November 27, 2024
Our Churches on Screen: Filming with the Churches Conservation Trust
Filming in England Partnership members, Churches Conservation Trust (CCT), are the national charity protecting England’s at-risk historic churches. They look after three hundred and fifty-seven churches (and counting!), which makes them stewards of the country’s third largest historic estate. Their buildings range from gloomy medieval to light-filled Georgian, from carefully-conserved ruins to vaulted ceilings, embattled towers and needle-sharp spires. The CCT are tasked with looking after these amazing buildings for future generations, and creative productions are a great way to help do this, so we’re delighted to have them as a as a locations partner, and to represent them on our National Locations Directory.
CCT welcome location filming for all sorts of productions, from large commercial endeavours to television, documentaries, and independent films. They have decades of experience working with a wide range of production partners, and have seen their churches featured in everything from historical dramas to romantic comedies, thrillers, wartime epics, and hit TV shows: a hugely varied list. Whether or not your production requires you to represent their churches as churches, or use them as doubles for other historic interiors, these spaces bring a depth and richness to the productions in which they feature. Rosa McCann from the trust provides us with an overview of just a few of the productions in which CCT churches have taken starring roles.
Gentleman Jack (2019-2022)
Starring Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundell
In 2019, Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, in York, welcomed BBC film crews to shoot an intimate wedding scene for the historical drama Gentleman Jack. At this site, just under 100 years earlier, Anne Lister and Ann Walker sealed their lifelong bond. Holy Trinity’s rare surviving box pews lend a sense of seclusion to the wedding scene, just as they would have shielded the real Anne and Ann from the eyes of the rest of the congregation. The church’s interior, lit only by candles, brings this historic event out of the pages of Anne Lister’s diary and into vibrant life.
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
Starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie
St Peter & St Paul’s Church, in Albury, Surrey, set the scene for a fiery Protestant sermon by John Knox (David Tennant) in the BBC’s 2017 dramatization of the life of Mary Queen of Scots. The church’s light, uncluttered interior, with its lime washed walls and flagstone floor, seem to embody the austerity central to the Scottish Reformation.
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell
In contrast to this formal staging, St Peter & St Paul’s Church also served as the setting for Carrie’s wedding to Hamish in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral. Even the most devoted student of church architecture would have a difficult time identifying Carrie’s wedding venue – candlelit and decked out in flowers – with the setting for John Knox’s sermon. These two scenes, with their contrasting moods, provide a glimpse of the enormous versatility of our churches, as well as their potential for transformation.
The Reckoning (2004)
Starring Paul Bettany, Willem Dafoe, Tom Hardy, Gina McKee, Brian Cox and Vincent Casse
The church of St Mary the Virgin, Edlesborough, provides yet another example of the flexibility of our churches. Dark and glowering, it served as a setting for the 2004 murder mystery The Reckoning, but appeared again, four years later, as a fairy-tale wedding venue in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor.
Midsommer Murders (1997 – present)
In July of 2011, the CCT had the honor of hosting ITV crews filming season fourteen of the beloved crime series Midsomer Murders. This time, Barnaby and Jones investigate the death of a nun at Midsomer Priory, and the investigation quickly becomes tangled up with teenage trysts, stolen silver, and a long-buried secret. Idyllic, medieval All Saints’ Church, Shirburn, in Oxfordshire is perfectly in keeping with the tone of this landmark show, which, we are happy to see, has already been confirmed for its 25th season.
Whether you need a glowering 16th-century masterpiece bristling with gargoyles or an intimate chapel interior bathed in rainbow light, we have a church for you.
You can find more unique locations from CCT on the Filming in England National Locations Directory here. If you’ve got a specific production in mind, want to see a location catalogue, or are looking for more information, email us at filming@thecct.org.uk. We’re always happy to chat.
