It used to manufacture razors, but now the former Gillette factory in Brentford is producing close shaves of a different kind in the TV drama 24: Live Another Day
The famous art deco building with its distinctive clocktower on the corner of Great West Road and Syon Lane doubles as a CIA base in the latest series of the hit show, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer.
The premises, where the production team are understood to have been based, featured as the exterior of the intelligence agency's London HQ in the first episode of the new series - the first to be shot on this side of the Atlantic.
The site, which borders Brentford and Osterley, is not the only location in the borough where filming has taken place for the series, now screening on Sky 1, either.
Producers have not ventured too far afield in many cases, with scenes also shot in Catherine Wheel Road, Brentford, down which a Serbian mobster can be seen driving in the first episode, and Harlequin Avenue, also in Brentford.
Shooting for the show has also taken place extensively in Shepherd's Bush, which is a short drive away, and Acton, although it appears producers bizarrely chose to film scenes purportedly on a West Ealing council estate over in Woolwich, east London.
Liz Carter, director of Reel Film Locations, which assists with filming in the borough, said west London was an obivous choice for US film crews shooting in the capital.
"This area's attractive because there's a lot of available production space and film space, and its close to Heathrow. That means executives flying in from LA can be on site within 15 minutes of landing at Heathrow," she told getwestlondon.
She refused to comment on shooting locations in the borough other than to confirm Catherine Wheel Road and Harlequin Avenue, which are both public highways, had been used.
* 24: Live Another Day is on Sky 1 on Wednesdays at 9pm.
