What is filming in Liverpool in October 2026: the CBeebies panto at the Empire, Army of Shadows in Sefton Park, the Batman Part II pause and the Beatles films.
October does not bring a new wave of productions to Liverpool so much as the tail end of an unusually busy one. The Batman Part II, the four Sam Mendes Beatles films, Army of Shadows and Hercule have all shot in the city region this year, and at least two of them were still working here in late September. The Batman Part II has since been paused, with no restart date.
The only confirmed filming dates in October itself are at the Liverpool Empire, where the CBeebies Christmas panto is recorded in front of an audience on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October. Everything else is a question of where the big productions have got to, and the honest answer is that schedules only become public when road closures do. First published 19 August 2026. Updated 6 October 2026.
| Production | Liverpool status in October | Leads |
|---|---|---|
| CBeebies Treasure Island | Recording at the Liverpool Empire, 3 and 4 October | CBeebies cast including Andy Day |
| Army of Shadows | Sefton Park set still standing in late September; production also filming in London and Paris | Paddy Considine, America Ferrera, Susan Sarandon, Olivia Colman |
| The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event | Last confirmed city centre shoot 20 September; more Liverpool filming likely but unconfirmed | Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan |
| The Batman Part II | Paused on 5 October while director Matt Reeves steps away for a family matter. Last reported Liverpool shoot was night filming at the Queensway Tunnel in July. No restart date | Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell, Sebastian Stan |
| Hercule | Based primarily in Liverpool since August | Edward Bluemel, James Nesbitt, Tamsin Greig |
Schedules move. A production listed as based in Liverpool is not on Liverpool streets every day.
The one October date you can put in the diary is this weekend. This year's CBeebies Christmas panto is Treasure Island, recorded at the Liverpool Empire on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October 2026, with CBeebies regulars including Andy Day. The recording will be broadcast on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer over the festive period.
The Empire's own what's on listings show the recording as part of a packed October at the theatre: Alison Moyet on 5 October, Lord of the Dance from 6 to 10 October, English National Ballet's Romeo and Juliet from 15 to 17 October and Mean Girls from 19 to 31 October. If Lime Street looks busy this month, not all of it is film crews. Our Lord of the Dance event page has dates, prices and tickets if you want to catch one of those shows instead.
The most visible set in the city right now belongs to Army of Shadows, the six-part Channel 4 thriller written by Ronan Bennett (The Day of the Jackal, MobLand). From around 18 September, a prison-style compound with a watchtower and barbed-wire fencing went up in Sefton Park, and filming there was still under way on 21 September. The BBC confirmed in August that Liverpool Town Hall would also be used by the production.
The series imagines resistance forming in an occupied near-future Britain and is filming across Liverpool, Manchester, London and Paris. The cast has grown since our last update: Deadline reported on 22 September that Oscar winners Susan Sarandon and Olivia Colman have joined Paddy Considine, America Ferrera, Alex Hassell and Kit Harington, with Leila Farzad, Anjli Mohindra and others rounding out the ensemble.
One caution: Deadline's report described the production as "now filming in Paris and London", which suggests the Liverpool leg may be winding down even though the Sefton Park set was still in place in late September. Whether the compound stays up into October, or comes down and returns the park to normal, has not been publicly confirmed. Channel 4 has not announced a broadcast date.
Sam Mendes' four interconnected Beatles films, one from each band member's perspective, returned to Liverpool in mid-September for the production's most public shoot yet. On Sunday 20 September, all four leads appeared in costume on the Town Hall balcony to recreate the band's 10 July 1964 homecoming, when they were given the keys to the city after landing at Speke Airport to a crowd of around 3,000. Producer Pippa Harris said: "It's great to be back filming in Liverpool, the home of The Beatles."
The same day, part of Castle Street was closed between 5am and 10pm and 12 venues, including Rudy's Pizza, El Gato Negro, Pho and Riva Blu, stayed shut while filming took place. Days earlier, Paul Mescal had been spotted cycling through Woolton in costume as Paul McCartney.
The cast keeps growing. Alongside Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan, the films now include Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd, James Norton as Brian Epstein, Liverpool's David Morrissey as Jim McCartney, Leanne Best as Mimi Smith and Bobby Schofield as Neil Aspinall.
Trade listings show the production still shooting into the autumn, split between London and Liverpool. No further Liverpool road closures have been published for October at the time of writing, but after Castle Street it would be a surprise if the unit did not come back. All four films are due in cinemas in April 2028.
On 5 October, DC Studios said production on The Batman Part II had been "temporarily paused while Matt Reeves focuses on a family matter". The studio added that "Matt has the full support of DC Studios, and we look forward to continuing the journey soon." No restart date has been given, and the statement does not mention Liverpool or any location. AV Club reported the pause the same day.
Matt Reeves' sequel is the longest-running production on this list. Second unit filming began around the old Birkenhead Tunnel and St George's Hall on 20 May, with principal photography starting on 12 June, based at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden. Since then the production has worked through night shoots at the Queensway Tunnel in July, the Silver Jubilee Bridge in Runcorn, three weeks in Glasgow from 18 August, and London through September, where Robert Pattinson was filming last month.
What that means for October is unclear. No new Liverpool closures for the production have been published, and the pattern so far suggests the city is used in concentrated bursts rather than continuously. The sequel has a practical reason to return: the first film established St George's Hall as Gotham City Hall and the Royal Liver Building as the Gotham City Police Department, so those buildings are already parts of Gotham on screen.
The cast now includes Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Brian Tyree Henry and Charles Dance alongside Pattinson and Colin Farrell. The release date has moved again, to 18 February 2028, after Warner Bros pushed the film back in July to allow more time for post-production.
Of the current crop, Hercule has the strongest Liverpool base. Liverpool Film Office says the BBC's new Poirot series, with Edward Bluemel as a younger version of Agatha Christie's detective, is filming "primarily in Liverpool".
The six-part series comes from Mammoth Screen for BBC One, iPlayer and BritBox in North America, and develops three early Christie stories around Poirot's relationships with Captain Hastings and Scotland Yard's James Japp. The supporting cast announced in August includes James Nesbitt, Tamsin Greig, Jack Gleeson and Mawaan Rizwan.
Filming started in early August and the production has been seen at Exchange Flags, where a section of High Street closed on 23 August while the square stood in for 1920s central London. No October dates have been published, but a series based in the city since August is the most likely explanation for any period-dressed streets you see this month. No transmission date has been confirmed.
Casting Collective continues to recruit Liverpool-based extras for what it describes as a major 1960s music biopic shooting from late August. The call is open to anyone aged 16 and over who has finished GCSEs or equivalent, and no acting experience is needed.
The listing does not name the production, so treat it as an unnamed 1960s music biopic until someone official says otherwise. Apply through the casting company's own site rather than social media accounts claiming to represent a production, and treat any request for a large upfront fee as a warning sign.
Crews clear public roads and spaces with the council and Liverpool Film Office first, and residents and businesses normally receive letters about parking restrictions, closures or access before anything happens. Expect crew signs, security, lighting rigs and dressed shopfronts before any camera appears.
Productions often work under titles that tell you nothing. The Beatles films shot in the Dingle earlier this year under the name Clover, according to letters sent to Elswick Street residents, so do not assume the vans outside are what social media says they are.
Respect barriers and crew instructions. If filming is causing a genuine access problem rather than curiosity, contact Liverpool Film Office, which handles road closures and traffic management for productions across the city region.
The live questions for October are whether the Sefton Park compound comes down, whether the Beatles unit returns to the city centre after Castle Street, and when The Batman Part II resumes after its pause, which DC Studios has not dated. None has a published answer yet. Liverpool Film Office's announcements and the council's road closure notices are where confirmed dates will appear first, and we will update this guide when they do.
If you want to see the buildings themselves, our guide to reading Liverpool through its buildings covers most of the ones productions keep hiring, and the city centre area guide covers what is within walking distance of them.
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