Erin Doherty was almost unrecognisable when she was seen filming for the BBC drama California Avenue on Thursday, sporting a blunt blonde wig, smoky blue eyeshadow and a 1970s-style wardrobe.
The 33-year-old actress, who plays a character named Lela in the six-part series, was filmed in vintage attire — a blue-and-green geometric maxidress, a tailored denim trenchcoat, a paisley scarf and a large cream handbag — while sharing a scene with a young male actor in a makeshift astronaut costume. Onlookers said Doherty’s performance in the scene involved her appearing panicked and running to scold the child, who appeared to be playing her son; between takes she was seen pulling a folded script from her bag to check lines.
California Avenue was announced by the BBC in June and is written and directed by BAFTA winner Hugo Blick. The series is set in a secluded canal-side caravan park in the English countryside. According to production notes, the arrival of Lela and her 11-year-old child — both on the run and seeking refuge — upends the site’s quiet community, bringing a fractured family together and triggering reckonings with past trauma.
The show’s cast is led by Doherty and includes Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham Carter as Lela’s parents, listed in production materials as Jerry and Eddie, and Tom Burke as a showman outcast named Cooper. Blick described the project as an exploration of the people who inspired his interest in television fiction, saying the series draws on a range of genres and tones he has worked in over the decades.
Doherty’s on-set appearance marks a stylistic departure from her recent period turn as Princess Anne in seasons three and four of The Crown. She has also appeared in the drama A Thousand Blows. The filming comes days before the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, where Doherty is among the nominees for her performance as Briony Ariston in Netflix’s limited series Adolescence.
Her nomination is in the category Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Critics singled out a one-take scene in which her character, a child psychologist, interviews a teenage murderer; the Guardian called the episode “the most astounding episode of a dazzling quartet.” Adolescence received multiple Emmy nominations, including Best Limited or Anthology Series, and accounted for 13 total nods. Co-stars Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters received acting and writing nominations respectively, and 15-year-old Owen Cooper, also from Adolescence, is nominated in a supporting actor category and could become the youngest-ever male winner in Emmy history if he prevails.
Production sources say California Avenue will blend humour and love with darker family drama as it follows the caravan park community’s response to Lela’s arrival. Filming for the series is ongoing; no broadcast date has been announced by the BBC.