Possession’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw Discusses The Historic Filming Locations In New Thriller, From Bristol To Jamaica

Colonial histories collide with the supernatural in this gripping new Sky original series out today. Possession follows Claudia (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a ruthless career woman who is asked by her law firm to represent Oliver Connaught (played by Jonny Lee Miller) for an inheritance challenge on a former plantation – but not everything is quite as it seems.

Connaught is the son of a wealthy white aristocrat descended from slave owners, whose inheritance was left to Jamaican local, Cudjoe East (played by Sheldon Shepherd), with little to no explanation as to why. While coming to terms with the case and arriving at her Jamaican ancestral home, Claudia soon becomes haunted by flashbacks to what once happened on the estate, and the series proceeds to swap from present day to the 1760s, featuring an eerie Bel Powley playing a supernatural white mistress.

In many ways Possession is a bingeable gothic drama, but it also explores contemporary conversations about colonialism, inheritance and historical injustice with depth and nuance – not least through Claudia, whose frosty, repressed exterior begins to unravel as the plot progresses. ‘I’m always interested in walking that line between strength and vulnerability,’ she tells ELLE UK, explaining that filming in both Jamaica and Bristol helped her to channel the storyline. ‘We had such a beautiful landscape to act inside, with all of the subliminal touches,’ she said. ‘We had a Jamaican cast and crew, and [director] Storm Salter’s vision felt really confident and authentic’.

The cast shot six weeks in Bristol and six weeks in Jamaica with a hiatus in between. ‘Bristol to start with doesn’t sound as exciting, but when you look at it through the lens of the history – the slave trade, the architecture, the structure of the city – it’s all there,’ said Mbatha-Raw. ‘You can feel the weight of history. We do tackle some uncomfortable subjects and difficult truths in the show – there’s a lot of nuance to that conversation, and I think the joy of drama is that you can lend your heart to a story. You can humanise an idea through somebody’s personal journey. I think it makes it much more accessible and digestible’.

Filming in Jamaica also came with its perks. ‘To be able to film some of these scenes and then swim in the ocean at the weekend [was amazing],’ Mbatha-Raw said. ‘Myself and Bel Powley took a guided hike through the Blue Mountains and came across a Rastafarian goat herder, with 50 goats running past our ankles. We went to Dub Club, this legendary club on the hill above Kingston, and Sheldon [Shepherd], our cast mate, did performance poetry. Not to mention the food!’

See below for all of the filming locations you might recognise from Possession, plus all the info you need about how to watch.

All the filming locations in Possession

Port Royal, Jamaica

Several scenes in Possession were filmed in the small town of Port Royal, southeast Jamaica, which was used as the base for the Welsh privateer and plantation owner, Henry Morgan, during the 17th century. The historic Fort Charles was used to film the 1760s-set exterior jail scenes, as well as Old Gaol on Gaol Alley. Meanwhile, the town’s quiet Dockyard Lane featured in the present-day scenes of Mercy’s Balm Yard.

Annandale Great House, St Ann, Jamaica

This historic plantation home built in around 1760, during the transatlantic slave trade, functions as the fictional Hope Hill in Possession. Production designer Christina Moore said to Radio Times that the house was ‘quite neglected’ and the team had to make it look newly built for the 1760s.

‘We reconstructed the veranda, which had been lost in a hurricane sometime ago, and added exterior wooden shutters,’ Moore said. ‘We stripped back the whitewashing of the walls to restore the stone and give the façade a darker character. We also had to work on relandscaping the exterior to lose the modern driveway and to enhance the tropical planting around the house.’

Hope Botanical Gardens, Kingston, Jamaica

This luscious 200-acre park is Jamaica’s largest botanical gardens and a popular tourist attraction It is used as the setting for the 1760s-set fictional Hope Hill Clearing in the series.

Kings Weston House, Bristol

With no real knowledge of her Jamaican ancestry, Claudia was born and bred in Bristol and the British city features predominantly in the series, including shots of the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and the city’s Bottle Yard Studios used for several internal shots. Kings Weston House, a Grade I-listed Palladian mansion, features as Oliver Connaught’s house in the series.

Laughing Waters, St Ann, Jamaica

You’ll probably recognise Laughing Waters, a beach and waterfall, from the opening scene of the first James Bond film from 1962. These days, it’s a popular tourist destination on the north coast of the island and features as a filming location in both timelines in Possession.

‘At the end, [the] whole cast and crew just ran into the ocean with their clothes on,’ said Mbatha-Raw. ‘Hilarious, but also testament to how committed and bonded everybody was from this epic journey we worked on. It was the same beach where they shot Dr No with Ursula Andress.’

29 Queen’s Square, Bristol

This Grade II* listed Georgian mansion in Bristol, built between 1709 and 1711, is now private offices. It functions as the office for the fictional Bristol law firm, Reuben Waite, in the series, as well as Kenneth Connaught’s Townhouse from the 1760s.

How can I watch Possession?

The five-part thriller series Possession premieres on Sky Atlantic on Thursday, 6 August at 9pm. All episodes are available to stream on Sky and NOW.

Is there a trailer for Possession?

Yes, you can watch the trailer at the top of this article.

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