As celebrated period properties go, Montacute House and Barrington Court are yet to make an impression on the wider public consciousness. But all that is about to change next year as the two lesser-known National Trust properties take centre stage in the six-part BBC dramatisation of Hilary Mantel’s critically acclaimed Wolf Hall, starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII, and directed by Bafta-winner Peter Kosminksy.
The two properties in Somerset are among six Trust buildings in the South-west that producers chose for the flagship drama which charts the meteoric rise of Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor court from blacksmith’s son to Henry VIII’s closest adviser.
Montacute, in the south Somerset village of the same name, has been used for filming before – The Libertine and Sense and Sensibility were both shot there.