Hollywood actor and filmaker Sir Kenneth Branagh has been granted permission to film his upcoming thriller The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hyne in Ascot.

Nuncle Films Ltd asked for temporary permission to use the former Hurst Lodge private school in Ascot for filming, as well as to build a large temporary sound stage and dressing rooms.

Kenneth Branagh, who grew up in Reading after being born in Belfast, is one of the company’s directors. The other is Tamar Thomas who produced Branagh's 2021 Oscar-winning film Belfast.

The application notes that Hurst Lodge was previously used ‘to film scenes for Belfast, the 2021 Oscar-winning film based on true events from Kenneth Branagh's childhood’.

Plans submitted to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council did not say what film is being shot in Ascot. But in May this year it was reported that Mr Branagh and Mr Thomas had begun work on a new psychological thriller called The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hyne, with filming set to begin in August.

And the plans submitted to the council also said filming at Hurst Lodge would start in August this year.

Planning officers granted permission for filming on Thursday, September 5, although filming had already begun. The report said filming would end next Friday, September 20, and that the site would be cleared by October 4.

Officers also said that the development would not normally be acceptable on greenbelt land. But they said the temporary nature of the development, and the fact that the site is screened by trees, limited the harm to the greenbelt.

And they said this harm was outweighed by ‘very special circumstances’ justified by the economic benefits filming would bring to the area.