Stephen King's Crouch End: Six-Part Prime Video Series

Amazon MGM Studios has commissioned a six-part drama named after this town, based on the Stephen King short story set in it.

The producer, Mammoth Screen, confirmed the commission on Tuesday 1 September. Crouch End will be adapted by Paul Tomalin, who wrote Bodies, and directed by Tom Shankland, whose credits include Berlin Noir and The Serpent. Mammoth Screen is producing it with Fifth Season.

The named team is:

• Writer: Paul Tomalin
• Director: Tom Shankland
• Producers: Mammoth Screen and Fifth Season
• Executive producers: Paul Tomalin, Tom Shankland, Damien Timmer, Rebecca Keane and Ben Irving

Nicole Clemens, vice president of international originals at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said the studio was “thrilled to bring his Lovecraftian tale to life in London with Crouch End”, and that Tomalin brings “a singular, character-driven vision to the series”.

Tomalin said King’s prose “has haunted my nightmares ever since” he first read the story. Shankland, who called himself “a Stephen King super-fan forever”, said the series would be “cinematic, original and thought-provoking in equal measure”.

The story it comes from

King’s Crouch End is not one of his famous ones, and it is short. Two police officers, Vetter and Farnham, work a night shift. A young woman called Doris Freeman comes in, close to hysterical, to report that her husband has vanished. Her account involves monsters. Farnham dismisses it. Vetter, who has worked in Crouch End for years, is not so sure.

That summary is King’s own, from the entry for the story on his official site. The same entry gives its publication history:

• 1980: first published in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, an anthology.
• October 1993: collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

So the town has been carrying its own horror story for 46 years, and it took a streaming service to notice.

What has not been announced

Quite a lot, and it is worth being clear about it, because the gap is where the rumours will go:

• No cast. Not one name has been announced.
• No filming locations. Mammoth Screen’s announcement does not say whether any of it will be shot in Crouch End, in Haringey, or anywhere near N8.
• No transmission date. Mammoth says only that filming “begins next year” and that the series will launch on Prime Video.

What it means for you

If any of it is shot in the borough, it goes through the same route as every other production. Haringey Council does not run its own film office. It works in partnership with FilmFixer Ltd, trading here as the Haringey Film Office, which issues the permits.

The practical points, from the film office’s own guidance for residents:

• Filming is normally licensed between 7am and 11pm. Anything likely to cause significant disturbance is supposed to be agreed with the neighbourhood in advance, and conditions such as blackout blinds can be written into the licence with a deposit attached.
• Road closures carry a lead-in time. The office says closures require consultation and that residents will always get advance warning.
• Parking suspensions come with signage and a residents’ letter from the production. If you are ticketed because you did not know about a suspension, the film office says to contact it and it will try to get the penalty cancelled.
• Complaints go to 020 7620 0391, or to a 24 hour number, 07919 002 115, for anything happening on a set at the time. The office says it will contact or visit the set immediately.
• There is no right in English law not to be filmed in public. The office says it supports Film London guidance that film makers should get permission to use footage you appear in, and expects “Filming in Progress” signs.

Haringey is used to this. The film office’s own records show the borough standing in for somewhere else twice in recent years, and on both occasions as a police station: Haringey Civic Centre became an Iranian police station for The Agency, and a local school played one in the third series of Whitstable Pearl. King’s story is set in a police station too.

Related

• Things to do in Crouch End: the Parkland Walk, Alexandra Palace and the rest of the ground a location scout would be looking at.
• Crouch End roadworks and travel: where the road closures and bay suspensions already are.
• Crouch End house prices: what the streets in the story are worth now.

Sources

• Amazon MGM Studios commission thriller based on Stephen King short story, Crouch End, Mammoth Screen, 1 September 2026 for the six-part commission, the writer, the director, the two production companies, the five executive producers, the quotes from Nicole Clemens, Paul Tomalin and Tom Shankland, and the statement that filming begins next year.
• Crouch End, stephenking.com, the author’s official site, for the synopsis, the characters Vetter, Farnham and Doris Freeman, the 1980 first publication in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos and the October 1993 collection in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
• Filming in Haringey, Haringey Council for the FilmFixer partnership, the Haringey Film Office and its contact details.
• Information for residents, Haringey Film Office for the 7am to 11pm licensing window, the road closure and parking suspension rules, the penalty charge advice, the complaint numbers and the Film London guidance on being filmed.
• Haringey Film Office news for The Agency at Haringey Civic Centre and Whitstable Pearl series three.