Great Expectations - Whereisit

Some of it is around Tollesbury, I read a mag article about it.
Also they did some on the south shore at Harty Ferry, I saw a film set crew changing the appearance of the existing Kent Wildlife Trust building there but didn't see the final result. That filming was only done maybe a month ago.
Having watched the first 2 episodes, I am pretty sure there are two versions of the blacksmith's cottage to suit different outdoor scenes, because one of those that I have seen is most certainly Harty which I know very well, but in other scenes the cottage is obviously somewhere else.
Where they film outside the cottage, and the lane rises up and over a low hill in the near distance, that is the Harty location - actually the road goes over the sea wall, and down onto the causeway. The pic on p120 of ECP Edn 1 is taken from the top of the sea wall there, or there's a good aerial view in ECP Edn 3 page 146...
 
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LONG_KEELER said:
Some of the locations look familiar.

Any thoughts ?
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The opening scene where Magwitch swam ashore was in the "new" saltmarsh formed by breaching the sea wall in the area between Tollesbury and Salcott. The wooden bridge where he waylaid Pip and the mudhole where he wrestled with the other convict are a little further east on that same stretch of marshland, about a third of a mile from Tollesbury Saltings and the marina. Some filming was also done on the other side, in the Old Hall marshes. I believe the shot of the carriage in the distance going along a road with water on either side was probably done there, although the "road" (which wasn't shown close up in that shot) was, in fact, the sea wall. There is certainly a stretch there that looks very like that, with the creek on one side and one of the "scrapes" in the Old Hall bird reserve on the other.

I think some scenes involving the forge were also filmed in that area as Tollesbury folk who had watched some of the filming mentioned it being built. Just a facade, I believe. I have no idea where else this may have been located for other shots.

I have no idea where the churchyard shots were filmed. I know of no local church that looks like that and I don't believe any church would be built so close to the edge of the marsh or it would be regularly inundated and would probably have disappeared long ago. Even those close to the water's edge (such as Iken on the Alde) are on rising ground.

Quite a lot of image manipulation going on. The church is one example and another is the way the sea horizon was brought in (unconvincingly) closer to the action on the marsh. I suspect part of West Mersea was also obliterated for the purpose.

Very disappointing production, in my opinion.

Edited to add - the church is one on the Romney Marsh near Rye. But a look at Google Earth demosntrates that it was "photoshopped" on to an Essex marsh. It is near water, but not actually on the saltings as the one in the shot appeared to be. Yesterday at HW that whole marsh was a sheet of water with nothing but the occasional tussock showing at the surface.
 
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Litotes said:
The opening scene where Magwitch swam ashore was in the "new" saltmarsh formed by breaching the sea wall in the area between Tollesbury and Salcott. The wooden bridge where he waylaid Pip and the mudhole where he wrestled with the other convict are a little further east on that same stretch of marshland, about a third of a mile from Tollesbury Saltings and the marina. Some filming was also done on the other side, in the Old Hall marshes. I believe the shot of the carriage in the distance going along a road with water on either side was probably done there, although the "road" (which wasn't shown close up in that shot) was, in fact, the sea wall. There is certainly a stretch there that looks very like that, with the creek on one side and one of the "scrapes" in the Old Hall bird reserve on the other.

I think some scenes involving the forge were also filmed in that area as Tollesbury folk who had watched some of the filming mentioned it being built. Just a facade, I believe. I have no idea where else this may have been located for other shots.

I have no idea where the churchyard shots were filmed. I know of no local church that looks like that and I don't believe any church would be built so close to the edge of the marsh or it would be regularly inundated and would probably have disappeared long ago. Even those close to the water's edge (such as Iken on the Alde) are on rising ground.

Quite a lot of image manipulation going on. The church is one example and another is the way the sea horizon was brought in (unconvincingly) closer to the action on the marsh. I suspect part of West Mersea was also obliterated for the purpose.

Very disappointing production, in my opinion.

Edited to add - the church is one on the Romney Marsh near Rye. But a look at Google Earth demosntrates that it was "photoshopped" on to an Essex marsh. It is near water, but not actually on the saltings as the one in the shot appeared to be. Yesterday at HW that whole marsh was a sheet of water with nothing but the occasional tussock showing at the surface.
Click to expand...

Thanks to all for the info.

I enjoyed it but it seems to have come in for a bit of slating in the paper I read this morning.

To be fair I think, David Lean's 1946 classic is such a tough act to follow. Such a spell binding film . Particularly the use of Dickens language. You felt as if you there, in the 1830's.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
Thanks to all for the info.

I enjoyed it but it seems to have come in for a bit of slating in the paper I read this morning.

To be fair I think, David Lean's 1946 classic is such a tough act to follow. Such a spell binding film . Particularly the use of Dickens language. You felt as if you there, in the 1830's.
Click to expand...

I agree. This was a run of the mill bit of TV pot boiler, loosely based on an idea by C. Dickens. Nothing to do with a great book. A bonus in the 1946 version was the genuine Thames background in the early scenes, with real steamers and working Thames barges in the backgound.

The marshland locations were the only draw for me. I have been walking past these selfsame magical places very frequently for more than 30 years. :)
 
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