‘The Hairdresser Mysteries’ Filming Locations, Why This Cosy Crime Drama Owes Its Charm to a Real English Market Town
BBC One has built a reliable audience for gentle, close-knit crime dramas over the years, and ‘The Hairdresser Mysteries’ arrives as the latest entry into that cosy crime tradition. Set in the 1970s, the series follows Sally Phillips as Lily Petal, an upmarket city hairdresser who trades her competitive career for a small salon in a quiet village, only to find herself tangled up in the secrets her clients confide in her chair.
That fictional village goes by the name Blossom Vale on screen, described as a sleepy northern market town full of gossip, history, and the occasional mystery worth solving. Despite that setting, the show was never actually filmed in the north of England at all, and the real locations behind Blossom Vale tell their own interesting story.
Production spent September and October of 2025 filming almost entirely across the West Midlands, with Alcester in Warwickshire serving as the backbone of the show’s visual identity. Locals in the area got a front-row seat to the production, with filming on location running for roughly nine weeks according to reporting from the Stratford Herald.
One of the most recognizable locations from the series is Church House on Butter Street in Alcester, which was transformed into Lily’s 70s style hairdressing salon for the show. In reality, the building is a historic 15th century structure that normally serves as the administrative hub for St Nicholas Church and Alcester Minster, a striking contrast to its fictional life as a bustling village salon.
Alcester’s high street also plays a starring role, appearing within the very first moments of the show as Lily drives into her new hometown. The production made use of several other spots around the historic town, giving Blossom Vale its lived in, small town texture despite the show being set hundreds of miles from where it was actually shot.
Beyond Alcester itself, filming extended into nearby Stratford-upon-Avon, Wellesbourne, and other parts of Worcestershire, rounding out the broader West Midlands footprint of the production. One particularly memorable location came from a private house in Oversley Green, whose owners had their home transformed into a filming set after being approached directly by the production’s location scouts.
The show’s arrival in the region was not an isolated decision. ‘The Hairdresser Mysteries’ was commissioned as part of a wider push from the BBC to invest in productions filmed in the West Midlands, a commitment tied to a memorandum of understanding between the broadcaster and the West Midlands Combined Authority aimed at bringing more jobs and industry work to the region.
Would you visit the real-life locations from ‘The Hairdresser Mysteries’?
That regional investment has already extended beyond this single series, with other productions like ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ also making use of nearby locations such as the Chateau Impney Hotel and Exhibition Centre in Worcestershire. For a region not traditionally associated with major television production, the choice signals a broader shift in where British broadcasters are choosing to build their next cosy crime hit.
With ‘The Hairdresser Mysteries’ now streaming in full on BBC iPlayer and airing weekly on BBC One, fans eager to visit Blossom Vale in real life will want to start their trip in Alcester rather than searching for a hidden village somewhere up north. Have you spotted any of these real West Midlands locations while watching the show, and would you want to visit Alcester yourself. Let us know in the comments.
