Where was Run Away  shot? Revisiting key filming locations of the latest Harlan Coben thriller 

Netflix’s first big binge of the new year 2026 comes as a chilling new thriller, Run Away, adapted from Harlan Coben’s bestselling novel, arrives on January 1, 2026. The eight-part thriller features James Nesbitt as Simon Greene, a desperate father, and Minnie Driver as his wife, Ingrid. It unravels the mystery with emotional intensity and jaw-dropping twists that havecome to define Coben’s Netflix collaborations.

Aside from its crime thriller mechanics, Run Away offers its audience a different sort of thrill with the locations it features. Despite the novel being set in New York, the series moves the narrative to Greater Manchester and the surrounding area, casting familiar streets, parks, and neighborhoods as a cinematic tableau of anxiety, pursuit, and hidden secrets.

Read on to explore the filming locations that have contributed to the beautiful frames of Run Away.

Here are some primary filming locations of Run Away

The series starts in the gorgeous Alexandra Park, where Simon is given a lead on the location of his daughter Paige. At the park’s fountain, a turning point unfolds when Paige is seen near the main fountain before running off when she learns her father has located her. This sets up the tone of the show, with the biggest moving scenes as far as production is concerned.

While speaking with Manchester Evening News, Guy Hescott, the show's producer, said how they achieved the scene on that scale:

"We had 200 extras on that day, it was a big scene, and you've got to fill that space, make it feel busy. We had cranes, drones, it's what kicks off the action."

The series makes extensive use of Manchester’s iconic landscapes, both urban and suburban, as it travels through neighborhoods, city squares, and streets that metaphorically echo the show’s emotionally fraught atmosphere.

Some more locations that enhanced the look of Run Away significantly

One of the most arresting images in Run Away is the looming university building that appears in the first seconds of each episode. That’s where Paige Greene had headed to study before vanishing, and it serves as a repetitive representation of both potential and loss throughout the series.

The exterior scene representing “Lanford University” is the former St Katharine’s College in Liverpool, now part of Liverpool Hope University. The building’s majestic façade and unique green spire make it seem somewhat old-world, which fits perfectly to resemble the kind of fictional school the makers had imagined.

The interiors of the place, like the quadrangles, the hallways, and balconies where Paige, her family, and students next door move about, were shot at various universities in Manchester and Liverpool. Hescott said:

"It's a bunch of different places. Hope University in Liverpool and Manchester University were segued together, partly that’s to do with the schedule."

The approach also allowed the series to visually distinguish the different schools of higher learning in the story. Paige’s university, Sam’s campus, and even the university where Simon finds one of Paige’s lecturers all had to seem distinct without disorienting viewers.

We often catch glimpses of detectives and relatives entering and leaving Bank Street Police Station, a hub in the case of Paige's vanishing. But for those living locally, the place is instantly familiar as the forbidding building representing the station is, in fact, Manchester Crown Court at Crown Square.

While the interiors were shot in Bank Street Police Station, with offices, corridors, and interrogation rooms built by the art team as per requirements.

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