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to add an item to your Itinerary basket.
If you’re looking to check out Leicester and Leicestershire on film, then we’ve put together a watchlist of the films and shows you should be checking out! So get primed to Netflix and chill (no, not like that, this is a family blog!) with a whole host of great entertainment.
The Crown
The story of the life of Queen Elizabeth II was one of Netflix’s biggest hits and the beautiful Belvoir Castle stood in for Windsor Castle throughout the first three seasons. With its rounded turret, the castle was the perfect stand-in for this most royal of residences, being used for both interior and exterior shots of the Queen’s favourite residence.
Stan and Ollie
The story of the two early Hollywood funnymen had key scenes on the Great Central Railway. The Railway is the only heritage railway where two steam trains can pass at speed, so is perfect for historical films like this. Starring Steve Coogan and John C Reilly, relive the golden era of cinema.
The Hours
This film, with three women linked by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway novel and based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel has a key scene with Nicole Kidman at Loughborough’s Great Central Station. The historic backdrop at the station with its authentic recreated 1950s platform was perfect for this.
Jadoo
We can’t miss a Bollywood connection and 2013’s Jadoo was actually created and filmed on Leicester’s Golden Mile by local filmmaker Amit Gupta. The story of two brothers who fall out so badly that they rip the family recipe book in half and set up rival restaurants across the road from each other.
The Young Victoria
A BAFTA Award winning movie from 2010 starring Emily Blunt, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent, The Young Victoria tells the story of Queen Victoria and her relationship with Prince Albert. Belvoir Castle was again used as its ornate rooms are the perfect stand in for Royal Palaces.
Goodnight Mr Tom
Another classic TV movie starring John Thaw, this tearjerking wartime tale of an evacuee sent to stay in Suffolk made use of the historic backdrops of the Great Central Railway for scenes of the train arriving back in London.
The Da Vinci Code
For this location-hopping Tom Hanks blockbuster you could be forgiven for missing Belvoir Castle (or wondering why it appears at all as Robert Langdon dashes from Paris to Rome to Scotland). Well Belvoir Castle stands in for the Castel Gandolfo just outside Rome (with some CGI domes added to its towers).
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
It may have been a blink and you miss it moment, but the 1991 Kevin Costner blockbuster Robin Hood Prince of Thieves filmed a couple of scenes at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, and you can spot Old John in the background of a few of the shots.
The Lost King
So while only a few scenes of this tale of the discovery of King Richard III were actually filmed in Leicester (it mostly takes place in Edinburgh), this 2022 drama starring Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan and Harry Lloyd tells the story of Phillipa Langley and how her obsession with discovering the remains of the Lost King led her to a car park in Leicester and… the rest is quite literally… History!
David Attenborough documentaries
One of our most famous sons, David Attenborough grew up on the campus of the University of Leicester and caught the wildlife bug fossil hunting in Charnwood Forest. He details this journey in his documentary First Life, which kicks off with epic shots of Bradgate Park.
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