UK's newest TV and film studios now fully open

The UK's newest film and TV studios have fully opened.

The site in Shinfield, near Reading, boasts 18 sound stages, including two of the biggest in the country at 43,000 sq ft and has already attracted major feature films and TV series.

Situated alongside the M4 motorway, the site was given the go-ahead by planners in 2021 and has opened in stages over the past two years. It is part of a boom in British film and TV production, much of it working to meet the demands of global streaming services.

Its US owners say the studios should provide an economic boost with major films typically requiring productions crews of three to 500, including skilled technicians and craftspeople.

The studios' managing director, Nick Smith, said the site had experienced a slow start, in part due to the Hollywood writers' strike.

"We've had a fairly strange couple of years, for different reasons, that have had quite an impact on the business," he explained.

"But we are seeing the shoots of recovery coming through now and in a way, having that period where there was less activity, enabled us just to focus on construction and getting the studios built."

Its first four sound stages were built to host the latest Disney+ Star Wars series, The Acolyte, which began screening on the streaming service earlier this month.

Bosses at Shinfield say they managed to open the first part of the site "just in time" for the production to move in.

The studios have already played host to the latest Ghostbusters film where one of the sound stages was turned into a New York street, complete with the iconic firehouse.

But it has also been providing a site for home grown productions.

Occupying one of the sound stages at the moment is a film of the Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree, which has been adapted by writer Simon Farnaby, who helped bring Paddington to the cinema and starring Clare Foy, who played the young Queen Elizabeth in Netflix's The Crown.