The 39 Steps (2008 Film) - Production

Production

Announced by the BBC in August 2008, filming began in September 2008 for airing at Christmas. Penry-Jones, who had previously worked on spy drama Spooks, would take the lead role, with the screenplay written by Lizzie Mickery (co-writer of the dramas The State Within and Messiah), produced by Lynn Horsford (Boy A, The Mark of Cain) and directed by James Hawes (Fanny Hill, Merlin, Doctor Who). Penry-Jones became the fifth actor to play Hannay on film, preceded by Robert Donat, Kenneth More, Barry Foster and Robert Powell.

At the time of the announcement, Horsford said: "With this adaptation we wanted to stay faithful to the spirit and period of the book, but asked the writer Lizzie to feel free to re-imagine it for a modern audience more familiar with James Bond and Jason Bourne." The production was set around the eve of World War I and retained other elements from the book, including having the 39 steps refer to steps to a departure point, but, according to The Times' thriller critic, has "a style that gives more than a nod to the grittier James Bond of Daniel Craig". A piece in The Observer stated that Mickery "is braced for complaints this Christmas from fans of previous screen portrayals" after basing her plot on the original book rather than the films. Differences from the book include the introduction of romance for Hannay, through suffragette and spy Victoria Sinclair, played by Lydia Leonard, and, according to Serena Davies of The Daily Telegraph, "a plot with so many twists and turns you almost need a degree in espionage to follow it".

Penry-Jones read the book and saw the other versions of the film, but said that Hitchcock's 1959 film North by Northwest was "more of a template for me than any version of The 39 Steps". Explaining why he took on the part, he said to Tim Oglethorpe of the Daily Record:

Part of the appeal was the cars, I'm a bit of a buff ... And I said – jokingly, of course – that I wouldn't be in The 39 Steps unless the action included the famous chase scene in which Hannay is pursued by a biplane. I've always wanted to be chased by a plane like Cary Grant in the movie North by Northwest and I was just delighted when it happened in our version of Steps.

He also said prior to broadcast that, depending on the reception, "They'd like to do more if they can. I definitely would."

Filming took place on location in Scotland. Locations used included the area around West Register Street in Edinburgh for the London scenes at the start of the film, Bo'ness railway station, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for the interior scenes of St Pancras railway station, Glasgow City Chambers, Culross, Stirling Castle, Dumbarton Castle, the highlands of Argyll and Loch Katrine, used for the finale.

The production was shot using 35 mm film rather than high-definition cameras. Hawes told Matthew Bell of Broadcast that:

Film is absolutely right for this project. It has scale, big exterior locations and that's something that still challenges HD .... The HD cameras available to us on our budget are still vulnerable in difficult weather conditions . There's no doubt that what we've got on 35mm is just so much more detailed. It has so much more depth of field and richness than we could have got on HD.

The adaptation was originally planned to be broadcast on BBC One on Boxing Day, but was later moved to a Sunday night slot on 28 December. It was simulcast in high-definition on BBC HD.