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May 31, 2006 | 03:08 PM
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.
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May 30, 2006 | 02:28 PM
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.
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May 27, 2006 | 03:36 PM
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.
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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.
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May 25, 2006 | 08:19 PM
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.
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May 24, 2006 | 09:06 PM
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 Fen’.
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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.
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May 22, 2006 | 02:50 PM
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!
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May 19, 2006 | 07:06 PM
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 of the great fabled scenes from Elizabeth’s reign.
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May 17, 2006 | 08:46 PM
Tuesday 16th May, 2006
3 PM – Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire. Back in the nave of Winchester cathedral for a sequence in which Elizabeth gives her orders to make England ready for the imminent Armada.
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Wednesday 17th May, 2006
9 AM – ‘J’ Stage, Shepperton Studios. J stage is transformed this morning into a torture chamber in the Tower of London.
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May 16, 2006 | 06:04 PM
Monday 15th May, 2006
Today we’re in the nave of Winchester cathedral, magnificently remodelled by William of Wykeham in the early 15th century. Not surprisingly however this is not Winchester for us, but St. Paul’s cathedral in London. St Paul’s – old St. Paul’s that is – was gutted in the great fire of London in 1666 and then demolished to make way for the present cathedral so we can’t film in the real location.
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Thursday 11th/ Friday12th May, 2006
Shooting in Winchester cathedral, one of my favourite buildings in England, dating in part from the late 11th century. For most of these two days we’re in the Lady chapel where we meet Anthony Babington – I won’t say in what context as it’s a pivotal moment in the film.
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May 13, 2006 | 09:45 PM
History'onics'
There was hue and cry in the British Press when I made Elizabeth. She was called the Virgin Queen and I showed her in bed with Robert Dudley.
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Where did time go ?
Yesterday was the first day of the shoot.
And on paper it says
I have shot for three weeks
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May 11, 2006 | 09:38 PM
Wednesday 10th May, 2006
2 PM Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. The whole of today is set aside to shoot a scene of Walsingham and his brother in the study in his London house on Seething Lane. There are books everywhere, on row after row of oak bookcase, on tables and desks.
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Thursday 4th May, 2006
3.20 PM Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, London. One of the pivotal moments in the film is being shot today in this beautiful 12th century church - the execution by beheading of Mary Queen of Scots.
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Tuesday 2nd May, 2006
10 AM Hatfield House. Out on location at Hatfield House but today however we're using this as the home of Mary Queen of Scots and Hatfield House has become Chartley Hall to introduce her to the story.
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May 10, 2006 | 10:34 PM
Friday 5th May, 2006
6 PM Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, London. Finishing off coverage of the execution scene then down to the crypt for a scene from nearly four months previously, as Mary confronts her accusers at her trial at Fotheringhay.
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Tuesday 9th May, 2006
11 AM Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. We're using the Long Gallery here as rooms in Walsingham's house. In today's scenes Sir Francis entertain his brother. This is one of those scenes that people will write to me about as there are a number of key differences from 'history'.
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Monday 8th May, 2006
1 PM Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. First scene with Elizabeth and Francis Walsingham today and, as is the nature of filming, this is Walsingham's last scene in the movie.
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Saturday 6th May, 2006
11 AM Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. The last three scenes today with Mary Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton). In the first Paulet appears in Mary's rooms to tell her that she is to be executed on the following morning.
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May 07, 2006 | 04:44 PM
A Director's Prayer 2
At the end of week 2
Hanging on,
to the slim thread of instinct
which is lost so easily
if cut by arrogance
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May 05, 2006 | 05:09 AM
Wednesday 3rd May, 2006
For Mary one of the cruellest aspects of her confinement was her isolation from the outside world caused by the increasing restrictions placed on her correspondence.
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Monday 1st May, 2006
10 AM 'J' Stage - Shepperton Studios. Back to day shooting - this time scenes with the Babington conspirators. The Babington Plot arose from a series of other conspiracies against Elizabeth which followed on from the publication by Pope Pius V of the 1570 bull Regnans in Excelsis in which he declared Elizabeth a heretic and all her followers excommunicated.
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