Best friends David (Turgoose) and Emily (Grainger) love their carefree life on a coastal caravan park. When David learns that Emily is being forced to move away, he helps her hide out in a remote cave on the beach. But their innocent secret soon becomes complicated, as David watches the police close in on his missing friend. When the real reason Emily wants to escape comes to light, David's world is shattered. Swept up in a situation out of his control, and with his feelings for his best friend growing stranger by the day, David is forced to take action. The Scouting Book for Boys is the coming-of-age love story with a sting in its tail that stars the excellent young talents of Thomas Turgoose (This is England, Eden Lake) and Holly Grainger (Waterloo Road, Demons). Newcomer Tom Harper (Demons, Cherries) directs from a script by Jack Thorne who has previously written for BAFTA award-winning shows such as Skins and Shameless, won Best British Newcomer at 2009 London Film Festival for his work on British film The Scouting Book for Boys.
Release / Airing: 19/03/2010
Locations used for this production:
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Broadland Sands Holiday Park >
Finding a working caravan park that the film could be set on was crucial to the production and Screen East Locations hosted recces extensively in Norfolk and Suffolk for producer Ivana MacKinnon to find the right park. Jack Thorne had written the script after his own experience of growing up having caravan park holidays. Dramas about life on caravan parks can be somewhat grubby and unpleasant but the filmmakers wanted it to be both magical AND brilliant. Eventually, the film settled on Broadland Sands Holiday Park in Suffolk which received a 4 Star Rose Award in 2007. Eventually, the film settled on Broadland Sands Holiday Park in Suffolk. In order to make the most of their location, the cast and crew lived on the caravan park for the duration of the shoot. Producer Ivana MacKinnon said, “We gave our actors the option – stay in a hotel or on the caravan park, in a van, with us. They lived with us, ate with us, played the arcade dance machine with us”.
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Great Yarmouth >
Building the cave location was a challenge for the production. It was impossible for the location scouts to find cave environments large enough and effective enough to serve the purpose, but at the same time be accessible and practical enough to accommodate a full crew. Therefore, cave scenes were shot in a warehouse on a local industrial estate in Great Yarmouth, where interconnecting caves were constructed.
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Gresham Village >
Road scenes were filmed in around the North Norfolk area for British film The Scouting Book for Boys.
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Holkham Beach >
The Norfolk coastline exteriors were key in bringing a sense of beauty but isolation to the story. Holkham Bay was used for many of the wide beach shots including the scenes where the locals join force in the search for Emily and David slips away to visit her. “There’s something quite wild about it, and yet it’s very flat,” explains MacKinnon. “You get these tiny figures in these huge landscapes.”
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Holkham Hall >
Although filming did not occur within Holkham Hall itself, scenes were shot in the grounds of the estate. Specifically some of those with David setting out to visit Emily in her secret cave and scenes where the local people get involved in the frantic hunt for Emily all very concerned for her safety.
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Hunstanton >
The cliffs at Hunstanton were used in the scenes where David comes to visit Emily in her isolated cave and also for the final scene featuring both David and Emily.
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King's Lynn >
Road scenes were filmed in around the Kings Lynn area for British film The Scouting Book for Boys.
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These productions were filmed nearby:
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