This palace in Britain is a real movie star

Before you reach the impressive Blenheim Palace, the Woodstock town sign greets you. However, the beautiful city has nothing to do with the famous music and artists festival of 1969: the flower power event took place in Bethel, America. But Great Britain’s Woodstock has a cultural connection, thanks to a nearby castle that’s famous around the world, at least if you can recognize the pictures.

You pass through the sandy village, and through a metal gate on a gravel path that snakes past the first parking lot – already full by this time – down to the next parking lot. With nearly one million visitors, the property is the most visited site in Great Britain.

We pass through the ticket office and a small arcade to the iconic Great Court: the wide gravel square offers a view of the noble columns of the main entrance, the playful figures and railings on the roof of the sand-colored palace. Even though it was the first visit, the front looked unusually familiar.

71 appearances in film and television

Because this scene has flashed countless times on television and cinema screens in recent years. Blenheim Palace, half an hour’s drive from Oxford and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, has hosted an exceptionally high number of film and television shows over the years. Furniture store House of Oak crunched the numbers for 2021 and found Blenheim topping the national rankings with 71 appearances.

Where Emily Blunt drove as “Victoria, The Young Queen” in a carriage drawn by white horses or where Tom Cruise played Ethan Hunt for “Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation” is where you stand right now.

A large-scale Jack Black was brought in for Rob Letterman’s version of “Gulliver’s Travels” as Lemuel Gulliver, along with the King of Lilliput (played by Billy Connolly) – using special effects. The shooting of this film took place in the palace for one day. To ensure the bride had the most perfect experience, Billy Connolly carried her around the set.

In the film, Gulliver later saves himself from the palace flames. Mango juice was used during the filming, which you can find in the movie guide of the castle. This gave the liquid the perfect color without discolouring the 300-year-old walls.

Five years later, the chase between 007 and Mr. Hind begins here; Daniel Craig as James Bond in the obligatory Aston Martin DB10 and David Bautista as Hinx in the Jaguar C-X75. Blenheim stood in for the fictional Palazzo Gardenza in the Bond film “Spectre”. As the scenes were shot at night, large spotlight structures had to be set up and positioned to provide proper lighting.

The first room in the house is the great hall which you enter from the front, welcoming you with high walls, a beautifully painted ceiling and the coronation chair of Queen Anne, who after her husband gave the house to her favorite Sarah Churchill. Duke of Marlborough wins the Battle of Blenheim. For “The Gardener of Versailles” (originally “A Little Chaos”) with Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman, the hall was given elegant wood paneling to pass off as Louis XIV’s French palace of Versailles.

The tour continues: to Winston Churchill’s birthbed, surrounded by some of his paintings. Because Rishi Sunak was not the first prime minister with great wealth: Winston Churchill’s father was British Lord Randolph Churchill, the youngest son of John, 7th Duke of Marlborough. “At Blenheim,” Churchill was quoted as saying in his foundation exhibition, “I made two very important decisions: to be born and to marry. In both cases I am happy with the decision I made.

In the opulent salon, which you will reach a little later, not only Kate Winslet Sabine de Barra dined, but also Johnny Depp, who succumbed to all temptations as the second Earl of Rochester in “The Libertine”. But the scenes had to be reshot until huge Johnny Depp fans forced them to pause their enthusiastic screams for the duration of the shoot.

Each bell sounds different

Meanwhile, the audio guide reveals that in the Victorian era women reinforced their hairstyles with chicken wire, and each bell in the house rang differently so that the staff could immediately hear in which room they were needed. You are viewing family photos of the current Duke. Lovingly arranged in colorful picture frames, the owner family makes you look like a married couple, on horseback, in nature; Pictures you might find on a friend’s fireplace and look private in the grandeur of the property.

Finally you come to a large family portrait. Consuela Vanderbilt, the posh and sophisticated Duchess of Marlborough and American heiress, flanked by her two sons, a cocker spaniel and the ninth Duke of Marlborough. On the way, he insisted on being placed on the stairs because he was smaller than his wife.

A world full of mystery and intrigue – what series fits this better than “Bridgerton”; Blenheim has always been a filming location. Many of the series’ scenes at Buckingham House (now known as Buckingham Palace) were filmed at the palace – including a key dinner between the young Queen Charlotte and King George on the famous water terraces, which were magically switched outdoors. , the venue of the dance. The room was filled with countless dancers and courtiers for this scene from episode 6.

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This is where fiction meets reality. Blenheim Palace is a more appropriate choice than Buckingham Palace for another reason, as it was actually the home of Queen Charlotte and King George III. linked together. The two formed a close friendship with the fourth Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, and after their visit to Blenheim Palace, the royal couple were said to be so impressed that they began renovating their royal palace. Although Blenheim Palace is not a royal palace; There are enough government connections.