Our 15 minutes of fame, minus about 14 minutes

 How fabulous to receive an email yesterday with the video clip of myself and Gorgeous Husband when we visited Highclere Castle, the location for the filming of the fabulous Downton Abbey.  We knew that we were being filmed as part of a documentary that was going to be aired on Australian TV, but the filming was in November, so one tends to forget that eventually these things come out!

 

Other photos of Downton appear on this blog appear in November, 2011.

 

Many thanks to Helen, of P and P Tours, who organised the trip and forwarded the video clip.

 

 Myself and one of the other members of the trip.  I'm in the black hat.

 

The following documentary is a good overview of the Downton Abbey  programme and gives a balanced view (both pro and con) for what it was like to be a servant in a large country estate at the turn of the century.

 

In this clip,  Gorgeous Husband and I appear at about the 8 minute mark.  There is a scene of us coming down the lovely carved wooden stairs.  We must have gone up and down those stairs 10 times while they tried to get it just right!  It was such a treat to get to see the castle again.

 

http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/video/watch/28200585

Second location for filming of Downton Abbey

Couldn't resist a photo in front of this house with my name in the village of Bampton.  This village is where some of the filming for Downton Abbey took place.  We visited the church, walked along the lovely lanes, and saw the sign of the "pretend" Grantham Arms, which is permanently left up. 

I'm not sure the hat and outfit is strictly speaking truly Edwardian, but it certainly was adequate for the day, and helped to "get into character."  It certainly raised eyebrows at the motorway service stops enroute to the locations.

Day out at Downton Abbey

Here I am, along with Gorgeous Husband, outside Highclere Castle, the filming site for the Downton Abbey series.  Sorry about the people in the background: they are part of the Australian film crew who were filming us for an Australian TV series.  Apparently it is a serious hit "down under"!

Highclere was actually closed for the season, and was open only by special appointment made on behalf of the Australian film crew.  That is why myself and the rest of the folks on the coach tour, organised by Helen Porter of P and P Tours were dressed in Edwardian costumes.  We got to "play" Lord and Lady for the day!  It really was my "cup of tea": a big house with servants.  Maybe it was me in a past life?!

We watched the final episode of Downton not only following the plot and watching the sumptuous costumes, but also nudging each other, and saying, "that is the staircase where we were filmed.  I remember that fireplace!  There's the hallway that Bates and Anna met up.  And the scene in the entrance where Matthew and Mary had their romantic dance!  Wow!  We had tea there, whilst being interviewed by the host of the Australian TV programme.

Also loved seeing the Egyptian exhibition in the basement of Highclere, as it was Lord Carnarvon who financed the expedition that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen.  Fantastic artefacts, some of them real, and some replicas from King Tut's tomb.  And we were the only ones there, so could easily pore over the cases and be entralled.  We were only restricted by time, not by hoards of other Egyptian fanciers!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs inside the house, which I thought was a real shame, as it was a 10 out of 10 in the gorgeousness scale.