Brideshead Revisited
(1981)

Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick

Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 British television serial starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, and produced by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network. The serial is an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited (1945). Although John Mortimer was given a credit in the titles, Valerie Grove’s A Voyage Round John Mortimer revealed that Mortimer’s script was never used and that the series was actually written by the producer Derek Granger and others. The bulk of the serial was directed by Charles Sturridge, with a few sequences filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Broadcast in 11 episodes, the serial premiered on ITV in the UK on 12 October 1981.

The Oxford scenes were filmed largely at Waugh’s alma mater, Hertford College, and the rooms Charles occupies in the film were those in which Waugh lived after his second term. Portions of Wadham College and Christ Church were also used. Most of the grounds, all the major public rooms, and several rooms in the private wings of Castle Howard represented Brideshead. Bridgewater House in Westminster was used for the exterior of Marchmain House, and its interiors were filmed in Tatton Hall. Rex and Julia’s wedding was filmed in the chapel at Lyme Park. Venice locations included the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the Scuola di San Rocco, and the Palazzi Barbaro. The ocean-liner deck scenes were filmed on the QE2 during an actual storm, but the ship’s interiors were either sets or public rooms in the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool and the Park Lane Hotel in London.

Downton Abbey
(2010-15)

Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Brown Findley, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy

This British drama series follows the lives of the Crawley family and its servants in the family’s classic Georgian country house. The series begins with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, which leaves Downton Abbey’s future in jeopardy, since the presumptive heirs of Robert, Earl of Grantham die in the catastrophe, leaving the family without a male offspring to take over Downton when the current lord dies.

Highclere Castle in north Hampshire is used for exterior shots of Downton Abbey and most of the interior filming. The kitchen, servants’ quarters and working areas, and some of the “upstairs” bedrooms were constructed and filmed at Ealing Studios. Bridgewater House in the St James area of London served as the family’s London home. Outdoor scenes are filmed in the village of Bampton in Oxfordshire. Notable locations include St Mary’s the Virgin Church and the library, which served as the entrance to the cottage hospital. The old rectory in Bampton is used for exterior shots of Isobel Crawley’s house, with interior scenes filmed at Hall Place near Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.

The Downton Abbey of the title and setting is described as lying in Yorkshire. The towns of Easingwold, Kirkby Malzeard, Kirkbymoorside, Malton, Middlesbrough, Ripon, Richmond, and Thirsk, each mentioned by characters in the series, lie in North Yorkshire, as does the city of York, while Leeds’Äîsimilarly mentioned’Äîlies in West Yorkshire. Yorkshire media speculated the general location of the fictional Downton Abbey to be somewhere in the triangulated area between the towns of Easingwold, Ripon and Thirsk.

First World War trench warfare scenes in France were filmed in a specially constructed replica battlefield for period war scenes near the village of Akenham in rural Suffolk.

Many historical locations and aristocratic mansions have been used to film various scenes:

The fictional Haxby Park, the estate Sir Richard Carlisle intends to buy in Series 2, is part of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. Byfleet Manor in Surrey is the location for the Dower house, home to Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, while West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire is used for the interior scenes of Lady Rosamund (Samantha Bond)’s London residence in Belgrave Square. A house in Belgrave Square is used for exterior shots.

Inveraray Castle in Argyll, Scotland, doubled as “Duneagle Castle” in the 2012 Christmas special. Byfleet Manor in Surrey is portrayed as the dower house.

Greys Court near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire was used as the family’s secondary property, which they proposed moving into and calling “Downton Place” due to financial difficulties in Series Three. Also in the third series, Bates’s prison scenes were filmed at Lincoln Castle in Lincolnshire.

Horsted Keynes railway station in Sussex is used as Downton station. The station is part of the heritage Bluebell Railway. St Pancras station in London doubled for King’s Cross station in episode one of series 4, in the scene where Lady Edith Crawley meets her lover Michael Gregson. The restaurant scene where Lady Edith meets Michael Gregson and where they share their kiss is filmed at the Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly Circus which was originally opened in 1874.

Hall Barn in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, featured as Loxley House, the home of Sir Anthony Strallan.

Parts of series 4 were filmed at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Kent ’Äì The Tarred Yarn Store was used in episode one as a workhouse where Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) visits Mr Grigg (Nicky Henson) and in episode two, streets at The Historic Dockyard Chatham were used for the scenes where Lady Rose MacClare (Lily James) is at the market with James Kent (Ed Speleers) watching her. The production had previously filmed in Kent for series 1 where the opening sequence of a train going through the countryside was filmed at the Kent & East Sussex Railway.

Scenes for the 2013 Christmas special were filmed at Royal Holloway, University of London near Egham, Surrey, West Wittering beach in West Sussex and Berkshire’s Basildon Park near Streatley. Lancaster House in London stood in for Buckingham Palace.

Alnwick Castle, in Northumberland, was the filming location used for Brancaster Castle in the 2014 and 2015 Christmas specials, which included filming in Alnwick Castle’s State Rooms, as well as on the castle’s grounds, and at the nearby semi-ruined Hulne Abbey on the Duke of Northumberland’s parklands in Alnwick.

In Series 5 and 6, Kingston Bagpuize House in Oxfordshire was used as the location for Cavenham Park, the home of Lord Merton. In Series 6 (2015) the scenes of motor racing at Brooklands were filmed at the Goodwood Circuit in West Sussex.

Top Gear
(2002-16)

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May

This fast-paced and stunt-filled motor show tests whether cars, both mundane and extraordinary, live up to their manufacturers’ claims. The long-running show travels to locations around the world, performing extreme stunts and challenges to see what the featured cars are capable of doing. Celebrity guests appear on some episodes to help test the vehicles. Things don’t always go as planned, though, with broken bones and mechanical mishaps sometimes part of the experiments. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May hosted the show for more than a decade before giving way to a new crew in 2016, including actor Matt LeBlanc, TV personality Chris Evans and Formula One veteran Eddie Jordan.

During its first 22 series, the programme received acclaim for its visual style and presentation as well as criticism for its content and often politically incorrect commentary made by its former presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. Columnist A. A. Gill, close friend of Clarkson and fellow Sunday Times columnist, described the programme as “a triumph of the craft of programme making, of the minute, obsessive, musical masonry of editing, the French polishing of colourwashing and grading”.

World of Top Gear

Instead of using a conventional TV studio, Top Gear is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome, an airport and business park in Waverley, Surrey.

Many of the car creations from the challenges are on display at World of Top Gear at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. The Enormodrome recreates the feel of the Top Gear studio and features specially shot behind-the-scenes footage starring Clarkson, May and Hammond who relive those unforgettable Top Gear TV moments. In the Challenge Gallery are the challenge cars in the condition they were left after filming – with new ones arriving every series straight from the film set.