News: HBO series filming at Wentworth Woodhouse in Rotherham
A major new TV series starring Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, is another big budget production to be filmed in Rotherham.
Developed by US TV giant, HBO, "The Regime" tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of a modern European regime as it begins to unravel.
Joining the previously announced cast of Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton and Hugh Grant, the newly announced cast members include Danny Webb, David Bamber, Henry Goodman, Stanley Townsend, Louie Mynett, Rory Keenan, Karl Markovics, and Pippa Haywood.
The story is influenced by Ceausescu Palace, the opulent home of Romania's former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and modern day Russia and its imprisoned opposition politicians. Winslet plays a leader compared to Ceausescu and Donald Trump.
The series, formerly known by its working title The Palace, is written by Will Tracy, who has worked for HBO before on hit shows such as Succession. Directors include the acclaimed Stephen Frears, who has worked accross film and TV on projects such as The Queen, Philomena and High Fidelity.
Frears was featured on BBC's Imagine last month, interviewed on a pre-production reconnaissance of locations for The Regime.
The director of A Very English Scandal and Quiz confirmed that he'll be working on the new series in Vienna and Rotherham.
"Vienna and Rotherham. That's quite a mix," says interviewer Alan Yentob with a smirk.
Frears replies: "But Rotherham has got the second biggest house in England after Buckingham Palace."
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The house and grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse are ideal backdrops for period dramas with an abundance of striking architectural features and open spaces.
With over 300 rooms, and architecture from the 1720s to 1890s, the Grade I listed country house has played host to a wide variety of filming including Oscar winning feature film, Darkest Hour, and the big screen version of Downton Abbey, plus worldwide hit TV series including ITV’s Victoria, BBC’s Gentleman Jack, and Netflix's The Crown.
The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust recently posted that access to the house would be restricted this month "due to an exciting project." With the gardens staying open for the Easter holidays, the entire site is now closed until Saturday April 29.
Last year, Netflix used Wentworth Woodhouse in series five of The Crown which follows the life of Queen Elizabeth II, from 1991 to 1997. The Marble Saloon, described as one of the finest rooms in England, was used to recreate a state dinner for the Queen in Moscow.
A strange irony given that one of the room's claims to fame is the perfomance by Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova for King George V & Queen Mary, on their 1912 Royal Visit.
Another Netflix series, Bodies, filmed at Wentworth last year. Stephen Graham is set to star in the mystery with four detectives, four time periods, and four dead bodies. The adaptation of Si Spencer’s graphic novel is expected on screens some time this year.
Wentworth Woodhouse website
Images: HBO / WWPT
Developed by US TV giant, HBO, "The Regime" tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of a modern European regime as it begins to unravel.
Joining the previously announced cast of Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton and Hugh Grant, the newly announced cast members include Danny Webb, David Bamber, Henry Goodman, Stanley Townsend, Louie Mynett, Rory Keenan, Karl Markovics, and Pippa Haywood.
The story is influenced by Ceausescu Palace, the opulent home of Romania's former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and modern day Russia and its imprisoned opposition politicians. Winslet plays a leader compared to Ceausescu and Donald Trump.
The series, formerly known by its working title The Palace, is written by Will Tracy, who has worked for HBO before on hit shows such as Succession. Directors include the acclaimed Stephen Frears, who has worked accross film and TV on projects such as The Queen, Philomena and High Fidelity.
Frears was featured on BBC's Imagine last month, interviewed on a pre-production reconnaissance of locations for The Regime.
The director of A Very English Scandal and Quiz confirmed that he'll be working on the new series in Vienna and Rotherham.
"Vienna and Rotherham. That's quite a mix," says interviewer Alan Yentob with a smirk.
Frears replies: "But Rotherham has got the second biggest house in England after Buckingham Palace."
Advertisement
The house and grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse are ideal backdrops for period dramas with an abundance of striking architectural features and open spaces.
With over 300 rooms, and architecture from the 1720s to 1890s, the Grade I listed country house has played host to a wide variety of filming including Oscar winning feature film, Darkest Hour, and the big screen version of Downton Abbey, plus worldwide hit TV series including ITV’s Victoria, BBC’s Gentleman Jack, and Netflix's The Crown.
The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust recently posted that access to the house would be restricted this month "due to an exciting project." With the gardens staying open for the Easter holidays, the entire site is now closed until Saturday April 29.
A strange irony given that one of the room's claims to fame is the perfomance by Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova for King George V & Queen Mary, on their 1912 Royal Visit.
Another Netflix series, Bodies, filmed at Wentworth last year. Stephen Graham is set to star in the mystery with four detectives, four time periods, and four dead bodies. The adaptation of Si Spencer’s graphic novel is expected on screens some time this year.
Wentworth Woodhouse website
Images: HBO / WWPT
21 comments:
Alan Yentob is a smirker
It must have been quite a nostalgic return to Rotherham for Hugh Grant. I expect her paused to think how far he had come from those days when he worked on the bins in Dalton.
It's my understanding that the facade of Wentworth Woodhouse is TWICE as wide as Buckingham Palace. It's certainly a much more impressive building to see.
Absolutely correct. Where Buckingham Palace is bigger is in terms of the area and number of rooms. Specifically, within Buck House are a large number of closets.
He'd often pop into the Foljambe for a swift pint during his break. In fact, that's where he met Liz Hurley. I think she was a glass collector at the time.
No, I think that was Divine Brown or somesuch
I can remember being on t'bins wi Hugh. Course he were just Sid Grant in them days. He wernt reyt popular if I'm being honest. We thought he were just a little posh kid, wot wi weshing his hands afore he et his snap. We couldn't bi doing wi it. And that Lizzie Urley were no better than she should be either.
I'm surprised he could only get a job on the bins, what with his mother running that dance school
There was a Sidney Grant in my class at Dalton Juniors. Don't know if it's the same bloke. We used to call him Candles on account of the state of his hooter. Whiney little kid, always keen on weddings and funerals.
Yes, I remember him as well. One half term he went to 4 weddings and a funeral.
Wentworth Woodhouse is a far more attractive building than Buckingham Palace and currently there are no closets living there at all.
I don't believe for one minute that Hugh Grant worked on the bins in Dalton. He is far too refined. He is the type of young man who probably worked in the offices of Steel Peech and Tozer. Even if he was hopeless at spelling he could have got a job as a reporter with the Rotherham Advertiser. He probably covered weddings and funerals and that's where he got the idea for his film.
It is a well known fact that Buckingham Palace was thrown up by a consortium of cowboy builders, using shoddy materials and workmen seconded from prison ships bound for Australia. The result was an aesthetic and structural nightmare with nothing in the palace working as intended. No damp course, ill fitting doors, lack of ventilation and inadequate floor supports have meant that millions of pounds of public money has been spent every year since it was built just to ensure that it did not fall down in a pile of rubble. These problems persist to this day. Only last month the bath Charles was sharing with Camilla fell through the rotten floorboards to the kitchen below where a traumatised pastry chef was preparing that evening's spotted dick.
Compared to Buckingham Palace Wentworth Woodhouse truly is a national treasure.
It is understood that Buckingham Palace officials have contacted Rothbiz to express concerns about the previous post. Specifically, they insist that certain factual inaccuracies be rectified. To begin with, the bathroom floorboards were merely "rotting", not "rotten". Secondly, they would like to make clear that at no time were either Charles or Camilla in any danger, as they both landed on Charles' butler who had been holding the soap. And finally it is ludicrous to suggest that spotted dick was being prepared by the chef. It was actually toad in the hole.
As sub-edditer of Rotherham Advitiser, I recent the implercation in one of you're messiges that Hew Grant cud haf gotten a job with our paper even if he cuddent spelt
Nearly all our staff haf past the Juke of Edinberg's bronz spelling test!!!!
Obviously an imposter. Far too few spelling mistakes.
Well I wouldn't be without my Advertiser. Where else could I find out which of my old schoolmates had died or who'd been fined for fouling the pavement while under the influence?
Or read letters every week from that Trotskyite fella?
They're published under his name but his missus writes them. He's really a closet Liberal Democrat.
I think there is much more to news in the Advertiser than births, deaths and marriages. There is some fine investigative journalism as well. Only last week they broke the story of the council leader who had ten grand nicked out of his wardrobe.
To get back on piste as they say, I must pay tribute to the way Mr Grant conducted himself during filming at Wentworth Woodhouse. What an example that man is to the film industry. How he manages to look so fresh and handsome at his age is totally beyond me. He does not look a day older than when he graced our cinema screens in Mr Hitchcock's "North by Northwest".
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