A new reality TV show where the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ fight for power is set to be filmed at the top of the Southbank Tower.
Production company Studio Lambert has applied to Southwark Council to film the Channel 4 programme from March 7 to March 25.
An “exploration of inequality”, ‘Rise and Fall’ will see the powerful in an “opulent penthouse”, and everyone else in a “basement”, with participants completing challenges to gain influence.
Studio Lambert has applied to use three penthouses on the 39th and 40th floors of the Bankside tower, formerly the home of IPC Media, one of Europe’s biggest publishing companies.
Filming would be 24-7, one unit would be blacked out, and participants would only be able to leave once a day, accompanied by a chaperone, for “welfare breaks”.
There would be forty production crew members working on the site and eighteen participants, with a reduced crew working by night.
Some filming would also take place at the Doon Street Car Park in Lambeth which is a very short walk away from the tower.
Whether the filming is approved could depend on a clause in town planning regulations, one of which says it shouldn’t be allowed if “the use of the land is for overnight accommodation”.
Southbank tower is made up of residential apartments. But in a legal opinion attached to the application, Studio Lambert are arguing it doesn’t apply in this case.
The legal opinion by Therese Finn of Boyer Planning says there is a distinction between ‘land’ and ‘building’.
It also says people sleeping overnight is incidental to the show itself so may not be grounds for rejecting the application.
Southwark has hosted numerous TV productions – most recently The Crown which was filmed on the Brandon Estate, Kennington.
Studio Lambert has produced well-known programmes such as Gogglebox, Race Across the World and The Circle for Netflix.