We’re happy to support Scarleteers, the Facebook page for fans of Miss Scarlet and The Duke and their campaign to bring back the series for (at least!) another season. Their petition is as much a gentle nudge to the production company A & E Studios to officially announce more adventures for our favourite dynamic duo as it is a way of showing our love and appreciation to the entire cast and crew for creating such a wonderful period drama.
So if you enjoyed season 1, please sign the petition and share the link, for more Miss Scarlet (Kate Phillips), The Duke (Stuart Martin) and more Rupert (Andrew Gower)!
As was to be expected, Showmaster’s London Film & Comic Con (LFCC) had to take the difficult decision to postpone their main convention event this summer due to the ongoing Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
The event will now take place from 20 – 22 November 2020 at Olympia London.
If you already have a ticket for the event, this will be automatically transferred to the new date. If you can’t attend the event on the new dates, please e-mail Showmasters to receive a voucher which will be good to use for any future Showmasters events up until the day after LFCC 2021 (26 July 2021). At that point, you can request a full refund, should you have not been able to use your voucher.
Tickets sales will be available shortly again for the event and photo op tickets (£20) for Andrew. Autograph tickets (£20) can be purchased at the event itself.
Some of the main “characters” on Miss Scarlet & The Duke, next to the two leads Kate Phillips (Eliza Scarlet) and Stuart Martin (‘The Duke’), are certainly the gorgeous original sets that were used during filming. Filming at original sets (in contrast to built sets in a studio) always provides certain challenges for cast & crew but adds a definite layer of authenticity to the scenes.
Miss Scarlet and The Duke was filmed entirely in and around Dublin (Ireland) which doubles for Victorian London as unfortunately the British capital has changed quite a bit since the 19th century while Dublin has preserved large parts of its original Georgian houses. Other large productions, such as the BBC’s Ripper Street, have profited from filming in the Irish capital for its authentic look as well as financial reasons.
Cabinteely is a suburb of Dublin’s southside which is home to the 18th century Cabinteely House & Park. The grand country manor house was built by Robert Nugent, Lord Clare, and has an 18th century staircase, decorative plasterwork and a vaulted gallery still preserved while the park is a beautiful example of an 18th century English landscape park.
You can visit Cabinteely House for free guided tours and walk in the footsteps of Hollywood stars like Eva Green (Penny Dreadful), Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) and Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) who all filmed there. It also served as one of the main sets of Miss Sarlet & The Duke.
Greystones is a coastal town and seaside resort in County Wicklow south of Dublin. Part of St. Brigid’s National School is the historic building of Holy Faith Convent. Built in 1845, and sitting on over half-an-acre land, the 11,000-square-feet building was purchased by the adjacent school in 2018, ensuring a continuation of the long common tradition between the school and the former Catholic convent.
Only a short drive alog the coast away from Greystones is Wicklow Gaol, a former prison located in the town of Wicklow, Ireland. It served as a prison from the late 18th to the early 20th century. In 1822 and 1842/43 it was extended and housed prisoners until 1924 when the last prisoners left. It was renovated and re-opened as a museum in 1998 and claims to be one of the world’s most haunted buildings.
On Miss Scarlet & The Duke is serves as the eerily beautiful Woolwich Prison.
While William “The Duke” Wellington (Stuart Martin) continues the investigations into last episode‘s criminals and the murder of Henry Scarlet (Kevin Doyle), he tries to keep Eliza (Kate Phillips) safe by placing her under house arrest. However, he’s yet again underestimated Eliza’s cleverness who has secretly contacted one of her accomplices and gathers information on the case on her own.
When Rupert Parker (Andrew Gower) comes to talk to her about an urgent personal matter, he also relies a message for Eliza from the Jamaican crook Moses (Ansu Kabia). Rupert’s own dilemma is that the seemingly quiet and docile Miss Tilly (Amy McAllister) turns out to be quite as determined and insistent when it comes to marrying him as his mother is to get him married, and Eliza’s advice doesn’t help to improve matters at all.
Following some clues, William and his assistant DS Frank Jenkins Danny Midwinter discover some shocking truths that hit closer to them and Miss Scarlet than they could have imagined. The world isn’t black and white any more – who is on the right side of the law and who is on the wrong side isn’t always as it appears, and the stakes have never been higher for Miss Scarlet and The Duke.
Visit our Gallery for more screencaps from this episode!
Filming season 2 of Carnival Row has been on hiatus for almost 2 months now due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and several of the show’s cast and crew have replied to fans’ concerns about the future of the show.
In an Instagram live video in support of his charity challenge for Tearfund (in which he is raising money for people living in poverty to help them deal with the effects of the corona virus) David Gyasi (who plays wealthy puck Mr Agreus) explained:
We were very close to finishing season 2 before the lockdown happened and then it was deemed that we needed to be safe. So before the lockdown, we all flew home to be with our families. I think the plan is very much to resume once we’re able to and get season 2 out to you all as quickly as possible. Thank you all for your patience.
Carnival Row was only part way into shooting season 2 and did not have enough completed on any one episode to move forward into post when everything ground to a halt in March.
Read the full interview and what he had to say about composing the iconic score for Carnival Row on his Wurlitzer theatre organ.
Composer Nathan Barr
Finally, Andrew Gower also mentioned where things where left off when the pandemic reached Europe:
We had 4 weeks left of [filming Carnival Row], we were just about to get to Croatia, Dubrovnik, and then Trump’s […] travel ban came in, so finishing that off hopefully when – I mean what can we say when will this end, when will travel happen again? So that’s happening, which is really exciting, the series has gone bigger and better since season 1 with Mr Bloom and Ms Delevingne.
Meanwhile the Czech Republic (where Carnival Row is primarily filmed) are looking at easing the severe lockdown measures, which have been in place since mid-March, after officials declared that the Covid-19 outbreak there had been brought under control. However, resuming production on Carnival Row will also require lifting international travel bans and opening borders to allow the cast and crew to return, as well as ensuring everyone’s health and safety on set. This might be a while yet.
ETA (15 May 2020):
In his Instagram live video this morning, David Gyasi was again asked about the future of Carnival Row and he gave a more detailed answer this time:
When will Carnival Row be back on?
That’s a good question. It’s one that a lot of people are asking.
So I will reveal to you what I know. We have filmed the majority of season 2. It’s in post-production, the stuff that we filmed ready and apparently they are very excited about it. I haven’t seen any of it but the “adult”, Amazon and Legendary, are very excited about it and cannot wait to get it out to you.
There’s a hunger and a desire to get back filming because we had to stop due to the pandemic but quite rightly they’re not going to do anything until it’s safe to do so. But we will be back is what I’m told. They’re very much planning on bringing us back.
I think… you know, I don’t know… I’m hoping before the end of the year but before that… obviously you see that thing puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it? And I’m fully aware how difficult lockdown would be without our boxsets and our films and our music and our poetry and our art and all of those things.
So I’m aware of the importance of it but I’m also made blatanly aware of the importance of health, so I think: make sure everyone’s safe and so we can safely go back to work and then don’t worry, we are very keen to bring you season 2 and hopefully season 3.
In her recent interview with entertainment magazine Variety, Cara Delevingne also addressed the production hiatus and had to dampen fans’ expectations:
It’s been a surreal year for Delevingne, as it has been for everyone. She started the winter in Prague, filming the second season of Carnival Row, where she plays the pansexual fairy Vignette. But production shut down in March due to the coronavirus, forcing her to leave the set for her home in Los Angeles. She says that she filmed six of the eight planned episodes, but she’s not sure when the season will air. “The second season is going to be so good, but I don’t know when we’re going to finish it,” Delevingne says. “And probably not until the winter, because it has to be cold outside and snowing and miserable.”
Today, the EU announced a list of countries whose citizens are free to enter the EU again from 1 July after borders were locked due to the pandemic. The USA, China and Brazil, where infection rates are still high, are not on the list. As this could be problematic to Hollywood productions like Carnival Row filming in Europe (as well as European companies working on these productions), some states are willing to make exemptions for “essential workers”.
“In relation to the EU declaring a travel ban on the U.S., please let me assure you this is not valid for economic workers but tourism travellers only. Filmmakers of all nations are welcome in the Czech Republic.”
ETA (11 July 2020):
Apparently things are finally moving again! David Gyasi posted on his Instagram that he received a call back to work and thanked the fans for their patience:
Actor Ryan Hayes (who plays Constable Thatch) shared a picture of a nightly Prague with his followers on his Instagram. Is this a sign that the actors are already back in Prague to start completing season 2?
ETA (15 July 2020)
Stillking Films, Carnival Row‘s production service company based in Prague, started to post daily updates in their Instagram stories about pre-production of the remaining S2 episodes. After being on hiatus for almost exactly four months, getting the whole producion machinery fired up again is taking a lot of planning and effort, especially with circumstances changed so dramatically due to the ongoing pandemic and the requirement of severe health and safety measures as some of the pictures suggest.
The main protagonist, Merseybeat musician Tommy Quickly (played by Andrew Gower), was another discovery of Beatles manager Brian Epstein and the short film sheds some light on a pivotal turning point in Tommy’s career and life.
Watch this clip with Stephen Walters’ announcement – and watch this space, we’ll be updating this post as soon as we know more details including where and when you can see the film!
Thank you to Jackie Merrell (@AngusAngels) for sharing this video with us!)
ETA (4 May 2020):
We do have a release date now! Start your countdowns!
William “The Duke” Wellington (Stuart Martin) is on his way to an important meeting with Superintendent Stirling (Nick Dunning) and other division heads of Scotland Yard when a distress calls reaches him: Miss Scarlet (Kate Phillips) has gone missing. Eliza’s canny housekeeper Ivy (Cathy Belton) has already undertaken some investigating of her own and is sure that something untoward has happened.
Rupert Parker (Andrew Gower) is the last person to have seen Eliza and he is entertaining German undertaker Herr Hildegard (Richard Evans) and his “radiant niece” Tilly (Amy McAllister) – who he is eager to impress – when William arrives to inquire about Eliza’s whereabouts. The late Henry Scarlet’s (Kevin Doyle) old case book finally leads William to the seeminly empty Woolwich Prison.
Reunited with Eliza the two soon discover that an abandoned gaol is also a perfect hideout for a gang of criminals. But what is Henry Scarlet’s connection to the gang and who is the mysterious prisoner in Cell 99? This case is soon turning into a most personal one for the dynamic duo and test for their resolve. The culprits this time might be closer to them then they think.
Visit our Gallery for more screencaps from this episode!
According to Gold Derby, Amazon Prime have listed their submissions for their comedy, drama and limited series in the run for an Emmy Award. Among the submitted titles and names are Carnival Row (in the Drama Series category) and Andrew Gower as Supporting Actor.
Of course, a submission is far from a nomination (or a win) but it’s an important first step and we are more than happy and proud to read Andrew’s name in the company of all these other distinguished talents.
Are you an artist who’s been inspired by Miss Scarlet (or any other of Andrew Gower‘s projects)? We’d love to see and share your art! Graphics, videos, fan fiction – we love them all! You can contact us via e-mail or one of our social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)!
Andrew Gower Online 