How Channel 5’s The Teacher turned Budapest into Bradford

New Sheridan Smith drama is set in the West Yorkshire city, but was mostly filmed some 1,700 miles away, in Hungary’s capital

Channel 5’s new drama, The Teacher, may be set in Bradford – but it was actually filmed in a completely different country.

The show stars Sheridan Smith as a teacher who is accused of having sex with one of her pupils on a night she can’t remember.

With the programme airing every night for four evenings, viewers have already praised the actor for her work, calling it an “acting masterclass”.

However, something that viewers may also be struck by is the filming location of the series. Though set in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford, The Teacher was mostly filmed entirely in Budapest, Hungary’s capital city.

Show creator Mike Benson explained that the key motivation for filming was due to finances.

“We had to film in Budapest for funding reasons, and the team has done a fantastic job making it look like Bradford,” he explained.

With filming taking place during the pandemic, Benson and the cast and crew had to adhere to restrictions in order to lessen the risk of infection. He said that the experience occasionally felt like a “pressure cooker”, but the production was ultimately a success.

Benson said: “There were points when I didn’t think we would get through it, but fortunately we had a really professional team and a really good Covid officer, and we managed it.”

Sheridan Smith and Samuel Bottomley in 'The Teacher’ (Channel 5)

Smith, who plays lead character Jenna, credited the “amazing” job done by the crew of weaving real footage of Bradford in with their primary filming location of Budapest.

She said: “Once we all got to Budapest, the anxiety [of travelling during a pandemic] went and it was a lovely job.

“They found the most amazing locations to use, then they did a day of shooting rooftops in Bradford and suddenly it all links in and you don’t think it’s Budapest. They’ve done an amazing job – the magic of television!”

Starring alongside Smith is Samuel Bottomley as Kyle, the student who Jenna is alleged to have slept with after an alcohol-fuelled stint in a nightclub. He said the architecture of Budapest lent itself well to looking like Bradford.

“[The school was actually] a college in Budapest, but they did really well at making it look like West Yorkshire – the flats and the school, you wouldn’t know you were in Hungary,” he said.

Not all viewers found Budapest entirely convincing as a stand-in for Bradford. One person wrote on Twitter: “Recognised the rooftops of Bradford straightaway in new drama The Teacher, but then was confused by huge, white stone buildings. No wonder, the rest was filmed in Budapest!”

The Teacher continues nightly at 9pm on Channel 5. Read The Independent’s review here.