Viewers are just discovering that the new TV drama series, A Gentleman in Moscow, was actually filmed in… Bolton.
That’s right, whether you can believe it or not – and much to the shock of local residents, too – the Greater Manchester town had itself a bit of a Stalin era-themed makeover last year, and served as the perfect place to recreate the Russian capital city for a brand-new TV drama miniseries starring Ewan McGregor.
Based on the bestselling 2016 novel of the same name by Amor Towles, the new series titled A Gentleman in Moscow has now started airing on streaming platform Paramount+ in the UK.
Over the course of the gripping eight-part series, it tells the story of aristocrat Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, played by McGregor, who has recently returned to Russia from Paris, and spends decades banished to an attic hotel room following the October Revolution after being sentenced to house arrest by a Bolshevik tribunal.
But, despite the very-Russian theme running through the show – which also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Fehinti Balogun, Daniel Cerqueria, Johnny Harris, Leah Harvey, and more – production crews never actually ventured to Moscow to film.
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Instead, they chose several locations across northern England, and one of those locations was, none other than, Bolton.
Filming began in Victoria Square outside Bolton Town Hall on 27 February 2023, with the Town Hall itself appearing a handful of times throughout the show’s first episode, and took place into March, before returning again in April 2023.
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Viewers have been reacting to discovering that the new TV drama, A Gentleman in Moscow, was actually filmed in Bolton / Credit: Showtime & Paramount TV
As well as Bolton, Liverpool Town Hall was used as a filming location in June 2023, and filming also took place in Halifax and Leeds Civic Hall too.
Eagle-eyed viewers who tuned into the first episode of the show and spotted Bolton Town Hall in all its glory were quick to head on over to social media to share their reactions – and disbelief, mostly – that the Greater Manchester town had an unexpected starring role.
Very bizarre moment for me. I'm from northwest England, but live in Moscow.
I'm watching the new TV series 'A Gentleman in Moscow'
One fan wrote on X: “Very bizarre moment for me. I’m from northwest England, but live in Moscow. I’m watching the new TV series ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’, couldn’t help but notice that it had been filmed in Bolton…”
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“Learnt that A Gentleman in Moscow was filmed in Bolton yesterday and my interest shot way up. How did they pull that off?,” another viewer commented.
A third pointed out that Bolton has actually doubled as Russia before.
“It’s been used before for same purpose,” they wrote on X, “In the late 80s when I was in my teens, we went shopping to Bolton, and there was a giant portrait of Stalin hanging from the front of the town hall. My mum thought there had been a Militant takeover on the Council.”
Learnt that A Gentleman in Moscow was filmed in Bolton yesterday and my interest shot way up. How did they pull that off?
Others were also quick to add that Bolton has been a popular filming location for movies and TV shows for the past couple of decades.
Peaky Blinders, Happy Valley, Red Rose, Traces, The Reckoning, and Brassic are just some of the smash-hit shows having been filmed in the town in recent years.
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One viewer wrote: “When I first visited Bolton in the early 90s, I was told the Town Hall often stood in for European Government buildings in films. No need to change a good thing”, while another commented that they “thought it looked familiar”.
You can watch A Gentleman in Moscow streaming now on Paramount+ in the UK.
Featured Image – Showtime & Paramount TV
TV & Showbiz
Hans Zimmer at Co-op Live, Manchester – movie magic brought to life
Lonnie Bowes
What do Batman, Kung Fu Panda, and Captain Jack Sparrow all have in common? Music by Hans Zimmer, of course.
I must admit it’s an odd sight seeing 20,000 people seated in the Co-op Live. Manchester is no stranger to a big night out, but this is a different beast entirely. No mosh pits, no flying pints, no one on anyone’s shoulders. Just a full orchestra, a choir, and a wall of screens.
At the centre of it all is conductor Matt Dunkley, steering the Odessa Orchestra & Friends through some of the most recognisable music ever put to film. Zimmer appears on the big screens between pieces to introduce the music and the stories behind it. I was disappointed that Hans didn’t make an appearance but let me tell you this performance was no less impressive.
And in no time at all the gloves came off. Batman is, quite simply, incredible. All menace and muscle, strings sawing away like something is about to go very wrong, brass and percussion hitting so hard you feel it in your ribcage before you hear it.
Gladiator pulls things the other way. Where Batman pins you to your seat, this one lifts you out of it in a big way. Lets face it, if you are some what of a self respecting movie head, you’ll have seen Gladiator and know first hand how ‘Now we are free’ can command your mood. Well imagine that in person.
If the orchestra is the engine, the Nairobi Chamber Chorus is the heart. When their voices rise for The Lion King, it stops being a concert and becomes something closer to gospel.
Hans Zimmer at Co-op Live. Credit: The Manc Group
Because beneath the scale and the spectacle, there’s something more intentional at play. These pieces of music are part of people’s lives. We are talking first trips to the cinema, films watched with parents, soundtracks that got someone through a rough year.
And then there’s Interstellar. ‘No Time for Caution’ creates it own suspense. The organ churns, the tempo tightens like a ticking clock, you genuinely find yourself gripping the armrest as if you’re the one trying to dock a spinning spacecraft.
Time, from Inception, is the other side of that coin when it comes to what it emotes during the performance. It’s slow, it’s patient and it’s moving. It builds from almost nothing, layer on layer.
After all that, there’s only one way to send people home. Pirates of the Caribbean closes the night at full tilt. You think everything is drawing to end, Matt Dunkley has already guided you to the apex of nights performance, but no. Hans Zimmer flashes on to the screen one more time and alluded that’s we aren’t at the finish line just yet. Strings galloping, the whole orchestra going hell for leather. Heads nodding, feet stamping, grins everywhere.
Epic, emotional and beautifully played. This wasn’t just a concert it was a reminder: that a piece of music can take you somewhere else entirely, and that you don’t need a single lyric to make thousands of strangers feel the exact same thing at the exact same time.
Hats off to every musician on that stage. You absolutely smashed it.
Liam Gallagher says he turned down an offer to be on The Celebrity Traitors… and the reason why is baffling
Emily Sergeant
Liam Gallagher says he turned down an offer to be on The Celebrity Traitors… but the reason why is not what you’d expect.
It’d be easy enough to imagine the Oasis frontman saying no to a trip to the castle due to work commitments, or maybe because he’s just wanting to rest up ahead the massive Oasis Live ’27 tour next year, but surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly… this is Liam Gallagher we’re talking about, after all) that isn’t the case.
If you’ve never seen The Celebrity Traitors before, it’s a spinoff of the wildly popular main series, The Traitors, and it sees famous faces take part in the ultimate test of deceit and betrayal.
Some of the celebrities taking part this series include Richard E Grant, Miranda Hart, James Blunt, Maya Jama, James Acaster, and more as part of a stacked lineup.
A stacked lineup that Liam Gallagher would undeniably have been a very entertaining part of, but despite this, the rockstar has revealed that not only did he receive an offer to appear on the show, he actually turned it down.
@starshapedcarab I’ve been asked it’s not my thing I’m not a celebrity
Answering a fan’s comment on Twitter this week, Liam confirmed that he had received an offer but it wasn’t really his ‘thing’.
The tweet in question declared: “They should put Liam [Gallagher] on Celebrity Traitors”, to which Gallagher replied: “I’ve been asked [but] it’s not my thing.”
After offering up reason of it not being his ‘thing’ as to why he turned the show down, he then followed up with a slightly more baffling explanation too: “I’m not a celebrity,” he concluded.
We can only assume the denial of celebrity status is due to the fact that Liam doesn’t like the word, and not because he doesn’t consider himself to be famous, as coming off the back of the globally successful Oasis Live ’25 tour and ahead of the upcoming Oasis Live ’27, the band arguably couldn’t be more of a household name.
Many of the comments in response to Liam’s declaration point out that he could be a contestant on the normal BBC series instead, if he doesn’t consider himself a ‘celebrity’. Others also made sure to note that he appeared on an episode of Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox, so he didn’t appear to have an issue with the word then.
So, will LG ever change his mind then? Only time will tell.
Emily Sergeant -
3rd April 2024 
