Real aerial footage of Cheltenham's GCHQ has been included in a major scripted film and TV production for the first time ever in 2026.
'Sweeping' drone footage of the UK Government's communications headquarters can be seen in the second series of Channel 4's The Undeclared War, starring Gloucestershire's own Simon Pegg – and eagle-eyed fans will have noticed that it's genuine.
GCHQ does not usually permit filming of its top secret facilities, but has confirmed that it has done so for the first time for the show in an Instagram post earlier this week.
The post read: 'Seen the thrilling new series of The Undeclared War on Channel 4 and All4? Noticed the dramatic swooping shots above the Doughnut, our iconic Cheltenham office?
'Fact: they’re real! For the first time, we allowed a scripted production to film real shots over our Top Secret base – with a few security parameters of course. We think the footage looks quite spectacular.'
Set in 2024, The Undeclared War tracks a leading team of analysts buried in the heart of GCHQ, secretly working to ward off a series of cyber attacks on the UK.
Gloucester-born-and-raised Simon Pegg stars as Danny Patrick, GCHQ’s head of operations, Siân Brooke plays his wife, Barbara, ex-MI5 and now an analyst at GCHQ, and Hannah Khalique-Brown plays Saara Parvin, a 'brilliant' young coder on placement at GCHQ.
Series one and two of the show are available to watch now on All4.
