Filming is now managed all over the system but most commonly takes place at stations like Aldwych (a disused tube station), formerly on the Piccadilly Line, or the non-operational Jubilee Line complex in Charing Cross. The Waterloo and City Line has occasionally been used for filming as it is closed on Sundays.
The London Underground Film Office handles over 200 requests a month
The 1926 film The Lodger was the first feature directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in which he makes a cameo appearance as a passenger on a tube train.
The 1928 film Underground, directed by Anthony Asquith, is a murder mystery set in the tube, much of which was shot on location in London Underground stations and on trains.
The 1967 film Quatermass and the Pit (U.S. title: Five Million Years to Earth) revolves around alien bodies and spacecraft being discovered in the fictional Hobbs End tube station.
The 1968 Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear is set in the tunnels of the Underground and deals with an invasion by robotic Yeti. In the 1986 serial The Mysterious Planet, the Doctor and his companion discover an underground civilisation in the ruins of Marble Arch tube station on a future Earth. The 1992 spin-off novel Transit shows a future Tube that has evolved to connect human colonies throughout the solar system.
In the Film adaptation of The Bed-Sitting Room, a satirical play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus released in 1970 based three years after the nuclear holocaust, survivors wander amidst the debris of London and live in the remains of the London Underground.
There is a sub-genre of horror based on subterranean humans living in disused sections of the London Underground and preying on any unlucky commuters they find. These include the 1972 film Death Line and 2004's Creep.
The secret lab in the 1970s TV series The Tomorrow People was in a disused Underground station.
The 1987 film The Fourth Protocol features a double agent being followed on the Piccadilly Line between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, although shot on the Jubilee line between Charing Cross and Green Park. Later in the film, Michael Caine takes his vengeance out on two racist yobs who are causing disruption in the carriage in which he is travelling, this scene being shot on the Aldwych branch.
According to Kevin Kline's character Otto in the movie A Fish Called Wanda, the London Underground is a political movement.
The 1998 film Sliding Doors shows two parallel universes, hinging on whether the central character (Gwyneth Paltrow) catches a particular Tube train or not.
The 1999 film Tube Tales features nine stories based on true-life experiences of London Underground passengers
In the 2002 film 28 Days Later, two of the characters use a sweetshop in the Underground station at Canary Wharf as a hideout in the early part of the film.
In the 2006 film V for Vendetta, Aldwych is used for some of the scenes in the film.
The 2007 Sky3 documentary series "The Tube" use the London Underground in all of their episodes, including the London Underground depot (21 July 2007) and the London Transport Museum (28 July 2007)
Although not "filmed" as such on the Underground, there have been two animated children's television series set on and around it. The first was Tube Mice, a 1988 series concerning the adventures of a group of mice living on the Underground. The second was the 2006 series Underground Ernie, set on a fantasy version of the network and featuring a friendly Underground supervisor and his talking trains. There was also a 2004 animated short, also called Tube Mice, about mice who keep the Underground in order.
The external architecture of many stations in central London are accurately rendered in The Getaway, including the surviving fragment of City Road station.
A miniaturised version of the underground is featured in Midtown Madness 2.
In Hellgate London, the survivors of the end of the world live in several Underground stations.
The level "Underground Uprising" in The World Is Not Enough, where James Bond must rescue hostages and defuse a bomb.
Shadow Man features a level set in a disused tube line where Jack the Ripper lives.
Art
The Great Bear by Simon Patterson in 1992 was a modified Tube Map. "Adapting the official map of the London Underground, Patterson has replaced the names of stations with philosophers, actors, politicians and other celebrated figures. The title The Great Bear refers to the constellation Ursa Major, a punning reference to Patterson's own arrangement of stars. Patterson playfully subverts our belief that maps and diagrams provide a reliable source of information. "I like disrupting something people take as read", he comments." (from the entry by the Tate Gallery)
Music
The Who's song Who Are You included, "I took the tube back out of town" and "I staggered back to the underground."
Duffy wrote a song about love set at Warwick Avenue station on the Bakerloo line. Lines in the lyric include "meet me by the entrance to the tube" and "it's departed, I'm broken hearted"
Amateur Transplants has written and performed a song, also called "London Underground", which deals with many of the gripes commuters encounter while taking the Tube. This has also been incorporated into a flash animation.
The 1950 song The Underground Train written and performed by Lord Kitchener describes the practical difficulties faced by post-war Afro-Caribbean immigrants to London in understanding the complexities of the tube network.
UK 60s band Mood Reaction had a hit with the song "All Change For The Bakerloo Line" as did The New Vaudeville Band with "Finchley Central", both using tube station names in the title.
Before renaming themselves Edwards Hand, the late-60s pop duo made up of Rod Edwards and Roger Hand went by the name of Piccadilly Line.
The intro to the song "Deadwing" by Porcupine Tree features a synth line played over ambient noise recorded from the London Underground. At 0:35, it is possible to hear the phrase "Mind the gap" in the background before the guitars start playing.
The Mika song Blue Eyes contains the lines "Your heart got broken, On the underground, Go find your spirit, In the lost and found."
Neil Gaiman's novelNeverwhere and the BBC television production of the same name are set in a world connected to our own that parallels the structure of the London Underground.
In the graphic novel and movie V for Vendetta, the Guy Fawkes-esque anti-hero has his lair in the Underground and makes use of the tunnels for his anarchistic actions against the fascist government.
In the novel Tunnel Vision, a young man must win a bet by travelling through every Underground station in nineteen hours. The book even features the famous tube map inside the cover and tube routes to headline each chapter.
There are reports of the London Underground being haunted. Some of the most famous ghost stories include Anne Naylor, who was murdered in 1758 and is said to haunt Farringdon Station. Her screams are said to be heard, by passengers, as the last train leaves. Actor William Terriss, who was stabbed to death in 1897, is said to haunt Covent Garden tube station, although the last reported sighting was 1972.[1] Tube drivers report that the Kennington Loop on the Northern Line is haunted.
Bethnal Green tube station is another station believed to be haunted, and the screams of women and children can be heard from the stairwell and ticket hall. It is believed that this is because of the 173 people crushed to death in the stairway during World War 2.
The Underground features in the RPGHellgate: London as an underground labyrinth in a demon occupied London. The train stations are considered the only safe havens in the game, where the character can shop, stockpile on supplies, upgrade equipment, seek healing by a medic, gather information, and receive/complete quests.
One Stop Short of Barking - Uncovering the London Underground - a humorous guide book to travelling on the London Underground includes popular cultural references, history and tube etiquette.
A less-advisable game is the Circle Linepub crawl, involving alighting at each station, visiting a pub, then travelling to the next.
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