Sydney Gardens used for BBC TV wartime drama
Bath’s normally peaceful Sydney Gardens was a hive of activity today as it was transported back six decades for a BBC TV production.
The park is being used for filming of The Night Watch, based on a Sarah Waters novel about love and relationships in the Second World War.
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Passers-by watched actors filming in 1940s dress on one of the park’s bridges, while some of the production crew hugged water bottles to keep warm.
The cast includes double BAFTA award winner Anna Maxwell Martin, Clare Foy, Anna Wilson-Jones and Kenneth Cranham.
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It is being produced by Annie Tricklebank, who has produced 24 episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford from a base at Neston near Corsham, and also has Dalziel and Pascoe and Soldier, Soldier series to her name.
She said of the film for BBC2: “It is set during the Second World War and through three different periods, and the main setting is during the blitz.
“We have studios which we have used to make Lark Rise To Candleford and these are about half an hour from Bath so we have set our external filming in Bath.”
Waters’ novels are known for being racy and candid about sex and the complexity of relationships, and her previous titles include The Fingersmith and Tipping The Velvet.
The book is set in London and took Waters four years to write, partly because she had to painstakingly research the period.
“With The Night Watch, I started with the haziest sense of a few people living in London during World War Two, but once I started doing research into London life in the period, getting a sense of what was typical, what was likely, those people emerged for me as characters with jobs, clothes, and voices,” said Waters on her website.
Filming will also take place in Bath’s Royal Victoria Park and the city centre with The Night Watch appearing on screen next year.
Comments
by Kirsten, Bath
Wednesday, November 24 2010, 7:24PM
“Um .. that's a bit like saying that some people like a cat for being a dog. How can you like a place for being stuck in the past when it isn't stuck in the past? I give up - it's beyond me.”
by Mr Turner, Bathwick
Tuesday, November 23 2010, 9:18AM
“Kirsten, has it occurred to you that we might actually LIKE the fact that Bath is so resolutely stuck in the past ?
I don't see many visitors coming to see Rotork......”
by John, Combe Down
Tuesday, November 23 2010, 8:13AM
“JM
You are correct when you state that the location for filming " The Titfield Thunderbolt" was indeed Monkton Combe
etc which to my knowledge is within the Bath area
I agree with you they dont make them like that anymore more the pity”
by JM, Bath
Monday, November 22 2010, 6:59PM
“John, on a technicality, I think you will find that no filming was actually done in Bath for the Titfield Thunderbolt - watched it just a week ago and it was shot all along the old railway line in Freshford, Midford, Monkton Combe etc. plus Temple Meads station in Bristol. As it was a low budget film it would probably have cost them too much to film in the actual city. Shame they don't make 'em like that any more!”
by Jon I, Bath
Monday, November 22 2010, 2:12PM
“@ Mike
Ripping off Frankie Boyle and Glasgow eh?”
by Kirsten, Bath
Monday, November 22 2010, 1:41PM
“I can hardly believe that there are people so sour, blinkered and prejudiced that they are ready to leap on what should be a fun story to make some sort of bizarre point.
That Bath is a funny sort of place I would not deny. I first came to live in Bath in 1960 as a child - I left and returned in 1981, so I think I know it very well. The changes have been enormous over those years. They may not have been changes for the better - some are and some aren't. But to say it's stuck in the past is downright stupid. If you think there are better places to live, go live there. There are plenty of other people ready and willing to take your place.”
by Mr Turner, Bathwick
Monday, November 22 2010, 1:07PM
“Bath stuck in the 1940s ! rubbish, it's much earlier than that.
Let's hope we don't get the disruption that the filmimg in Gt Pulteney St caused a few years back (Reese Witherspoon was it ?).”
by Kirsten, Bath
Monday, November 22 2010, 10:19AM
“Thanks, John - my thoughts precisely.”
by john, Combe Down
Monday, November 22 2010, 10:02AM
“The usual moaners in here I see
Bath has been used a number of times for filming (ie) Inspector Morse The Wrong Box The Titfield Thunderbolt to name just a few
Bath is a beautiful city to live in and it certainly is NOT in the forties period
Please stop moaning thank you”
by Ted, Bath
Monday, November 22 2010, 7:41AM
“Put World War 2 to rest?? Really??!! I'm sure my Dad who is 88 years old and fought in Cassino, the biggest shelling bombardment in history, and day after day saw his mates killed, would love all that he fought for to be forgotten! Ever heard of Remembrance Sunday or did all that somehow pass you by last week???”