You may, or may not, have watched the recent Channel 5 drama about Anne Boleyn. Whatever your opinion on the casting – and trust me when I say we have heard it all, and indeed removed a small number of people from the Hall’s social media pages – you cannot deny that, for a production made at the height of the Pandemic, it was excellently acted and produced.
Our own small role (rendered somewhat smaller than expected, thanks to some surprising editing decisions… and indeed some re-writing of history) came on the Wednesday before Christmas. The day before a number of lorries arrived at the Hall and wonder and wonder was unloaded. By the end of the day, Markenfield’s small car park had been turned into a Tudor street market.
The day of filming dawned bright – and early. It was a 6:00am start for us, but the 50 cast and numerous crew members had an even earlier start when they were COVID tested at Ripon Race Course prior to filming. Their telephones were already pinging with the negative results as they arrived.
The organisation that they demonstrated was superb! They successfully parked 50 cars, numerous trucks and a Winnebago with minimal fuss. The cast and crew were fed and watered. The stars of the show huddled around the Undercroft fire all masked-up. It was simply the best day in… oh, maybe 700 years!
Here are a handful of our favourite photos…
The scene at the beginning of episode two, where Anne Boleyn is washing peasants’ feet in a Chapel was shot inside one of the farm buildings; as was the scene where someone was forcibly removed after spitting at her. This scene was shot a dozen times, and always resulted in profuse apologies and “are you alright? are you sure?” after each take.
It was incredible to see the cast dressed in authentic Tudor clothing (okay – ignore the glasses!) as would have been seen at the Hall all those years ago. If there are any Markenfields still roaming the place they must have been rather surprised to see flesh and blood contemporaries.
So, what of the controversy? Well… at the end of the day, whose stories do the history books tell? Those of the victors. And let’s face it, they could write precisely what they wanted. And Channel 5 subverted that – they looked at Anne Boleyn’s story from her point of view – not with Henry VIII’s slant on it, not with his Spin Doctor’s slant on it. They cast a strong actress as a strong female historical figure… and they gave Markenfield its 15 seconds of fame. and for that we thank them.
And the bit that was edited out?
That was towards the end of episode three. Anne Boleyn was supposed to be waiting in The Tower for the verdict. A small boy was supposed to run along the side of the moat, under the Gatehouse archway, across the Courtyard and up to the front door to deliver the message. Imagine our surprise (and distraught sadness) when we watched the final episode and saw the guilty verdict delivered in the court room. Ahem – really?
We have a moat 