From Game of Thrones to Pride and Prejudice – the best TV gardens you can visit
How to follow in the footsteps of James Bond, Mr Darcy and Henry VIII in Britain’s most glorious green spots
British landscape gardens feature regularly in the top dramas on TV. All you have to do is think of the BBC’s Wolf Hall, where Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis wander through the splendid gardens next to the Tudor properties, or Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, shot in the wonderful Groombridge Place Gardens.
To celebrate the release of its annual two for one entry Gardens to Visit guide and card, Gardeners’ World Magazine has complied a list of their favourite gardens to visit from the screen...
Groombridge Place Gardens & Enchanted Forest in Kent was featured in 2005’s multi-Oscar nominated film adaptation of Jane Austin’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy.
The gardens at National Trust Stowe in Buckinghamshire have provided a setting for numerous TV and film productions, including the forthcoming Hollywood prequel to Peter Pan, Pan with Hugh Jackman and Cara Delevingne. The gardens, designed by Capability Brown have also featured in James Bond’s The World is Not Enough, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as well as TV’s Antiques Roadshow and Alan’s Secret Gardens.
Dating back to 1306 the moated and fortified manor Broughton Castle, near Banbury in North Oxfordshire, has provided a perfect backdrop for a multitude of period dramas and films – most recently in the highly acclaimed Wolf Hall and in 2011’s Jane Erye which starred Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender and Judi Dench.
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Continuing the Tudor theme, Penhurst Place, near Tonbridge in Kent, fittingly as it was once owned by Henry VIII, also featured in Wolf Hall, as well as BBC One’s Merlin and The Other Boleyn Girl.
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Cornwall’s iconic Eden Project has played host to a score of TV and film productions, with its Rainforest Dome providing the perfect setting for the BBC’s 2009 The Day of the Triffids featuring man-eating plants alongside Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and Eddie Izzard.
Queen Victoria’s Isle of Wight retreat Osborne House was appropriately used for the location of Mrs Brown which starred Billy Connelly as Mr Brown and Dame Judi Dench, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Queen Victoria.
Castle Ward’s exotic Victorian Sunken Garden in Strangford, Northern Ireland, provided the location for Game of Thrones’ Winterfell, home of the Stark family in the first series of the epic drama series.
With the highest concentration of stately homes, castles and gardens in the UK, it is not surprising that Yorkshire is an often used location for TV and film productions. Newby Hall in Ripon, North Yorkshire, has most recently featured in BBC Two’s historical crime drama Peaky Blinders, as well ITV’s 2007 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, which starred Billie Piper, Michelle Ryan and James D'Arcy. The 18th-century Harewood House in West Yorkshire, has played host to a number of well-known television programmes, including Death Comes to Pemberley, Emmerdale, At Home with the Braithwaite’s and Lost in Austen. Created in the 1730s the Castle Kennedy Gardens in Stranraer played host to the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man, featuring in the memorable May Day scenes.
