Filming for 'Tom Hanks' TV show taking place in Oxfordshire

A planning application for the filming of ‘a high-end and prestigious production’ at Dalton Barracks near Abingdon was submitted in December. 

Excited residents across Abingdon and Shippon have now suggested that the filming is for a new television series called Masters of the Air produced by the award-winning director Steven Spielberg and renowned Hollywood star Tom Hanks.

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Masters of the Air is a Second World War mini-series being produced for Apple TV.

The TV show is going to be a follow-up to the Emmy-award winning Second World War miniseries Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Details about the production say that the series will focus on the 100th Bombardment Group (a unit of the US Air Force) who were based in Thorpe Abbotts in Suffolk during the war.

Filming locations are yet to be confirmed, but details in the planning application to Vale of White Horse District Council seem to tie in strongly with the plot of the show.

For example, the application states that the production wants to ‘recreate the airbase on the airfield’.

It goes on: “There will be no flying, although the runway will be used to film aircraft landing and there will also be aerial photography over the runway of planes taxiing.”

The plot of Masters of the Air is said to be focused on the actions of the regiment of the US Air Force in the Second World War.

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The council has yet to make its decision on whether the ‘prestigious productions’ filming at the barracks can go ahead, however, a casting agency called Key Casting announced last week that it was searching for male extras, aged 17-30, to feature on an ‘epic World War 2 series’.

The casting agency told this paper it was unable to comment on the locations or specific details of any of the productions it works with.

But Abingdon residents on Facebook said they think that this casting is for the proposed production that could take place at Dalton Barracks.

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One woman, Pat Evans, said: “Word on the streets of Shippon is that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are involved.”

Martin Gillett posted the advertisement on the public Shippon’s Residents Group Facebook page, saying: “This is what is being filmed at Dalton Barracks, be nice to get some locals in the production.”

In the planning application, it states that filming for the production will begin on April 12, but the set preparation period was proposed to start on February 1.

The application added that filming would take place at multiple other locations across the South East.

It also said some film and actors would stay in the local area and travel by minibus to the barracks each day.

Photos were posted onto a niche blog called ‘Mechtraveller’ of construction work of the set ‘underway’.

The picture showed vans and lorries at the airfield. 

Abingdon Airfield site today

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A spokesperson from Vale of White Horse District Council said: “The consultation period for the planning application to film at Dalton Barracks and Abingdon Airfield has now finished. 

“The application is now under consideration and a decision will be made in due course.”