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Village welcomes Dame Judi
8:07pm Tuesday 24th April 2007
A WILTSHIRE village has been transformed into 19th century Cheshire for a new TV series starring Dame Judi Dench.
Lacock is being taken over by a BBC film crew this week for the filming of its production of the Cranford Chronicles.
The filming got under way on Monday and will continue throughout the week.
The village's Red Lion pub in the High Street has been turned into Johnson's Stores, where Dame Judi's character Miss Matty Jenkyns shops for gifts for her family.
The pub has undergone a dramatic face-lift with the ground floor frontage being painted a dark grey colour.
High Street and Church Street is closed until Friday to allow filming to take place, with any firms breaching the closure rule risking a fine of £1,000.
The BBC film weaves together three different Elizabeth Gaskell novels to create a comic drama about the course of ordinary lives in a small town in Cheshire during 1842.
Each household in Lacock has received £100 for the inconvenience of having a major filming project take place on their doorstep.
This is not the first time Lacock has made a star appearance on screen, with the abbey featuring in the first Harry Potter movie, and the BBC's eternally popular adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice being filmed there.
Last year filming for the feature film adaptation of Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl took place in the village, with Hollywood beauties Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman in the two lead roles.
Your Say YourSwindon
Andy Newell, Swindon says...
11:38pm Tue 24 Apr 07
Maybe funny first time - but 100\'th time?, Swindon says...
11:46pm Tue 24 Apr 07
I feel all vibrant about it.
When the filming is finished, we could build more hoses and flats. The abbey would make a lovely hotel with a tower block on top of it.
Vibrant
Buoyant
Vision
Hah, hah, hah! My ribs are cracking. You are such a great wordsmith - I just love to hear you say exactly the same thing again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again......
What a saddo!, Swindon says...
12:07am Wed 25 Apr 07
we could build more hoses and flats. The abbey would make a lovely hotel with a tower block on top of it.
Vibrant
Buoyant
Vision
"I Too Could Be A Councillor" - I am appalled that you would suggest building more "hoses" considering the usual hosepipe ban in this region in the summer!
I'm curious - you complain about all the property development in the area. Do you think that property developers just build them with no customers? Obviously not!
Following your logic, all such developments must stop! So what do the people who require these properties do?
I'd guess you're still happily living at home with your mummy, despite being in your late 40's, However, others meet people of the opposite sex and would like to raise a family - so they need to move out of the family home to new accomodation!
sad, swindon says...
9:04am Wed 25 Apr 07
I Too Could Be A Councillor, says...
10:49am Wed 25 Apr 07
My script has not been in existence anything like as long as the script to develop on every bit of green space, save zero heritage, treat all protesters as nimbys etc.
I'd guess you're still happily living at home with your mummy, despite being in your late 40's, However, others meet people of the opposite sex and would like to raise a family - so they need to move out of the family home to new accomodationSorry to disappoint you, but I have my own house, I am happily married, working for a living etc.
Sometimes humour is satirical, but nature is always beautiful, heritage always precious, and tacky houses are always tacky.
When are we getting a new reservoir.
If Lacock abbey had been built in Swindon, it would probably be a ten storey tower block by now and not used for filming.
That's not meant to be funny.
I must go now, mum's just made tea.
Amazed in USA, USA says...
5:06pm Wed 25 Apr 07
Average Joe, swindon says...
10:00am Thu 26 Apr 07
Amazed in USA wrote:Who asked you, bloody Yank?
Why do the people of Wiltshire bicker so much? We can't seem to talk nicely with each other anymore! Have things really got that bad in the UK now?
Only joking. I agree - reasoned debate is one thing, personal generalisations and sniping are something else.
Super Bob, says...
10:24am Thu 26 Apr 07
Nutter, Swindon says...
10:04pm Sat 28 Apr 07
Your sayYourSwindon
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Judi Dench filming in Lacock
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I Too Could Be A Councillor, says...
10:27pm Tue 24 Apr 07
Of course, as a councillor, I must give myself a pat on the back for being somehow responsible for arranging this event to happen, even though I wasn't.
I feel all vibrant about it.
When the filming is finished, we could build more hoses and flats. The abbey would make a lovely hotel with a tower block on top of it.
Vibrant
Buoyant
Vision