Wednesday 31th May. 11 AM – The Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral. Back in the chapel for three days filming a banquet held in honour of the Archduke Charles of Austria. The arrival of Elizabeth’s suitor provides the occasion for a lavish banquet in which we hope to create some of the exotic flavour of court [...]
Into the Storm
Tuesday 30th May. 5.30 PM – The Nave, Ely Cathedral. Scenes today centre around Elizabeth’s discovery that she has been betrayed by one of her own. Elizabeth closely controlled many aspects of the lives of her ladies-in-waiting. Paramount amongst these was her granting permission (or not) for them to marry. This was not simply because [...]
To Kill a Queen
Monday 29th May. 4 PM – The Nave and Crossing, Ely Cathedral. Various scenes today in our ‘corridors of power’ – the beautiful interior of Ely Cathedral. Of these perhaps the most dramatic is Elizabeth’s reaction to the news that Mary Queen of Scots has been executed. Elizabeth’s response to the news of the execution [...]
Pirates and Privateers
Saturday 27th May. 9 AM – Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral. Today we’re finishing Raleigh’s first presentation at court – the scene we began the day before yesterday. As Raleigh approaches the throne the Spanish ambassador objects that this man is a pirate and the gifts he is about to offer are the proceeds of piracy [...]
The New Eden
Friday 26th May. 8 AM – Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral. Continuing yesterday’s scene and with the portrait session now finished and Raleigh seeking an audience with the Queen. This will be another of those famous moments from Raleigh’s life that are a combination of myth and reality. In the scene he will present the queen [...]
Broken Dreams
9 AM – Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral. The fourteenth century Lady Chapel at Ely is an architectural wonder in itself, easily the largest attached to a British Cathedral. Yet it is a place that still bears the scars of the Tudor age. Before Henry VIII broke from Rome the huge windows here were filled with [...]
The Queen is Not Amused
Wednesday 24th May, 2006 11 AM – Ely Cathedral. Another wonderful Norman cathedral, built on what was, in the 12th century an ‘island’ in the vast expanse of marsh land known as the Fen. In this flat, watery world the cathedral seemed to float on the wetland, gaining it the title ‘The Ship of the [...]
English Weather
Monday 22nd May, 2006 11 AM – The Backs, Cambridge. Another day filming Elizabeth’s state barge on the Cam – and another day of torrential rain. It’s our last chance to get the shots we need however so the show, as they say, must go on. Elizabeth is of course under a canopy on the [...]
Sunday 21st May, 2006
9 AM – The Backs, Cambridge. Filming today on the river Cam which is being the river Thames for us. At least we would be were it not for the rain – one of the pitfalls of filming in an English summer! For this scene Elizabeth, her ladies and Walsingham are travelling down the Thames [...]
Thursday 18h May, 2006
2 PM – First Court, St. John’s College, Cambridge. John’s was founded by Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII (and so Elizabeth’s great grandmother) on the site of the mediaeval hospital of St. John. The first court in John’s was largely built between 1511 and 1520 and so makes a perfect setting for one [...]