Why does Hollywood come to Berkshire?

Travelling along the M4 near Junction 11, just outside Shinfield near Reading, you cannot miss a vast complex of grey buildings.

From the outside, they may not look particularly exciting, but behind their walls some of the world's biggest film and television productions are being made.

Shadowbox Studios Shinfield, in Wokingham, has 18 state-of-the-art sound stages, including two with more than 40,000 sq ft of floor space each.

The BBC goes behind the scenes to discover what has been filmed there and why the studios are important to the area.

The scale of the sound stages is immediately apparent. During his visit, BBC Radio Berkshire's Rich Clarke noted they were large enough for lorries to be reversed inside.

Studio operations manager Ruby Hornsey says it is "one of the largest stages in the UK and one of the largest in Europe".

Despite the busy motorway running nearby, she says the soundproofing means traffic cannot be heard inside, while noise from filming does not escape.

That allows the stages to be transformed into "many different worlds" for productions ranging from action thriller Greenland 2: Migration to the second series of Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge.

The stages also have climate controls, allowing productions to alter the temperature to suit filming.

"For Squid Game: The Challenge they wanted one of the challenges to be quite warm in the room to make contestants a little bit more uncomfortable," Hornsey says.

"So we whacked up the heating in here to make the tensions higher."

Since opening in 2024, the studios have hosted a string of major film and television productions, including Avengers: Doomsday, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Squid Game: The Challenge.

The Acolyte was another major production filmed there, with the studios describing the Star Wars series as a "huge milestone" requiring extensive soundstage space for its elaborate sets.

For sales manager Gemma McKeon, working alongside some of the biggest names in the industry is one of the perks of the job.

"It's one part of the job you're pinching yourself, especially when you get to see or sometimes, if you're lucky enough, meet your idols and the people that you've grown up watching," she says.

She says one of the most recent productions filmed there was Ebenezer, a comedy-drama starring Johnny Depp and Rupert Grint, which is due to be released in cinemas on 13 November.

McKeon says producers tend to consider three main factors when deciding where to film: the availability of skilled workers, financial incentives and studio facilities.

She says the UK is particularly strong in all three, while its variety of landscapes and historic locations also makes it attractive for shoots.

The figures suggest the UK's film and television industry is continuing to grow. British Film Institute (BFI) data show spending on film and high-end television production reached £6.8bn in 2025, up 22% on the previous year's initially reported figure.

The UK box office also generated £996.8m in 2025, a 2% increase on 2024.

The government has set out plans to increase investment in the UK's wider creative industries.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said last year that the sector had previously "not been given the recognition it deserves and the backing it requires".

The government's Creative Industries Sector Plan has set a target of increasing annual business investment in the creative industries from £17bn to £31bn by 2035.

McKeon says the studios see themselves as a partner to productions rather than simply providing a place to film.

Her role involves building relationships with major Hollywood studios as well as supporting emerging talent closer to home.

She describes a recent trip to Los Angeles to meet studios whose productions are coming to the UK as "surreal".

But she says it is equally rewarding to see people starting their careers at Shinfield, including through the BFI's Screen Berkshire initiative.

"You see them start off their career here and then you watch it grow," she says.

"It really feels like you're contributing to something when you see that as well."