From Kendall Roy’s ‘L to the OG’ rap at the V&A to his brother Roman becoming the unwitting owner of Hearts FC, here was HBO drama Succession at its best – and it happened in Dundee.
As the curtain falls on season 3, we decided to look back at the time that familiar parade of black cars drove over the Tay Bridge to bring the Roy gang to the city.
Brian Cox returned home to film the episode after the makers decided his character Logan Roy should come from Dundee, just like the actor.
The Dundee episode saw the media mogul reluctantly returning to the city to celebrate 50 years in the news business by dedicating a journalism school bearing his name.
An open casting call in the Hilltown for 350 extras was made by Scottish agents GBM Casting in preparation for filming, which took place in June 2019.
Scenes were shot at Gleneagles Hotel, Dundee University and the V&A, which was the setting for a surprise dinner to mark Logan’s landmark anniversary.
During the speeches, Jeremy Strong’s character, Kendall, surprised his father with a cringeworthy rap while wearing a custom Logan Roy-themed baseball jersey.
Warning – this video contains explicit language.
Other scenes in the Dundee episode were just as memorable.
Roman partnered up with the Azerbaijani financier Edward to buy Hearts FC, only to learn that Logan was actually a lifelong supporter of rivals Hibernian.
Rosebud
The characters also drove past the Magdalen Green bandstand where Logan tells son Connor that his ‘Rosebud’ was a dollar bill – whatever it took to get him out of Dundee.
Logan dismisses the city where he grew up in the episode but after the cameras stopped rolling, Cox’s co-stars persuaded him to give them a tour of Dundee.
That’s when his pride in the city shone through.
“We did this whole filming sequence where Roy visits the place where he was born but he drives away, saying he doesn’t want to know about it,” Cox said.
“It was kind of odd, going back to Dundee and driving around places familiar to me, and realising this guy had bad experiences, which were the opposite of my own.
“My childhood was interrupted by the death of my father, but up until the age of eight I had a very good childhood there; a really happy one.
“It was my co-star Danny Huston who said: ‘We know all about Logan Roy’s childhood but what about yours, we need to go down the memory lane of Brian Cox’.
“So a bunch of us got on the bus and went to the church where my parents got married, to my school and the street where I grew up.
“I also took them down to the Ferry and told them it was the sunniest place in Britain.
“It was weird to do a tour to say ‘this is Brian Cox’, as opposed to Logan Roy.
“It was fun, but odd.”
Memorable meal
The cast visited Arbroath-raised MasterChef finalist Dean Banks’ restaurant, Haar, in St Andrews after filming the show’s scenes at the V&A in Dundee.
Cox was so taken with his food that he asked to speak with Mr Banks and told him it was the best meal he had ever had.
He was joined by co-stars Danny Huston, Holly Hunter, Kieran Culkin, James Cromwell, Nicholas Braun, Jeremy Strong and Peter Friedman.
“Brian Cox was super-happy with his dinner,” said Mr Banks.
“They asked to speak to the chef.
“I was stood next to Brian and he introduced me to everyone.
“Everyone gave me a round of applause.
“They all came and had a picture with me and I had an individual chat with most of them.
“One said it was the best dessert he’d ever tried.
“Brian Cox said it was the best meal he’d ever had.
“It was a nice little achievement.”
He said nerves had not affected him in the kitchen.
“It is more of an enjoyment,” he said.
“We knew Brian was coming.
“I thought it was just going to be Brian Cox but I walked into the restaurant and saw a crew of A-list celebrities.
“They were totally normal folk, very humble.”
A world away, then, from after-dinner scenes in season two episode Hunting, which will be most remembered for the phrase “boar on the floor”.
That was the ‘game’ Logan inflicted on his potentially traitorous underlings.
‘This great stage of fools’
Family and trusted advisers were forced to oink like pigs and scuffle for sausages on the floor by Logan, who suspected there was a traitor among them.
Cox won a Golden Globe for his performance in season two of Succession, which combines elements of King Lear with parallels on the life of Rupert Murdoch.
Audiences agreed with the critics and have relished the internecine warfare and sniping, sharp-tongued venom at the centre of the smash-hit HBO show.
But there’s plenty more gas in the tank after it was renewed for season four.
We'd have to agree with you on that one 🎬 pic.twitter.com/O9uNTxNKze
— V&A Dundee (@VADundee) May 6, 2020
Cox said: “It’s a morality tale, that’s the strength of Succession, to see these horrible people.
“But they are also us, avaricious human beings, and we live in a time of avarice, and certainly a time of entitlement.”
More like this:
Brian Cox: The Hilltown cinema trip that led me on the road to Succession
Burning ambition: How Dundee actress sang her way into the spotlight in The Wicker Man
Chariots of Fire at 40: St Andrews beach reshoot changed movie history
