Historic Warwick tea rooms becomes chicken shop for filming of BBC Drama
By Nadia Sayed 16th Nov 2025
By Nadia Sayed 16th Nov 2025
Several Warwick visitors and residents were left confused when a beloved local tea room was seemingly transformed into a chicken shop.
The Oken Tea Rooms on Castle Street, experienced a temporary makeover for its role in the BBC drama, Shakespeare and Hathaway.
The tea room, typically known for its historic, Tudor aesthetic, became McWingy's chicken shop for the day.
Hannah from the Oken Tea Rooms shared the producers from the show had reached out seeking a unique location for their upcoming episode.
She said: "The cast and crew arrived with all the brilliant new branding from Wingy's for just the one day, and it was great having them! We were closed in the morning, but customers came in the afternoon.
"The members of the cast were very friendly, mingling with customers, taking photos, and allowing people to watch the filming as it happened."
She noted that the crew captured four scenes during the day, and the episode of the show will air sometime next year.
The stars of the show, Mark Benton and Jo Joyner, who play private detectives Frank Hathaway and Luella Shakespeare, were both on set and spent time sampling some of the tea room's homemade cakes and scones.
While most locals were excited about the filming, the sudden change in signage did cause some confusion among visitors.
"We had lots of people booked here for that Friday lunchtime and people were sort of gingerly coming into the tea room, genuinely concerned and lots of them couldn't find us.
"People who were visiting Warwick and were looking for the tea rooms, were really confused, and were coming in saying 'Are you a tea room?' because obviously all signs of it being a tea room were gone.
"There is one gentleman who has recently moved to Warwick because he wanted a sort of a very quintessential English town, and he came in very concerned that he'd moved in very close to a chicken shop" Hannah added.
Reflecting on the day, Hannah went on to state how special and exciting it was to see Warwick featured in such a popular and well-known show.
'It's brilliant and always good to see Warwick featured in some way, because its so beautiful, and the more people get the chance to see it is amazing and we are in such a special historic building" she expressed.
With around 25 cast and crew members involved, the day brought a buzz of activity, and a touch of TV magic, to Warwick's historic streets.
The new season of Shakespeare and Hathaway is set to air later this year.
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