Sanditon is based on a novel by Jane Austen about a seaside town which is being developed into a resort by entrepreneur Tom Parker. Unlike other dramatisations of Jane Austen novels, this one was never finished by Austen, giving the screenwriters free rein to develop the characters and storyline in the latter stages.
Episode four of the series had some of the characters going for a walk in the dunes of an extensive sandy beach, with one character collapsing from heatstroke in the dunes. We also see Sidney Parker surveying the beach from above in search of the errant Georgiana. These scenes were filmed at Brean, one of the lesser known of the sweeping sandy beaches to grace the coast along the Bristol Channel, adjacent to the west Somerset resort of Burnham-On-Sea. The better-known resort of Weston-Super-Mare was used for the bathing scenes, which were filmed in the Marine Lake.
Aside from Brean, other seafront scenes in the series were filmed at the small Somerset town of Clevedon. Clevedon also has a marine lake but is best known for its graceful pier, which opened in 1869. The pier can be glimpsed in Sanditon, which is a bit unfortunate because no such pier existed in Jane Austen’s day.
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| The seafront at Clevedon, Somerset - geograph.org.uk - 1867050. Photo by Anthony O'Neil, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Moving away from the coast, another notable location seen in Sanditon is Dyrham Park, which we last encountered in this blog as Darlington Hall in The Remains of the Day. In Sanditon the estate plays the role of Lady Denham’s home Sanditon House. Managed by the National Trust, Dyrham Park is in South Gloucestershire, a few miles to the north of Bath. We owe its existence to William Blathwayt and the fruits of the Empire, specifically the Colonies in North America, providing for its creation in the 17th century. As well as the house there are extensive grounds, including a deer park.
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| Dyrham Park lower park. Photo by Rwendland, via Wikimedia Commons. |
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