Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!
Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!
Strictly Jane Austen Episode 3: Jane Austen's England on Screen - A Location-by-Location Visitor's Guide
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Featuring Gabrielle Malcolm

This is Episode 3 of a special six-part Jane Austen series, sponsored throughout by Strictly Jane Austen.

When we picture Jane Austen’s world, most of us aren’t actually picturing Hampshire in 1810 — we’re picturing a television program. Colin Firth striding out of a lake. Keira Knightley on a windswept crag. A proposal in the pouring rain in front of a domed temple. The great screen adaptations gave Austen’s imagined places real addresses, and this episode maps them out house by house. Jonathan Thomas is joined by Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm — author, leading expert on Austen fan culture and literary tourism, and creative director at Strictly Jane Austen — who has interviewed the people who actually made the 1995 Pride and Prejudice and knows exactly which door is which. They cover why 1995 changed everything (before it, every adaptation was studio-bound), Simon Langton’s instruction to “throw open the drawing room doors,” and the hierarchy of houses the production had to find: Luckington Court as Longbourn, Edgcote House as Netherfield, Lyme Park and Sudbury Hall as Pemberley, and the village of Lacock as Meryton. Along the way: the message Susannah Harker sent Gabrielle about the summer of 1994; the choreographer who poured Coca-Cola on Edgcote’s polished floors so the cast wouldn’t slip; the truth about who actually dived into that lake, and where the underwater shots were really filmed; why Chatsworth is arguably too grand even for Mr. Darcy; the Wilton Diptych and how Wilton House saved it; Stourhead’s Arcadian fantasy gardens; and Barton Cottage on the Flete Estate in South Devon, with a five-bedroom “cottage,” only two servants, and a Ferrars family named after a nearby Devon village. Most usefully of all, Gabrielle explains which of these places you can actually get into, which ones you can only nose around on an estate agent’s website, and how to string the best of them together into one Wiltshire trip.

🎀 OUR SPONSOR: STRICTLY JANE AUSTEN

This entire six-part series is brought to you by Strictly Jane Austen — Bath’s most Austentatious travel company. Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm, today’s guest, is their creative director.

If this episode has you dreaming of an Austen pilgrimage, there is no better way to begin than stepping directly into Jane Austen’s Bath with an expert guide. Strictly Jane Austen’s award-winning tours bring Regency England to life through expertly guided walks, immersive storytelling, and carefully curated itineraries in Bath and beyond — including the Wiltshire locations discussed in this episode, which, as Gabrielle points out, are very hard to reach without a car. Their guides are avid Janeites steeped in Regency knowledge — and, as Austen herself would have it, genuinely “clever, well-informed people.”

What they offer:

Book or learn more at strictlyjaneausten.com · Call +44 1225 333747 (Mon–Fri, 09:00–17:00 GMT)
Follow them: Instagram · Facebook

Winner, Bristol Bath & Somerset International Tourism Award 2025 (Bronze). Part of ECT Travel, a Bath-based tour operator running successful travel programs since 1993.

Links

Our Guest

Longbourn — Luckington Court, Wiltshire (private; not open to the public)

Netherfield — Edgcote House, Northamptonshire (private; not open to the public)

Pemberley, 1995 — Lyme Park & Sudbury Hall

Meryton — Lacock, Wiltshire

Pemberley, 2005 — Chatsworth & Wilton House

Stourhead

Barton Cottage — Flete Estate, South Devon (private; not open to the public)

Also Mentioned

Anglotopia

Takeaways

  1. Filming locations only really became a thing with the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Every earlier BBC version — including a 1950s television adaptation with Peter Cushing as Darcy, a late-1960s version, and a 1980 production — was studio-bound, with painted backdrops beyond the windows. Simon Langton’s instruction, as he told Gabrielle himself, was to “throw open the drawing room doors” and take Austen out into the countryside.
  2. The production had to fill a hierarchy of houses, because status is the language of Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Bennet’s chatter about which local estates could be rented is a status conversation, so the houses on screen had to be graded exactly right: Longbourn, then Netherfield, then Pemberley at the top.
  3. Longbourn is Luckington Court in Wiltshire, near Chippenham on the edge of the Cotswolds — a golden Cotswold-stone Georgian house with a 17th-century dovecote and formal gardens where the Bennet sisters walk and Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth. You can’t visit, but it has been on the market three times in six years, most recently in December 2025, so you can tour the interiors via the estate agents and a House & Garden feature. It started at £9 million and was most recently listed at £4 million.
  4. Susannah Harker, who played Jane Bennet, sent Gabrielle a message for this episode about the summer of 1994 at Luckington Court. She keeps a photograph of the Georgian hallway window by her bedside — she was pregnant during filming with her son Finley, now a theater director who has himself directed Pride and Prejudice on stage at 30.
  5. Netherfield is Edgcote House in Northamptonshire — grander and more splendid than Luckington, exactly as Bingley’s rented estate should be. If Elizabeth actually walked from Longbourn to Netherfield, it would be roughly 300 miles. Edgcote is a 25,900-square-foot Georgian mansion on a full estate with a farm, 31 houses, cottages and flats, formal gardens, pleasure grounds and a lake, currently seeking offers above £45 million.
  6. The dance choreographer poured Coca-Cola on Edgcote’s beautifully polished wooden floors to make them sticky enough that the cast’s shoes wouldn’t slip during the Netherfield ball — then buffed it all off afterward. The cast spent weeks learning the formal Georgian dance sets, which Susannah Harker remembers as a great bonding exercise.
  7. The 1995 Pemberley is Lyme Park in Cheshire for exteriors and Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire for interiors. Lyme is National Trust, open to the public, near Stockport, and you can stay in cottages on the estate — people now go there specifically to get engaged and married in front of the on-screen Pemberley.
  8. Colin Firth did not dive into that lake. A stunt man did, because they wouldn’t send the actor into a stagnant lake on the Lyme estate. The underwater shots — the ones that actually wet the shirt — were filmed in the big water tank at Elstree Studios, where Firth surfaced into an incompletely removed pool cover and smashed the bridge of his nose. Simon Langton’s first reaction was not sympathy but “are we going to have to recast Mr. Darcy?”
  9. Chatsworth, the 2005 film’s Pemberley, is arguably too grand for Darcy — many historians now say so. It’s the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, founded in the Tudor period by Bess of Hardwick, and its window frames are gilded with gold leaf so the house glitters as you approach. Darcy, by contrast, holds no title at all: he’s a commoner with an old estate and £10,000 a year. The film’s Pemberley interiors were shot at Wilton House near Salisbury.
  10. Gabrielle’s practical recommendation is a Wiltshire loop — Bath, then Lacock for Meryton (eat at the Red Lion, which is the assembly rooms), Stourhead for the Arcadian gardens and the temple from the 2005 rain scene, Wilton House outside Salisbury, and a sneaky drive past Luckington Court. Her single favorite location is Chatsworth for sheer grandeur. Public transportation to any of it is poor, so you need to be driven.

Soundbites

  1. “It was all about what he said was to throw open the drawing room doors — to bring Jane Austen out into the countryside, into the townscapes, into the settings that would reflect most accurately the lives of her characters.” — Gabrielle on what director Simon Langton told her the 1995 production was really for.
  2. “Houses are so important in the language of Pride and Prejudice. That’s where Davies and Langton decided on doing this — to make it very much out of the English countryside and in these historic buildings.” — Gabrielle on why the hierarchy of houses had to be exactly right.
  3. “There’s been more than one Jane Austen fan group online who say: come on, let’s all chip in, and let’s all go and live in the Bennets’ house.” — Gabrielle on Luckington Court’s repeated appearances on the property market.
  4. “I took this photograph at Luckington Court, with that extraordinary light streaming through the beautiful Georgian hallway window. It captivated me and I felt signified something about that shoot in the late summer of 1994. I keep it next to my bed.” — Susannah Harker, who played Jane Bennet, in a message read out by Gabrielle.
  5. “It really was the most beautiful English summer. The locations were the epitome of Englishness. I remember walking into each scene and thinking, yes, this is how it feels to be in Regency England. Half the work is done. Now just remember the words and don’t bump into the furniture.” — Susannah Harker again, on filming in those houses.
  6. “The floors at Edgcote were really shiny — these really lovely polished wooden floors. So she actually poured Coca-Cola on the wooden floors to make them stickier so that the cast’s shoes wouldn’t slip.” — Gabrielle on the choreographer’s solution to the Netherfield ball.
  7. “So that’s not Colin Firth going into that lake. Because they couldn’t send the actor into the slightly smelly, stagnant lake on the Lyme Park estate. The stunt man had to go in.” — Gabrielle on cinema’s most famous swim.
  8. “Simon Langton recalled saying: are we going to have to recast Mr. Darcy if we’ve broken his nose? So his first thought wasn’t ‘my poor actor.’ It was: we’ve got to get on with filming.” — Gabrielle on Colin Firth hitting the pool cover at Elstree.
  9. “If he’d have just left his horse to roam and graze on the field, he said we’d have got letters. There’s no question the TV watching public in Britain would have written to the BBC to complain that Mr. Darcy didn’t look after his horse properly after a long ride.” — Gabrielle on why a stunt rider was brought in to play a groom.
  10. “Many historians have now said Chatsworth is too grand, even for Mr. Darcy.” — Gabrielle on the 2005 film’s choice of Pemberley, and a man who has £10,000 a year but no title at all.

Chapters

  • 00:22 Welcome to the Anglotopia Podcast
  • 00:29 Our Sponsor — Strictly Jane Austen
  • 01:01 Today’s Subject — We’re Not Picturing Hampshire, We’re Picturing a TV Program
  • 01:31 Where Longbourn Really Is, and Which House Makes the Best Pemberley
  • 01:41 Meet Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm — Austen Fan Culture and Literary Tourism
  • 02:08 Jonathan’s Favorite Episode of the Series — “I Love Visiting These Places”
  • 02:17 WHY 1995 CHANGED EVERYTHING
  • 02:33 Before 1995 — BBC Versions, and Peter Cushing as Mr. Darcy
  • 03:01 Polly Adams and Susannah Harker — Mother and Daughter as Jane Bennet
  • 03:26 The 1980 Version — And What All the Early Adaptations Had in Common
  • 03:35 Studio-Bound — Painted Backdrops and Clumsy Set Design
  • 04:06 The BBC’s 1990s Mission — Every Classic Novel and All of Shakespeare
  • 04:26 Enormous Internal Budgets — The Heyday of Literary Adaptation
  • 04:42 Watching Them at School on VHS — Gabrielle’s Own Education
  • 05:29 Sunday Afternoon Period Drama — And the License Fee
  • 06:00 Hiring Simon Langton — The Director Behind the John le Carré Adaptations
  • 06:39 Andrew Davies — The Man Who Turned Chapters into Episodes
  • 07:19 Shoot It on Film — And Don’t Rely on Studios
  • 07:34 “Throw Open the Drawing Room Doors”
  • 07:58 The Immense Scouting Expeditions
  • 08:09 THE HIERARCHY OF HOUSES — Finding a Longbourn, a Netherfield, a Meryton and a Pemberley
  • 08:30 Mrs. Bennet on the Local Estates — Why Houses Are the Language of the Novel
  • 09:13 How Did They Pick Them, and What Did Fame Do to These Places?
  • 09:24 LONGBOURN — The Bennet Home, Entailed Through the Male Line
  • 09:42 Luckington Court, Wiltshire — Near Chippenham, on the Edge of the Cotswolds
  • 09:53 A Georgian House With a 17th-Century Dovecote and Formal Gardens
  • 10:11 Where the Bennet Sisters Walk, and Lady Catherine Confronts Elizabeth
  • 10:26 You Can’t Visit — But It’s Been on the Market Three Times in Six Years
  • 10:51 How to See Inside — House & Garden and the Estate Agent’s Website
  • 11:40 Fame, Fans and the Property Listings
  • 11:55 From £9 Million Down to £4 Million — And What You Get for It
  • 12:36 “Only Four Million Pounds — It’s Chump Change”
  • 12:42 “Let’s All Chip In and Go Live in the Bennets’ House”
  • 12:52 SUSANNAH HARKER’S MESSAGE — Jane Bennet Remembers the Summer of 1994
  • 13:13 The Photograph She Keeps by Her Bedside
  • 13:55 Carrying Baby Finley — Now Directing Pride and Prejudice Himself
  • 14:14 Alison Steadman in the Hallway, and the Epitome of Englishness
  • 14:52 “Andrew Davies Took Austen Out of the Drawing Room and Into Nature”
  • 15:13 “Just Remember the Words and Don’t Bump Into the Furniture”
  • 15:23 NETHERFIELD — Supposed to Be a Walk Across the Fields
  • 15:38 Elizabeth’s Petticoat, Inches Deep in Mud
  • 15:49 Edgcote House, Northamptonshire — A 300-Mile Walk in Real Life
  • 16:06 Bigger, Grander, More Splendid — Exactly Right for Bingley
  • 16:21 New Money Renting His First Country Estate, Advised by Old Money
  • 16:43 It Had to Host a Ball — And the Cast Spent Weeks Learning the Dances
  • 17:10 COCA-COLA ON THE BALLROOM FLOOR — The Choreographer’s Solution
  • 17:36 Edgcote Today — Private, But Also on the Market
  • 17:59 A 25,900-Square-Foot Georgian Mansion
  • 18:45 Offers Above £45 Million — A Farm, 31 Houses, Gardens and a Lake
  • 19:41 PEMBERLEY — How Do You Create the Top of the Tree?
  • 19:48 Lyme Park, Cheshire for the Exteriors
  • 20:18 Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire for the Interiors
  • 20:39 Lyme Is Open to the Public — And People Get Engaged There
  • 20:50 National Trust, Near Stockport — And You Can Stay on the Estate
  • 21:42 THE LAKE — The Wet Shirt Scene
  • 21:54 You See Him Dive In. You Never See Him Come Out.
  • 22:09 The Stunt Man Went In — Not Colin Firth
  • 22:33 The Underwater Shots Were Filmed in the Tank at Elstree
  • 23:00 Colin Firth Smashes His Nose on the Pool Cover
  • 23:13 “Are We Going to Have to Recast Mr. Darcy?”
  • 24:25 The Horse and the Groom — “We’d Have Got Letters”
  • 25:10 Private Estates and National Trust Properties Side by Side
  • 25:24 MERYTON — The Town of Lacock
  • 25:45 The Red Lion Pub — Where Lizzie First Meets Darcy
  • 26:04 The Whole Village Is National Trust Protected
  • 26:24 Bath, Then Lacock, Then a Sneaky Peek at Luckington
  • 26:45 Lacock Abbey — Where Photography Was Invented
  • 26:56 The Window, the First Photograph, and the Camera Obscura
  • 27:32 Lacock and the Harry Potter Films
  • 27:52 THE 2005 FILM — Why a Grander Pemberley?
  • 28:19 Does Chatsworth Make Us Perceive Darcy Differently?
  • 28:29 Why Chatsworth Worked for a Movie and Not a Series
  • 28:54 “Impact Is Everything”
  • 29:01 Lyme Park Is Beautiful — Chatsworth Is Gobsmacking
  • 29:32 The Cavendish Family and the Dukes of Devonshire
  • 29:46 Not National Trust — Its Own Trust, Still Run by the Family
  • 30:31 “Chatsworth Is Too Grand, Even for Mr. Darcy”
  • 30:48 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire — And Why the Family Mattered
  • 31:15 BESS OF HARDWICK — From Humble Origins to Countess of Shrewsbury
  • 31:57 Embroidery With Mary, Queen of Scots
  • 32:16 Hardwick Hall — More Windows Than Any House Ever Built
  • 32:33 Her Own Throne Room, and “We’re All Elizabeth Together”
  • 33:00 Darcy Has No Title — His Aunt Does
  • 33:36 A Commoner With an Old Estate and £10,000 a Year
  • 34:09 Not in the Chatsworth Mould — Cascades, Follies and Gilded Windows
  • 34:39 The Windows Have Just Been Re-Gilded
  • 35:02 WILTON HOUSE — Pemberley’s Interiors in the 2005 Film
  • 35:11 The Wiltshire Loop — All These Locations Within Reach of Bath
  • 35:57 Jonathan’s Stately Home White Whale
  • 36:19 Lord Castlemaine and the Embassy to Rome
  • 36:40 THE WILTON DIPTYCH — Kept Safe at Wilton House
  • 36:57 Richard II Presented to the Virgin Mary
  • 37:22 Saved From the Reformation and From Cromwell
  • 37:34 STOURHEAD — Jonathan’s Favorite Stately Home in Britain
  • 38:11 Famous for the Gardens, Not the House
  • 38:18 The Rain Scene in the 2005 Film
  • 38:35 Why Stourhead Is So Beloved Locally
  • 39:24 The Bridge, the Water and the Little Temple
  • 39:47 Darcy and Elizabeth’s Encounter in the Rain
  • 40:04 Not What Pemberley Would Actually Have Had
  • 40:30 It’s All About the Storytelling and the Escapist Quality
  • 40:47 What Those Gardens Were Really For
  • 41:25 Moving Great Mature Trees Because They Spoiled the View
  • 41:36 Stourhead Today — A Joy for Anyone Who Loves Horticulture
  • 42:14 Autumn at Stourhead — Like New England, Only in Wiltshire
  • 42:53 BARTON COTTAGE — Sense and Sensibility
  • 43:22 The Dashwoods Have to Move
  • 43:45 Sir John Middleton and the Barton Estate in Devon
  • 43:59 Austen’s Joke — Five Bedrooms and Only Two Servants
  • 44:13 What Jane Austen Actually Knew About Domestic Work
  • 44:47 The Cottage on Screen — Chosen for Its Vistas
  • 45:13 Space for Marianne to Range Around
  • 45:35 Throwing Open the Doors Again — Ang Lee and Emma Thompson
  • 45:54 An 18th-Century Stone Cottage — Brand New in Austen’s Day
  • 46:18 Quaint and Tumbledown Now, Well-Appointed Then
  • 46:35 The Flete Estate, South Devon — Private, But People Still Make the Pilgrimage
  • 46:59 On the Estuary, Near Plymouth, Drake and the Royal Navy
  • 47:32 NEWTON FERRERS — And Where Edward Ferrars Got His Name
  • 47:59 Lucy Steele, and Edward as a Student in Her Father’s House
  • 48:12 George Austen at Steventon Took In Pupils the Same Way
  • 48:38 “Lucy Ferrars Is a Pun on Lucifer”
  • 49:19 Why the Cottage’s Position Serves the Storytelling
  • 49:35 Margaret as Lookout — Is It Brandon, Willoughby or Edward?
  • 50:03 WHERE TO STAY — The Flete Estate and South Devon
  • 50:17 Cottages on the Stourhead Estate — And Christmas Lights
  • 50:38 Gabrielle’s White Whale: Stourhead at Christmas
  • 50:46 THE FAVORITE — Which Location Wins?
  • 50:53 Chatsworth, for the Sheer Grandeur of It
  • 51:17 But Do the Wiltshire Tour — Stourhead, Wilton, Luckington
  • 51:56 The Wiltshire Triangle, and Why You Need to Be Driven
  • 52:20 Wrap-Up — A Long List of Houses to Go Stand In Front Of
  • 52:37 Our Sponsor — Strictly Jane Austen, Tours and Gift Vouchers
  • 53:02 Friends of Anglotopia, and Join Us Next Time

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