The Diplomat finds Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) navigating complex diplomatic relations with power players from all over the world. In a fast-paced job handling sensitive issues that can take down entire countries, she’s often whisked away to scenic locations throughout the UK and abroad at the drop of a hat.
Whether it’s to attend a secret meeting with a Russian ambassador at the Foreign Office in London, go toe-to-toe with Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) at Chevening House in Kent, or chat with the French minister of the interior Brielle Fournier (Micky Sébastian) in Paris, the ambassador is always on the move.
In Season 2, the political drama sends Kate to Scotland, which felt particularly rewarding for executive producer Janice Williams.
“We shot at Inveraray Castle in Scotland, which, as a born and bred Scottish person, I was so proud to do,” she told Netflix. “It’s actually the first time I’ve worked in filmmaking in my home country, and it felt like a real homecoming to me.”
Then, in Season 3, The Diplomat heads stateside, including a jaunt to Amagansett on Long Island. “We had an amazing team in New York, and they did some really, really gorgeous, stunning work, turning both the new sets that we built and all our locations into just delightful places to be,” creator and showrunner Debora Cahn tells Tudum.
With all eight episodes of Season 3 now streaming on Netflix, we’re giving you an inside look at those stunning locations. Keep reading to learn all about where The Diplomat is filmed.
Yes! In Episode 2, Kate and Hal (Rufus Sewell), Trowbridge, and hundreds more gather at the historic church for MP Merritt Grove’s (Simon Chandler) funeral. While some scenes were filmed at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, the political drama also shot on location at St. Paul’s Cathedral for four days — an impressive feat considering that it’s one of London’s most popular tourist destinations.
“Nobody has ever closed St. Paul’s for four full days, which we did,” Season 2 supervising location manager E.J. Richards tells Tudum. “Not even the queen.”
Richards shares that St. Paul’s was “one of the most difficult locations to shoot, even for a day” because of a constant stream of visitors. “It’s world-renowned,” she adds. “Every day they have services, they have tourists, they have local people that use the church.”
Indeed, it did. “That’s a situation where I was like, ‘We should find some cool exterior for this, maybe a park, maybe a park bench,’ I don’t know — something that has the grandiosity of Trafalgar Square, that would be great, but obviously we can’t shoot there,” says Cahn. “And Janice [Williams, executive producer] was like, ‘Why not? Don’t ask, don’t get.’ And sure enough, we shut down Trafalgar Square. We filmed in Trafalgar Square. It was an unbelievable day.”
Like Season 1, the scenes set in the ambassador’s office in Season 2 were actually shot on a sound stage at London North Studios. However, The Diplomat did film the exterior as well as inside the lobby of the real US Embassy in London. In Episode 2, when Trowbridge stops by the embassy to sign a book of condolences for Ronnie’s (Jess Chanliau) memorial, you’re looking at the actual lobby.
“We are grateful to the American embassy and [US ambassador] Jane Hartley for how they supported us,” Richards shares. “They really helped us build a relationship with the people on the front lines who actually made it happen, helped us with the logistics, and helped [us] be very careful” with what was allowed through security checks.
Scenes featuring Kate and Hal’s private residence at Winfield House are filmed at Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire. The estate, north of London, is filled with “real artworks by Sargent and Titian and van Dyck,” according to creator Debora Cahn.
“It feels like a family home, which is why I think it feels so inviting,” Richards says. “You’re in someone’s home that they actually live in. It’s not a museum, so it has a certain energy about it.”
In Episode 3, Kate hosts an outdoor American Independence Day party, which was changed to include more indoor moments to accommodate the freezing winter weather.
“A lot of the action in the original version of the script took place outdoors,” Williams shared. Much of the action was “moved indoors so that people would actually survive and not be trying to do dialogue while their teeth were chattering.”
There was also the issue of figuring how much of the lawn, which was covered in mud, they’d use. “We had to create an entire boardwalk and platform that would look like it was part of the design,” Williams added.
The Penn mansion is actually the Seacroft Estate on Centre Island, New York (Long Island). “It is incredible and has been owned by the same family for over five generations,” Season 3 Location Manager Rob Coleman tells Tudum. “When we first received the script, it called for a house with adjoining cottages. The Seacroft Estate has over 10 cottages, all with different looks that were built for quests way back when. That helped to sell the location, but there were so many great things about it, including the 50 acres of land, the waterfront, the in-ground pool, and the family themselves, who were simply amazing to deal with. The crew loved the location, as did the creatives. It was an amazing filming experience.”
To capture the feel of a real working office for Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), The Diplomat filmed at One Great George Street (Westminster’s corporate conference and events venue) in London. The series also filmed interior and exterior shots of the real Foreign Office, which took careful planning.
“That is a genuine part of the Westminster controlled environment, so [it was] very exciting to be given access,” Richards shares, adding that they had to be careful with camera angles so they didn’t end up looking right into the real foreign minister’s office.
In Season 2, scenes featuring President Rayburn (Michael McKean), US Secretary of State Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval), and White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) in Washington, DC, were filmed at the London North Studios.
For Season 3, all the interior Washington, DC locations were shot in New York City. “A majority of the scenes were scripted as taking place at the Blair House [the official president’s guest house in DC],” says Coleman. “Our production designer, Curt Beech, chose the DeSeverky Mansion in Old Westbury, New York (Long Island) for most of the interiors, and we also filmed hallways and the library at the Lotus Club in Manhattan. They both gave us the federalist architecture which is no different from what you would find at the Blair House.”
The interiors for Prime Minister Trowbridge’s residence and office were shot at the historic Harefield House in the London borough of Hillingdon.
“What’s great about Harefield is that they will let you paint the walls,” Richards says. “They let you bring in whatever you want.”
When it came to the exterior shots for 10 Downing St., the team captured those at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England.
Kate and Trowbridge’s tense meeting in Episode 4 was among the scenes filmed at the scenic Inveraray Castle in Scotland. The historic residence is situated on a “loch in the middle of the mountains surrounded by highland cattle,” said Williams.
“Everybody enjoyed themselves up there,” Richards says of the two-week shoot on location. That included Rory Kinnear, who took advantage of having a loch nearby.
“Swimming in the lake was fantastic,” Kinnear told Netflix. “I managed to encourage a few of the others to take a dip with me.” Among them was Ato Essandoh (who plays Stuart Hayford), who enthusiastically took part in the outdoor fun. “It was freezing but amazing — just amazing,” he recalls. “I’m swimming, and I’m like, ‘Ah, this is great. I get out to dry off, and then I was like, ‘Let’s do it again!’ ”
The scene in which Hal sneaks away to purchase a burner phone was filmed in the town of Inveraray itself, but Eidra (Ali Ahn) secretly transporting Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie) through the lower levels of Inveraray Castle was actually captured at Ardkinglas House in Argyll.
“One of our greatest achievements of Season 3 was discovering and gaining access to film at Coe Hall Historic House,” says Coleman. Though the Tudor-style mansion had previously permitted very little filming, they allowed The Diplomat production to close the museum for over two months. “The house is a great example of early 19th century architecture and is one of the rare homes where the property surrounding it wasn’t sold — the entire parcel of land is roughly 400 acres,” continues Coleman. “It was one of the only homes we scouted because we all knew early on that it was the right fit.”
The location manager adds that the production team had art handlers remove 98% of the furniture inside the house, and then Beech and his team dressed the entire location. “We had their team leave up the beautiful archways that they made from branches they found on the property.”
Some interior and exterior scenes were shot at the British Medical Association in London. The entrance to the hospital and the room where Kate calls Ronnie's family are the real interiors of the BMA, but anything in a hospital room or in a hallway with nurses was shot on a stage.
While Season 1 took the cast and crew to the French capital, for the second season the team used RAF Halton, one of the UK’s largest Royal Air Force stations, as the setting for the British Embassy in Paris.
Kate’s wardrobe change in the Paris bathroom was shot at the London Marriott Hotel County Hall, which also served as the filming location for Trowbridge’s COBRA meeting with top officials.
Prime Minister Trowbridge’s formal dinner was filmed on location at Wilton House in Salisbury. The exterior shots and interior scenes where the characters are mingling were filmed at Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
“We’re talking about the work of governments and diplomacy in a historical place where one of the most famous politicians in the UK actually grew up — you feel the very real weight of history when you’re there,” says Williams. “It’s the heart of politics, the heart of diplomacy.”
The Diplomat Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are currently streaming on Netflix.
With reporting by Keely Flaherty and Ruth Kinane.
