The upcoming BBC/Space miniseries Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a U.K.-Canada coproduction set in the 19th-century England during the Napoleonic Wars.

You’d think old Montreal, with its period buildings and cobblestone streets, would be perfect as a shooting location for the seven-part fantasy drama.

But not so, Nick Hirschkorn of coproducer Feel Films, said at MIPCOM while promoting Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell to international buyers. “I scouted Old Montreal. It’s not the right period. So much would have needed to be done,” Hirschkorn explained.

“We didn’t use exterior town stuff in Montreal because we have so much of that in Britain that is appropriate,” he added.

But in order to qualify for Canadian funding, producers needed to augment the mostly Yorkshire, U.K.-shot production with a Canadian location.

And that’s how they ended up shooting the Battle of Waterloo in a muddy Quebec forest.

The structure is a departure from earlier European-Canada coproductions that were shot across the Atlantic, with post-production occurring in Canada.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, based on the novel by Susanna Clarke, stars British actors Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel playing Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange, respectively. The miniseries is directed by Toby Haynes, who also helmed Doctor Who, a popular series on Space, BBC America and BBC in the U.K., all three of which will air Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

The U.K.-Canada coproduction, structured more like a movie with international patchwork financing, also draws financing from Canadian, U.K. and Croatian tax credits. Canadian financing included Bell Media, the Rogers Fund, Montreal producer Cite Amerique and Canadian tax credits.

“It’s made quite a few lawyers’ heads explode,” Hirschkorn said of the miniseries’ financing structure.

Photo: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

Correction: In the original version of this article, Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel were incorrectly identified as Marsan playing Strange and Carvel playing Norell. It is in fact the reverse. Updated Oct. 17 at 2:15.