MURDER ON THE MARSHES: A BIRD IN THE HAND, ANN CLEEVES/NORTH NORFOLK COAST

 Ann Cleeves has previously been known for her novels set in Shetland and in north east England (dramatised for TV in the Shetland and Vera series respectively).  For A Bird In The Hand we are transported to the county of Norfolk and the obsessive world of birdwatching.  The main action takes place in the fictional village of Rushy where a body is found in the marshes, although some of the characters venture further afield to the Scilly Isles and other birdwatching hotspots.  

I have tried in vain to find out whether there is a real-life place which forms the inspiration for Rushy, but having visited the Norfolk coast a few years ago I am convinced the most likely contender is Cley next the Sea where, like Rushy, there are extensive marshes and also a Visitor Centre focussing on the birdlife of the area.  Another giveaway is that there is a windmill in Cley used for accommodation; Rushy also has a windmill which is used as a cafe.

The Skirts, Cley Marshes Nature Reserve - geograph.org.uk - 3010226. Photo by Oliver Dixon, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cley next the Sea has swapped its role as a medieval trading port for that of a mecca for nature lovers, particularly birdwatchers.  Cley Marshes, run by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, is a nature reserve with six hides for birdwatchers to lurk in as they watch out for their feathered friends, which include wintering and migrating wildfowl and waders.  There is a Visitor Centre owned by the Trust on the way into the village from the east with marsh views and a cafe.  The 18^th century windmill now serves as a bed and breakfast and wedding venue, offering stunning views of the marshes and surrounding countryside.

Cley Windmill 1. Photo by Martin Pettitt, via Wikimedia Commons.

Map of the area.

CRACKING THE CODES: THE IMITATION GAME/BUCKINGHAMSHIRE/SHERBORNE/LONDON

 

Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire started out as a mansion in 1711, later to be pulled down.  The house which was subsequently built on the site was bought by MI6 in 1938 for use by intelligence personnel in the event of war, which turned out to be a wise investment as the centre proved to be a key factor in the country’s victory over Germany in World War Two.  During the War a young Cambridge graduate, Alan Turing, arrived at Bletchley Park and was put in charge of Hut 8, which dealt with German naval cryptanalysis.  While there, he became engaged to Joan Clarke, a fellow cryptanalyst, but they never married as Turing later came out as a homosexual. 

Bletchley Park Mansion. Photo by DeFacto, via Wikimedia Commons.

This story is played out in the film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing and Keira Knightley as Joan, and Bletchley Park appears as itself in the interior shots.  For the exteriors Joyce Grove in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, was used in the filming.   For the town of Bletchley itself, scenes were shot in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, where one of the buildings stood in as Joan’s lodgings.  The town was also used as the scene of a meeting with a possible Soviet spy, and a pillar box was erected opposite 68 Church Street for the scene. 

Church Street, Chesham - geograph.org.uk - 111011. Photo by Cathy Cox, via Wikimedia Commons.

During the film there are flashbacks to Turing’s schooldays, much of which were spent at Sherborne School.  The real-life school in this attractive small Dorset town was used for the school scenes in the film, with its lovely honey-hued stone buildings and arched cloisters much in evidence.

Naturally, any film about the intelligence services will have scenes shot in London.  The evacuation scenes were filmed at King’s Cross Station, while the interior of the MI6 Headquarters was filmed in the Lethaby Building on Southampton Row, seen in the scene where Joan turns up as the only female answering an advertisement for crossword solvers.  In one scene, Turing is seen cycling through a bombed out part of the city; heaps of rubble were dumped in Carey Street, Chancery Lane, for the filming of the scene.  In another throwback to the Blitz, the disused Aldwych Tube Station serves as an underground refuge for the populace. 

Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes, has been turned into a museum commemorating its time as a code-breaking centre.  Guided tours are available, and the museum is open 6 days a week.  Joyce Grove, a country house built in the Jacobean style, is owned by the Sue Ryder charity.  Sherborne is a pleasant small town in north west Dorset, with its Abbey, founded in 705, as the focal point of the town.  Chesham is a market town 11 miles south east from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.

Sherborn Abbey.

Map of Bletchley Park and surrounding area.

Map of Sherborne. 

REGENCY WRONGDOINGS: MCDONALD AND DODDS/BATH

Some of the best crime series on TV are those filmed in scenic parts of the country: Vera (ITV) showcases the windswept landscapes of Northumberland and the gritty streets of Newcastle; Inspector Morse and its spinoffs Endeavour and Lewis (ITV) take us on a tour of the venerable streets and colleges of Oxford; and Shetland (BBC) speaks for itself. These are just three examples among many.  In McDonald and Dodds, screened on ITV over three seasons, we are transported to the regency elegance of Bath and surrounding areas, as we follow the intricate caseloads of  “down from London” DCI Lauren McDonald (Tala Gouveia) and her new sidekick the drearily old-fashioned (but brilliant) DS Dodds (Jason Watkins).

 

We are shown some lovely aerial shots of the city, with two of the most famous landmarks standing out: the Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge.  Parade Gardens, near the weir below Pulteney Bridge, is where Dodds has a chat with Max Crockett (Robert Lindsay) in The Fall of the House of Crockett (season 1, episode 1), and also features in The War of Rose (season 2, episode 3), in which McDonald and Dodds are seen discussing the case of a murdered vlogger in the gardens, with Bath Abbey looming majestically in the background.   In A Wilderness of Mirrors (season 1, episode 2),  featuring an addiction treatment retreat, we are given a brief glimpse of the interior of a Bath institution, The Bell Inn on Walcote Street, a watering hole famous for its live music.  Queen Square makes several appearances in the series showing people playing boules. 

Pulteney Bridge

 

The countryside around Bath is studded with stunning properties, and some of these were used as locations in the series.  The Crockett household in The Fall of the House of Crockett is Crowe Hall in real life, a grade II listed Georgian mansion in Widcombe, to the east of the city centre heading out towards the University.  Eastwood Park  near Wotton-under-Edge in nearby Gloucestershire was used as the Mara Retreat in The Wilderness of Mirrors.  Other landmarks near the city used in the series include the Box Tunnel, where a murder takes place in We Need To Talk About Doreen (season 2, episode 2), and Dundas Aqueduct where the dramatic final scene of Clouds Across the Moon (last episode of series 3) was filmed.  In some scenes from Clouds Across the Moon we are taken further afield to the mystical town of Glastonbury and its famous Tor. 

Eastwood Park, Falfield - geograph.org.uk - 379225. Photo by Peter Wasp, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

The Royal Crescent in Bath was started in 1767 and consists of 30 Grade I listed terrace  houses, including the city’s most luxurious hotel.  The construction of Pulteney Bridge, designed by Robert Adam in the Palladian style, began in 1769, intended as a link between the city and land owned by the Pulteney family.  There is a small charge to enter Parade Gardens, which provide a pleasant riverside oasis within the city.  There is no charge to enter Bath Abbey, but donations are encouraged.  Queen Square, surrounded by elegant Georgian houses, was opened in 1728.  As in the series, in real life the square is used for playing boules, and is the venue for the annual Bath Boules tournament held in July. 

 

The gardens of Crowe Hall are open to the public several times a year for a small entrance charge.  Eastwood Park, near the M5 to the north of Bristol, is a conference and wedding venue.  The Park consists of a large Victorian house surrounded by 200 acres of countryside.  The Box Tunnel, opened in 1841, cuts through Box Hill on the railway line between Bath and Chippenham.  At the time of building the tunnel was claimed to be the longest railway tunnel ever built.  The Dundas Aqueduct, which opened in 1805, carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon and the railway line between Bath and Westbury.  The town of Glastonbury has a unique atmosphere due to the many “new age” style shops and attendant eccentrics such as self-styled wizards and other spiritual types.  It is reputed to be the burial place of King Arthur, and to have been a site of Pre-Christian worship.  The tor, topped by St Michaels Tower, commands splendid views over the surrounding Somerset Levels.  The tor can often be glimpsed in shots of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place near the village of Pilton, some distance away.

Glastonbury Tor from north east showing terraces 2. Photo by Rodw, via Wikimedia Commons.

Map of Bath.

THE GREAT DIVIDE: ESPRESSO TALES/EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW

 In his 44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith introduces us to some of the more elegant parts of Edinburgh along with its residents with their varying degrees of eccentricity.  In one of the books, Espresso Tales, we are briefly transported to Glasgow, where the youngest and most engaging character in the series, the mother-smothered Bertie, travels by train with his father in search of a mislaid car. 

There is often a bitter rivalry displayed between the first and second cities of any given country: Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, Madrid and Barcelona in Spain are two that spring to mind.  In Espresso Tales we are left in no doubt as to which of Scotland’s two largest cities looks down its nose at the other, not least courtesy of Bertie’s insufferable mother, Irene, whose withering remarks about Glasgow lead Bertie to believe that he is heading into the Wild West.  She mutters darkly about deep fried Mars Bars, and tells Bertie to wash his hands while there because “Glasgow is not a very salubrious place”.  She also cites the city’s mortality rates, from drinking, smoking and heart disease.  These foreboding comments are not helped by the fact that, on the approach to Glasgow, “the clear skies of the east of Scotland yielded place to a lowered ceiling of grey and purple rain clouds”.

In the event, Bertie has a splendid time in Glasgow, where on arrival he finds that the railway station is not that different from the one in Edinburgh, and neither are the people waiting at the barrier.  However, he finds the language spoken by the locals baffling, “quite like Italian in some respects”.  Bertie is introduced to this strange dialect in all its glory on meeting the local hard man Lard O’Connor, who lives in the street where the mislaid car is supposed to be, and who introduces Bertie to the Burrell Collection, a famous Glasgow art gallery. 

Main Concourse at Glasgow Central Station. Photo by DrHermannWaltz, via Wikimedia Commons.

Glasgow Central Station is a fittingly grand venue for arrivals at Scotland’s second city.  Originally opened in 1879, with the expansion of rail travel meaning the station was becoming too small, a rebuild took place from 1901 to 1905, with subsequent refurbishments leading to the light, airy concourse encountered today. 

The Burrell Collection, named after the late Sir William Burrell, is the result of Sir William’s love of collecting art and antiques, enabled by the fortune he made as a shipping merchant.  He gave his collection to the city in 1944, and the museum opened in 1983, greatly enhancing Glasgow’s image as a cultural city.  The collection contains around 9,000 items, including Chinese art, medieval treasures and works by famous French artists.  The museum resides in Pollok Country Park to the south of the city, accessible by bus or train.  Once at the park, there is a shuttle bus available for visitors to get around the park’s extensive grounds.

Burrell collection Glasgow. Photo by Helen Simonsson, via Wikimedia Commons.

Map of Glasgow. 

ON THE TILES IN THE ISLES: WHISKY GALORE/BARRA AND PORTSOY

 On 5 February 1941 the cargo ship SS Politician left Liverpool bound for the New World with a precious cargo on board: over a quarter of a million bottles of Scotch whisky.  However, the good folk of Kingston Jamaica and New Orleans, the ship’s final destinations, never got to sample the delights of Scotland’s most celebrated export due to a storm which started brewing early on in the SS Politician’s journey, causing the ship to founder off Rosinish Point on the isle of Eriskay.  Word quickly got round that there was an alcoholic bounty for the taking, and the islanders flocked to the scene to ‘salvage’ the whisky, with some coming from as far away as Lewis.  There ensued a cat and mouse game between the ‘salvagers’ and the authorities, who were aggrieved at the loss of duty payable on the goods. The story was the inspiration for a novel by Compton Mackenzie.

There have been two films made which were based on the story of the Eriskay bounty.  The first, In 1949, was made entirely on the tiny island of Barra.  Barra is a fitting location, given it was the birthplace of Compton Mackenzie.  Apart from its undeniable beauty, Barra’s main claim to fame is the eccentric landing experience for those arriving by plane: the plane lands on the beach.  For those wishing to visit the real location of the Whisky Galore story, the ferry crossing from Barra to Eriskay takes 40 minutes.

BARRA AIRPORT ISLE OF BARRA WESTERN ISLES SCOTLAND (5040163112). Photo by calflier001, via Wikimedia Commons.

The producers of the more recent film from 2016 went much further afield for the harbour shots and the filming of the building exteriors.  These were filmed at Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, on the east coast of Scotland, which became the island of Todday for the purposes of the film.  This fishing village, which has the oldest harbour on the Moray Firth, is known for its Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, which takes place each year in late june.  Portsoy Ice Cream proudly proclaims on its website that the stars of the film, which included Gregor Fisher and Eddie Izzard, were regular visitors to its establishment, and that it created special Whisky Galore themed ice creams for the Visit Scotland screening of the film.

Portsoy Harbours - geograph.org.uk - 3534612. Photo by Leslie Barrie, via  Wikimedia Commons.

Map of Barra.

Map of Portsoy.

 

PLAYING THE FOOL IN HARTLEPOOL: THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND THE CANOE

 The story behind the ITV drama The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe is so fantastical that one would think it is entirely fictional.  But in fact the drama is based on a true story, that of prison officer John Darwin, who had racked up debts totalling more than £700,000 arising from properties purchased for renting out.  In order to avoid having to face the music, Darwin set out in his canoe one day in 2002 and ‘disappeared’, presumed drowned, allowing his wife to claim on his life insurance.  In fact, Darwin secretly moved into a bedsit right next door to the family home, before sneaking back into his own home the following year.

 

The real-life location of the Darwins’ home was Seaton Carew on the outskirts of Hartlepool, and this area is where much of the filming for the series took place.  The Darwins owned two adjacent properties on The Cliff, living in one of them and renting out the other.  For the filming, while Elstree Studios was used for the interiors, the exterior shots were filmed at The Headland, an area near the harbour at Hartlepool which is a 10-minute drive north from Seaton Carew.  This was also where the beach scenes for John’s departure by canoe were filmed.  The town scenes, including the bus station with its clock tower, were filmed in Seaton Carew itself.  As for the beach where John emerged, this was filmed at Steetley Pier, about 3 miles north of Seaton Carew, while the real-life location was North Gare, three miles south of the town.

Seaton Carew (32694294543). Photo by Alex Liivet, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Seaton Carew lies near the mouth of the River Tees, and borders on a National Nature Reserve extending from the river mouth to the town’s southern edge.  The much bigger Hartlepool grew up around a thriving shipbuilding industry, and the maritime tradition lives on in the form of the Historic Quay, featuring among its attractions the HMS Trincomalee, Britain’s oldest floating warship.  The town suffered badly during the First World War, particularly on 16 December 2014, when a raid on the town left 117 dead.

Hartlepool Headland- geograph.org.uk - 136636. Photo by Martin Routledge, via  Wikimedia Commons.

Map of the area.

A FICTIONAL TOUR OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND: JUDE THE OBSCURE, THOMAS HARDY

 One notable feature of the novels of Thomas Hardy is his use of real locations masked by fictional names.  Probably the most famous of these is Casterbridge, aka Dorchester in real life.  In Jude The Obscure, the action takes place in a number of different locations, each with its real-life equivalent.

 

The story kicks off in the village of Marygreen, where Jude Fawley, who has been sent to live with his great-aunt Drusilla following the death of his father, is upset that the local schoolmaster, Phillotson, is taking off for pastures new, namely the university city of Christminster (see below).  As it happens, the real-life version of Marygreen is also called Fawley, a village in Berkshire.  The church of St Mary the Virgin, completed in 1866, is the real-life version of Marygreen Church in the novel.

 

Jude Fawley’s dearest wish is to go and study at Christminster, which becomes something of an obsession to the point where he considers it the “New Jerusalem”.  However, it is not to be, and he ends up as a stonemason instead.  It is not at all hard to guess which is the real-life equivalent of Christminster, especially when we discover that it is to the north-east of Marygreen.  A glance at the map reveals that this venerable seat of learning has to be Oxford, one of the most famous university cities in the world along with its cousin to the east, Cambridge.

 

Oxford from Westgate Mall. Photo by Dicklyon, via Wikimedia Commons.

In another chapter of Jude’s life he finds himself in Melchester, where his on-off love affair with his cousin Sue develops.  He goes there to study for the clergy, having been lured by Sue, who is at a Training College in the city.  Jude finds work in the cathedral there while reading theological works in preparation for his career.  The real-life cathedral city of Salisbury in Wiltshire was the inspiration for Hardy’s Melchester.  Salisbury lies to the north of the New Forest and south of Salisbury Plain, with its elegant cathedral spire visible from miles around.  The city made the news in 2018 for the worst of reasons, being the location where the poison novichok was used to target former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, with an unfortunate local woman ending up dead as a result.

 

Salisbury, Salisbury Cathedral ^ Scenery - geograph.org.uk - 3106160. Photo by Lewis Clarke, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

By the time the action has moved to Shaston, Sue is married to Phillotson, who has moved there to run a school.  Jude catches up with Sue there and they flee together.  In real life, Shaston is the town of Shaftesbury, Dorset, famous for its picturesque cobbled street, Gold Hill, which featured in a 1970s TV advert for Hovis bread. 

 

Gold Hill Shaftesbury - geograph.org.uk - 2206454. Photo by peter robinson, via Wikimedia Commons.

Jude and Sue go to live together at Aldbrickham, which is where Jude’s flighty ex-wife Arabella used to work as a barmaid before she met him.  Arabella makes a reappearance in Jude’s life during this time at Aldbrickham, resulting in an unexpected addition to Jude’s family.  Aldbrickham’s real-life equivalent is the large Berkshire market town of Reading on the River Thames.  The town has long been an important commercial centre, above all most recently for the IT industry.

FROM UNI TO KGB: RED JOAN/CAMBRIDGE

 

Cambridge University has a long and unfortunate association with the dark art of spying, most notably the group known as the Cambridge Five, including Guy Burgess and Kim Philby among its members, all of them male.  The film Red Joan tells the story of a female undergraduate who was lured into spying.  Melita Norwood, born in 1912, was the longest serving of all Soviet spies in Britain, handing over secrets during a 40-year period which included details of the atomic bomb, an “achievement” which made her more highly valued to the KGB than the infamous Cambridge Five, comprising five male Cambridge undergraduates. Norwood’s story was the inspiration for the novel Red Joan by Jennie Rooney, which became the basis for the 2019 film of the same name, starring Judi Dench.

Although Norwood never attended Cambridge University, this seat of learning was the setting of the novel, and much of the filming for the film took place there.  This was in part because the director Trevor Nunn came to know the city while studying there.

 

Three of the University colleges featured in the film: St John’s College,  Newnham College and Downing College.  Jennie Rooney attended St John’s College while studying at Cambridge, and the scenes shot there included the one featuring a visit to the top of the chapel tower to admire the view and the one involving a picnic on the River Cam.  The crew had to be reduced to a maximum of 15 people for the filming at St John’s. 

Located on St John’s Street off Bridge Street, St John’s lies on a site originally occupied by the Hospital of St John the Evangelist.  The varied architecture includes the crenelated Great Gate and the famous Bridge of Sighs, one of the most photographed buildings in Cambridge.  The college received its charter in April 1511, and its notable alumni include William Wilberforce, who was responsible for the abolition of the slave trade,  and the actor Derek Jacobi. The college is currently closed to visitors.

St John's College, Cambridge 10052014-002. Photo by Yamen, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Newnham College, the University’s first all-female college, was the one attended by Red Joan in the film, and was used for scenes shot inside the accommodation block and a night-time scene.  Founded in 1871, the college is housed in a handsome red brick building on Sidgwick Avenue to the south-west of the city centre.  Previous alumnae include the actress Dame Emma Thompson, the writer Sylvia Plath and the Labour MP Diane Abbott.  The college gardens are currently open to visitors, subject to restrictions.

 

Filming at Downing College featured the outside, which is on a busy road, so that the production team had to stop the traffic and remove any modern bikes which were parked outside.  Downing College was founded in 1800 and its buildings of pale honey-coloured stone were built in the neo-classical style.  Notable alumni include the actor John Cleese, the late film director Michael Winner and this film’s director Trevor Nunn.  Downing College is currently closed to visitors.

Downing College Chapel. Photo by Herbert Baker, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Among the other establishments used for the filming is the All Saints Garden, which was used for the scene in which a group of students hold a rally against the Spanish Civil War.  The garden forms part of All Saints Church on Jesus Lane, opposite Trinity and St John’s colleges. There is a weekly art and craft market held on the site.

Map of the city.

INFAMY AT INVERARAY: A VERY BRITISH SCANDAL

 During the 1960s, the world of the British aristocracy was rocked by the very public breakdown of the marriage between the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.  The newspapers of the time were full of stories of drunkenness, drug-taking, violence, in fact the full range of horrors of a highly dysfunctional marriage.  The Duchess, Margaret Campbell, was dragged through the mud by the press, who labelled her the “Dirty Duchess”.  This was the subject of one of the most heralded series from this last Christmas, A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy as Margaret and Paul Bettany as the Duke, Ian Campbell.  The other star of the series was InverarayCastle, the real-life seat of the Dukes of Argyll since the 18^th century.  By all accounts, the current occupants of the castle were extremely welcoming to the production team and stars.

 

Inverary Castle, Argyll and Bute, Scotland-31May2010. Photo by Son of Groucho, via Wikimedia Commons.

Inveraray Castle started out as the stronghold of the Campbell chiefs, who later became the Dukes of Argyll.  The original settlement of Inveraray consisted of a small group of cottages watched over by the original castle, but in the mid-18^th century the third Duke had a new castle built, and also a new town further away from the castle than the original settlement, with the castle and town lying on the shore of Loch Fyne.  The new version of the castle is a Gothic-style turreted wonder with interiors including the Armoury Hall and the Tapestry Drawing Room.  Both the castle and the surrounding parkland and woodland are open to visitors.  In 1975 there was a bad fire at the castle, and there were reports of local people forming a human chain in order to save some of its treasures. 

 

Inveraray from Dun na Cuaiche - geograph.org.uk - 1883808. Photo by David Hawgood, via Wikimedia Commons.

Think you’ve seen Inveraray Castle before on the small screen?  If you’re a Downton Abbey fan that will be because the castle featured in the 2012 Christmas special in which the Grantham family head north to the home of their cousins, ‘Duneagle Castle’, with the latter filmed at Inveraray.

Map of the area.