Ooh! There’s a new BBC three-part series of Great Expectations coming, and it’s being filmed in Bucks and Oxon, naturally. First at Marlow where Fionn Whitehead (as Pip) was spotted leaping from Marlow Bridge, and more recently near Watlington. A-listers Olivia Coleman (pictured, playing Miss Havisham), Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris and Shalom Brune-Franklin will also appear in the series.
Keeping with Watlington, the nearby Shirburn Castle is a regular film backdrop. The castle was also used as the home of Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, and Shirburn village appeared in Brad Pitt’s 2014 war film Fury. The village and church also appears in the 2020 movie The Old Guard, and in the award-winning Philomena starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan and Sophie Kennedy Clark.
The National Trust pile West Wycombe Park (above), owned for more than 300 years by the Dashwood family (how stately a name can you get?) was a key filming location for Bridgerton according to eagle-eyed locals, who spotted actors strolling around in period costume and horse-drawn carriages. Also used in A Clockwork Orange, The Duchess, Downton Abbey and Labyrinth, it’s something of a movie favourite.
It’s not the only grand dame to appear on screen – Basildon Park starred in Pride & Prejudice and Downton, the latter also filming at Highclere, just over the border, Wrest Park in Beds, and cinematic fave, the Cotswolds village of Bampton, plus the less obvious choice of Cogges Manor Farm (obliging animal extras we suspect…)
Oxford of course is film backdrop heaven and recently welcomed Timothee Chalamet as Wonka (pictured), Uma Thurman for her new Apple TV thriller Suspicion, as well as being the location for the Netflix hit, Anatomy of a Scandal. No shortage of willing student extras there…
credit: Instagram / @mymarlow
Oh so pretty Hambleden needed very little in the way of tarting up for its role in Disney’s Enchanted follow-up starring Amy Adams, thanks to its pretty high street and period features, though the verges approaching the village had to be strewn with summer flowers to give that oh-so-magical Disney look.
Also filming in and around Oxfordshire this year has been the mighty Hollywood titan Ridley Scott making his Napoleon epic, Kitbag, with red carpet royalty Joaquin Phoenix and Killing Eve star Jodie Comer. The cast and crew descended on Finstock, near Charlbury, to film battle scenes. No doubt they’ll have popped into The Bull for a tipple or two after a tough day slaughtering each other on camera.
No stranger to Hollywood heavyweights, nearby Abingdon has been host to Steven Spielberg as he makes his similarly epic World War 2 mini-series, Masters of the Air at Dalton Barracks, a military base. Tom Hanks stars and has been making himself quite at home, including popping into Muddy fave, The Cheese Shed, for a toastie and coffee.
Of course, location units come and go but down at Wycombe’s new film studio, Stage Fifty, there’s sure to be a steady stream of stars once it unveils its eight sound stages, stunt rehearsal space, cafe, workshops and offices, set to open around the middle of next year. The company’s other two studios have been involved in The Devil’s Hour starring Jessica Raine and Peter Capaldi and Inside Man, the David Tennant and Stanley Tucci thriller. We expect great things, then. Lights, camera, action…
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