Honey on BBC One filming locations: Killing Eve spin-off is set in Berlin, but cast and crew didn't set foot in Germany
"It's almost a perfect city."
Honey is a totally unique, darkly funny Cold War spy thriller set in East Berlin in 1982, but the filming locations for the BBC One series aren’t anywhere near Germany.
The new six-part drama introduces 24-year-old Martha, a deep cover agent for MI6 working in an extremely hostile environment…
Surrounded by enemies and facing the constant threat of exposure, she does everything she can to evade the Stasi (East Berlin’s state security service). If only she wasn’t about to fall for Friedrich, the new Stasi Head of Counterespionage against British Targets…
So what filming locations did cast and crew really use for BBC One’s Honey? Here’s everything you need to know…
Where is Honey on BBC One set?
BBC One thriller Honey is set in East Berlin in 1982. This was a very dangerous time for British MI6 agents to be working in Germany.
In 1982, East Berlin was a tightly controlled, sombre and heavily policed capital of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The Berlin Wall dominated the city, while the Stasi maintained an extensive network of surveillance and monitored the lives of its citizens.
Large parts of the inner city still bore visible scars and shrapnel holes from World War II, with many buildings stained from soot, and crumbling. This contrasted starkly with the neon and modern commercialism just across the border in West Berlin…
Crucially, the city featured grey concrete block architecture (Plattenbauten), coal-fire smoke pollution, and dilapidated inner-city buildings in areas like Prenzlauer Berg.
Of course, East Berlin no longer exists. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. Berlin officially reunited on October 3, 1990, the same day East and West Germany were formally reunified under the Unification Treaty.
Where was the spy thriller actually filmed?
Although Berlin still features a well-preserved collection of Cold War-era architecture, cast and crew filmed Honey in Lithuania and NOT Germany.
Roughly two hours away by aeroplane, Lithuania is a country in the Baltic region of Europe (the area surrounding the Baltic Sea across Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe). The Baltic States are Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Lithuania was the very first Soviet republic to declare independence in 1990, and is famous for its capital city of Vilnius. In fact, Vilnius Old Town is one of the largest surviving medieval Baroque old towns in Europe, and is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The BBC spy thriller filmed in Lithuania instead of Germany because Lithuania has authentic surviving Soviet-era architecture. The city has plenty of institutional buildings and housing estates that can convincingly double for 80s East Berlin.
As well as favourable tax incentives, the winter weather conditions were also useful. Because the story unfolds behind the Iron Curtain in midwinter, Lithuania’s harsh, snowy winter provided the perfect natural backdrop for the Cold War setting. Its freezing temperatures and snow-covered streets helped recreate the bleak atmosphere of 80s East Berlin.
Honey on BBC One filming locations: ‘Lithuania has close ties with the Soviet era’
Talking about filming in Lithuania, Executive Producer Sally Woodward Gentle said: “It’s been amazing filming in Vilnius with the local crew. The crew are incredibly experienced, really hardworking, and very efficient.
“Lithuania has such close ties with the Soviet era that there are buildings that feel really right for what we want to do. We filmed in the middle of winter, and it’s cold, but beautiful and snowy. When we started filming, we knew that we would end up with snow. So, for a lot of scenes that were filmed outside at the start of the shoot, we put fake snow down to match. We’ve actually ended up with more snow than we anticipated, but it looks pretty amazing.”
Lead Director Toby MacDonald added: “I’ve never filmed in Lithuania before, but it’s been amazing. The crew have been fantastic. There’s an amazing group of filmmakers here who have experience working on big shows. One of the joyful things in the show is, apart from all the craft that the Lithuanian crew put into it, that we’ve been able to use some of the best Lithuanian actors as well.”
Lithuania is ‘one of my favourite countries in the world’
Actor Rory Kinnear plays Graham Anderson, Press Attaché to the embassy in Berlin. He explained: “I’ve been lucky to work in Lithuania a couple of times. It is one of my favourite countries in the world, and Vilnius is one of my favourite cities. It has got everything, from two feet of snow in the winter, to the summer where it is one of the best countries to be outdoors and swimming in the lakes.
“Also, it has one of my favourite pubs in the world, an inordinate number of great restaurants, a fantastic opera house, some wonderful classical music, some brilliant theatre, and all within a half-hour walk. It’s almost a perfect city.”
What filming location posed as East German Stasi Headquarters in BBC One’s Honey?
The building complex shown standing in for the East German Stasi Headquarters (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit) is the Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos.
The university hospital, formerly known as Santariškių Klinikos, stands in Vilnius’s Santariškės district. It serves as a leading tertiary teaching and research medical centre.
Key filming locations used in the BBC One spy thriller Honey
- The capital of Vilnius, specifically districts like Naujamiestis and Lazdynai, offered uniform concrete apartments and wide spaces resembling East German housing. This was used as the primary base for the show. Crew filmed across the Naujamiestis (New Town) and Lazdynai districts for their preserved Soviet-era streets and housing estates. They also filmed in the Vilnius Palace of Culture, Entertainment and Sports and the Cooperative Union (KOOP) building.
- Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania, provided preserved interwar architecture and German-influenced character. The city’s pedestrian boulevard Laisvės Avenue and surrounding interwar modernist architecture were dressed with vintage 1980s vehicles and period signage to recreate East Berlin streetscapes.
- Klaipėda is a port city in Lithuania, where the Baltic Sea meets the Danė River. It added distinct Fachwerk (timber-framed) buildings and a harbour look.
- Cast and crew also filmed in Palanga, a resort town on Lithuania’s Baltic coast. It is the busiest and the largest summer resort in Lithuania and has sandy beaches, including Palangos Pliažas which is backed by dunes.
- The swimming pool featured in episode 1 is the indoor saltwater swimming pool inside Vila Auska, commonly known as the Brezhnev Villa in Palanga. The modernist seaside complex has an indoor pool heated with saltwater pumped directly from the Baltic Sea. It is currently being renovated into a wellness centre.
- Those familiar with Berlin might recognise some scenes with Berlin’s Strausberger Platz along Karl-Marx-Allee in the background. But this was achieved through digital compositing of the iconic Stalinist-era apartment towers in the background.
Read more: Why Jodie Comer’s character Kate Parks won’t be returning to BBC One thriller Doctor Foster for series 3
