PIGLETS

Production Design

Jonathan Paul Green was Production Designer on Piglets, the ITV comedy created by Victoria Pile and set within a police training academy.

The series continued my long-running creative collaboration with Victoria, and also DOP Rob Kitzmann, stretching back across a number of productions including Green Wing and Smack the Pony. Having worked together over many years, we were able to develop the visual world of Piglets from an early stage, creating environments that supported both the characters and Victoria’s distinctive style of comedy.

All of the interiors were purpose-built sets, constructed within an empty Brutalist building that became our production base. The existing architecture gave us an unusual framework within which to create the academy, while the constructed interiors allowed complete control over the individual spaces, sightlines and practical requirements of filming.

The challenge was to make the academy feel like a coherent, believable institution while leaving room for the heightened characters, physical comedy and visual humour. The contrast between the Brutalist location and the purpose-built interiors helped give Piglets its own distinctive visual identity.

As with our previous collaborations, the design was very much part of the comedy rather than simply a backdrop — creating a detailed, character-led world that could support the performances while contributing its own personality and humour.