If you’ve been watching “Missed Call” and wondering how that coastal-town mood and the UK-ish scenes all came together… you’re not alone. The thriller has been pulling in viewers on Channel 5, and the question keeps popping up: where was it actually filmed?
The story follows British teenager Katie Gleason, who vanishes during a school exchange in southern France. Katie’s mother, Sarah—played by Joanna Scanlan—doesn’t just wait around. She rushes to Saint-Michel in a desperate bid to find her daughter, only to meet hostility from the Morvans, the host family. Then, deciding to take matters into her own hands, Sarah launches her own investigation alongside a local detective, and that’s when buried secrets start to surface.
What might surprise people is that the series was filmed and set in France, even when the script is playing with an England-to-France contrast. “Saint-Michel” isn’t a real village, but the production still built its atmosphere in the South of France instead of shooting in the UK. Misryoum newsroom reported that the cast stayed in Montpellier, then filmed in the nearby historic Manufacture Royale de Villeneuvette in Hérault—a former royal manufacturing village that’s now a popular tourist destination.
Filming all happened in France, including the scenes meant to suggest the UK. Misryoum editorial team noted that the production ran in summer 2025, with a largely French cast. It’s also set up to travel: “Missed Call” will air in France with Joanna Scanlan’s voice dubbed, so the mystery lands with local pacing and tone. And honestly, when you watch it, the locations don’t feel like a trick so much as a deliberate choice—like the story’s tension is supposed to stay warm and bright on the outside, while everything inside turns darker.
The Montpellier backdrop matters. The city is described as a “vibrant, sunny city in southern France,” with a medieval, pedestrian-only city centre called L’Écusson. It’s also home to a world-renowned medical university, one of the oldest in Europe. Montpellier sits about 10km from the Mediterranean, with close access to beaches—so you get that coastline air, even if the characters are moving through something more claustrophobic. One small detail you can almost feel while watching: the soft hush of a sunny street—like the kind you hear when a café door closes and the room goes quiet for a second. That atmosphere is the kind of thing TV often borrows from real places, whether viewers realise it or not.
Joanna Scanlan reportedly loved working in France, especially with French actors, saying it added to the drama’s atmosphere. She’s described the experience as bringing “a layer of class and sophistication to our mystery,” and said she’s “a huge lover of French cinema.” She also mentioned the cast getting along in a way she didn’t fully expect—plus the mix of French and British actors helping the scenes land. Misryoum analysis indicates that kind of creative comfort can show up as steadier performances, even when the plot is deliberately messy and unsettling.
So, if you’re tracking the filming locations: yes, “Missed Call” is set up to look like it spans both sides of the channel. But the production stayed put. All the filming took place in France, from Montpellier to Villeneuvette, including the UK-set beats. And that’s probably the reason the mystery feels oddly consistent—like it could happen anywhere, really, even when the screen tries to convince you otherwise. Missed Call airs on Channel 5 on weeknights at 9pm.
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