On Location

Included in the deluge of interesting promotional literature that the BTA produces (available at most of their 800 outlets across the United Kingdom) is a pamphlet cum map of the beauteous places where movies have been shot on location. The literature goes into the minutest details, indicating the very town, street and house where scenes, involving some of moviedoms biggest names, have been shot.

The West Country, as one discovers, has had a fairly large share of reel life The French Lieutenants Woman, Restoration and Far from the Madding Crowd, not to mention Sense and Sensibility, are just some of the productions shot there. With well-known locations within a few miles of one another, it wouldnt be a bad idea to follow the trail. I was off soon enough on my flashy hired Fiat, flying along the motorway, heading for Salisbury and the Dorset coast.

 

My first stop was Montecute House, a few kilometres beyond Yeovil Deep in the heart of Somerset, the site used extensively in the film production of Jane Austens Sense and Sensibility. The house was built during the reign of Elizabeth I over 400 years ago. But the site, with the vantage conical hill behind it, had already been fortified some 800 years earlier.

The house was built by Sir Edward Phelips, a Master of the Rolls to Elizabeth I and her Catholic successor James I. His claim to fame was his prosecution of Guy Fawkes, the man behind the gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament. The house remained in the possession of that family until recently, when it reverted to the National Trust. Phelips daughter Elizabeth, interestingly, had been a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth I before she eloped. And that, with none other than one of the Queens own suitors. The unpardonable crime was to leave the monarch twitching with fury for a long time to come. Portraits of both the Elizabeths figure among the wide array of period pictures inside the house. Of course, they do not hang side by side.

Montecute House also has an interesting India connection. Lord Curzon, the controversial former Viceroy, is said to have spent the last ten years of his life there. He always fancied his chances of getting a call to head the government. But it never came, and he passed away in those noble precincts back in 1925.

Curzon had negotiated the lease for the house in 1915 (at a rent of 550 per annum) along with his long time mistress, novelist Eleanor Glyn, famed for her love of furs. A saucy rhyme about the lady is still enthusiastically quoted at Montecute House: Would you like to sin, with Eleanor Glyn, on a tiger skin. Or would you prefer, to err, with her, on some other fur.

Montecute featured in Sense and Sensibility as the Palmers estate near Cleveland. A striking feature about the grounds is the presence of a strangely twisted hedge deformed by a severe frost over a century ago. The hedge was, by some quirk, maintained in this odd twisted shape. In the film it was to become symbolic of Mariannes physical and mental deterioration after she is jilted.

The camera also took full advantage of the long driveway up to the front of the house with its manicured shrubs and trees, the gravel track following a slow incline before rising again to meet the imposing front door.

The next destination was Salisbury nearby, a striking reminder of medieval England. The cathedral there is one of the finest examples of early English architecture. Its 400 foot high spire (the largest in Britain) makes for a fitting centrepiece. Dotted along the ample grounds, nurtured in medieval splendour, are the many fine buildings that make up Cathedral Close.

At the top end of Choristers Green is Mompesson House, also included in the Sense and Sensibility footage. In the film it doubled as Mrs Jennings London town house. Located near the arched entrance to the Close overlooking the cathedral, it is now the property of the National Trust and is open to the public.

Just fifteen kilometres west of Salisbury, in the small town of Wilton, is Wilton House, the stately home of the Earl of Pembroke. The makers of Sense and Sensibility did not spare this one either. The gardens and the interiors are spectacular, and it was used as the setting for the ball the Dashwood sisters go to.

Wilton House is famed for its cube and double cube rooms. The cube room measures 40x40x40; the double cube is 40x40x80 feet. Both claim the rare distinction of having been designed by Inigo Jones, a leading designer of the sixteenth century. On display within these hallowed walls are works by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyke and Reynolds, to name but a few.

Further west at Plympton, on the eastern approach to Plymouth, stands Saltram House, now with the National Trust. Remember Norland Park early in Sense and Sensibility the Dashwood family home they have to vacate when the father dies. The house is another wonderful repository of priceless paintings by European masters of the last five hundred years.

In Lyme Regis in Dorset, my next stop, was filmed John Fowles The French Lieutenants Woman. Directed by Karel Reisz with a Harold Pinter screenplay, the film was to become an impressive document in its own right.

The snake-shaped Cobb, a brick pier dating back some 400 years ago, makes for the most dramatic backdrop for the tempestuous storm, with the incomparable Meryl Streep looking out over the turbulent sea.

This was the also the spot where the Duke of Monmouth landed to begin the ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion over 300 years ago. But that hardly reduces its charm it still makes for a great romantic setting and also finds a place in Jane Austens Persuasion.

The BTA have lost no opportunity to promote these varied sites as potential film sets for moviemakers around the world, even India. Does it surprise you that Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, besides six other Indian films, were shot on location in Britain during 1995? Maybe next on the line will be a Hindi version of Shree Jane Austen. You never really can tell with Bollywood!