Where it was filmed 'The Iris Affair'

A mysterious technology that could destroy the world, a brilliant woman capable of solving the puzzle, an international conspiracy intent on stopping her. The Iris Affair is an 8-episode Sky original series focusing on a woman as brilliant as she is enigmatic, Iris Nixon (Niamh Algar). After solving complex online puzzles, Iris is led to a square in Florence where she meets charismatic entrepreneur Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander), who invites her to work for him to unlock a powerful, top-secret technology. Intrigued, she accepts. However, when Iris discovers the device’s dangerous potential, she steals the diary containing the activation sequence and disappears.

This sparks a relentless chase, which unfolds from a remote cabin in Sardinia to the crowded streets of Rome, as Cameron tracks Iris in a high-stakes game where trust is dangerous and failure could have catastrophic consequences.

Filming in Sardinia, with the support of the Sardinia Film Commission and an estimated weekly expenditure of €500,000, began on 20 May 2024 in Cagliari, in via Canelles – a narrow, winding street that runs the entire length of the ancient neighbourhood of Castello – where Apartment 7, one of Iris's hideouts, is located. Just outside the city centre on Calamosca beach, Iris steals a tourist's bag to get hold of a cell phone.

The crew and cast then moved to Alghero: the winding roads on the cliffs of capo Caccia; the Mugoni pine forest and the bay of the Nymphs, where Iris's cottage was built; and La Frana, a spectacular sandy beach and cliffs where Cameron Beck arrives by helicopter.

Filming also took place in Rome. The exteriors of Villa Polissena, via Mafalda di Savoia in the grounds of Villa Ada, are visible when Nico (Maya Sansa) brings Joy (Meréana Tomlinson) home. Alfie (Sacha Dhawan) asks for the second book of Aristotle's Poetics at the biblioteca Angelica, it turns out to contain Jensen's (Kristofer Hivju) diary. The exteriors of the library, where Iris says goodbye to Alfie, are actually in nearby piazza Mattei. Meski (Angela Bruce) flies a drone at Monte Ciocci, a hill in the Monte Mario area which offers one of the city's most panoramic viewpoints. The country bus stop was filmed near the Claudio aqueduct. Alfie interviews Joy and steals Iris's backpack at Aquapiper, once one of Italy's largest water parks, in Guidonia Montecelio. The Procoio Vecchio estate was used as a ghost town, which features when Bruni’s (Marco Leonardi) team attack and Iris flees, while the abandoned farmhouse scene was filmed at the former wineries; the Corviale provides Freddo's base. The interiors of Caliburn used the corridors, tunnels, security room, and laboratories of the Soratte bunker of Sant'Oreste. Other locations in the capital included the Acqua Paola fountain (the "fontanone") on the Janiculum Hill and the Circus Maximus.

Sets were built on the Cinecittà soundstages: including areas in Caliburn (Jensen's suite, Joy's room, Cameron's room, "Charlie Big Potatoes," the atrium, the control room), Alfie's apartment, the interiors of Apartment 7 (the exteriors are in Sardinia), and stairwells.

Florence makes an appearance with piazza Santa Croce providing the location for Cameron and Iris's first meeting after she solves a puzzle.

In August 2024, filming took place near the astronomical observatory in Campo Imperatore (the façade was temporarily covered by a wooden structure) and on sections of the SS 17B road in the municipality of L'Aquila. The production also used drones to film in Abruzzo.