Cast and crew of the upcoming adaptation of Bernard Cornwell‘s The Winter King have reportedly wrapped production at Lynday Park Estate in Gloucestershire, England, last week from 9 – 14 January 2023.
Filming of the “revisionist take on the well-loved Arthurian legends”, is now completed, which some actors have shared on their Social Media, including Valene Kane, who plays Morgan, Arthur’s sister.
A staff member confirmed that crews were filming at different locations around the privately owned estate. They further said that the fitful weather effected their choice of locations in which to film on the estate.
Lynday Park belongs to the Bathurst family since the 18th century and the current owner Rupert Bathurst, 4th Viscount Bledisloe, is the older brother of The Winter King‘s lead director Otto Bathurst. The estate was used for filming on previous occasions, though, so it’s not just a matter of family connections.
Other than its gardens and large park areas, the estate is also famous for the archeological sites that were excavated in the early 20th century by Tessa Wheeler and her husband.
They found the remnants of an old Roman temple to the Celtic god Noden (Romans often assimilated foreign gods and goddesses into their own belief) which was built on much older structures known as ‘Lydney Camp’ dating back to the British Iron Age and ‘Dwarf’s Hill’, an open-cast mining site for iron ore in Roman times.
Soon after the Romans abandoned Britain, local people thought the ruins were the homes of dwarves and hobgoblins and were afraid of the hill. The Lord of the Ring‘s author J.R.R. Tolkien, who was part of the Wheeler excavation team in the 1920s and was working on The Hobbit at the time, is said to have taken large inspiration from these tales and the landscape at Lynday Park Estate.
Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles – set in the 5th century AD, roughly 100 years after the Roman departure – in turn often mention buildings and other Roman architecture that are used by the protagonists of the books. Maybe we can expect to see some of the old ruins at Lynday Park Estate during the TV series.
The Winter King stars Iain De Caestecker as a young Arthur Pendragon and Stuart Campbell as his loyal spearman and narrator of the story. More cast members were confirmed last year, among them Andrew Gower as Sansum, an ambitious, scheming priest.
The series is expected to be released on ITV’s new streaming platform ITVX exclusively in the UK later this year. There is no information on international distributors yet, but we will keep you informed as always as soon as we find out more.
Andrew Gower Online 