior and its entrance, where Angel repeatedly arrives to report his suspicions to Inspector Butterman. The former school site has since been redeveloped as Royal Connaught Park.
Arthur Webley’s farm, where Angel and Danny discover a large collection of illegal weapons and an unexploded naval mine, was filmed at Wards Hurst Farm near Ringshall in Hertfordshire. The farm buildings and yard appear as the officers question Webley (David Bradley) about an allegation of illegal hedge cutting. Their investigation takes an unexpected turn when they discover the weapons hidden inside an outbuilding, culminating in the accidental detonation of the mine. Another property outside Somerset was Mill House on Over the Misbourne Road near Denham, Buckinghamshire, which represented the modern mansion belonging to wealthy businessman George Merchant (Ron Cook). Angel and Danny escort the drunken Merchant home after an evening at the pub, only for the house to be destroyed by an explosion later that night.
The garden centre belonging to Leslie Tiller (Anne Reid) was filmed at Finchley Nurseries on Burton Hole Lane in Mill Hill, north London. Angel visits the business to purchase a Japanese peace lily for Danny’s birthday and learns that Tiller is planning to leave Sandford. Before she can provide further information, a hooded attacker kills her with a pair of garden shears. Angel pursues the murderer through the nursery and surrounding paths but is unable to catch the fleeing figure. The production used the real garden centre and its outdoor growing areas, combining the shop surroundings with the chase through the adjoining vegetation.
The Bishop’s Palace in Wells became Sandford Castle, the meeting place of the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance. The thirteenth-century residence, surrounded by a moat and extensive gardens, appears when Angel first meets the organisation’s influential members. Its gatehouse, drawbridge and historic rooms were used during the daytime visit, while the ruined Great Hall provided the setting for the secret nighttime gathering at which Angel discovers that the NWA is responsible for the murders. After interrupting the meeting, he is pursued by the hooded conspirators through the grounds. The sequence makes use of the palace’s existing stonework and ruined walls, although several parts of the pursuit were filmed at other historic locations.
The chase continues through the ruins of Waverley Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery founded in 1128 near Farnham in Surrey. Its surviving stone arches and ruined buildings appear as Angel attempts to escape from the NWA members pursuing him. The production also used Copped Hall, a partially ruined Georgian mansion near Epping in Essex, for sections of the underground chamber where the conspirators conceal the remains of their victims. These three separate historic properties were edited together to represent one continuous area surrounding Sandford Castle. Waverley Abbey is also the location where Danny appears to shoot Angel, secretly saving his friend’s life by pretending to kill him in front of the other conspirators.
The final vehicle chase returns briefly to Wells before moving to Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. After the gun battle in Market Place and the confrontation at the supermarket, Inspector Butterman and Simon Skinner escape by car, with Angel and Danny pursuing them. Their journey ends at Sandford’s miniature village, where the fugitives crash into a scale model of the town. The scene was filmed in the grounds of Hatfield House, a seventeenth-century Jacobean country house near Hatfield. A model village was constructed for the sequence, including miniature versions of Sandford’s recognisable buildings. Skinner is injured when he falls onto a pointed model church spire, bringing the pursuit to an end.
The Manor Elstree
The Manor Elstree is in School for Scoundrels, The Avengers, The Devil Rides Out, A Clockwork Orange, Dracula, Stardust, Hot Fuzz, and many more.