On the trail of Hollywood at Bristol Cathedral

With university graduation season come to an end it seemed like normal service would resume at Bristol Cathedral this week, but the cathedral has been mysteriously closed for filming.

The first clues about exactly what’s going on come from social media, which is awash with rumours.

Just cycled past Bristol Cathedral and saw a king and queen smoking under an umbrella. #mysteryfilming

— 50 a year (@gildius1) August 1, 2016

It turns out that the show being filmed is The White Princess, made by American American cable and satellite television network Starz.

The White Princess, a 2013 historical novel by Philippa Gregory, tells the story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and later wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII.

The adaptation is a sequel to The White Queen, a 10-part 2013 series shown on BBC1 which adapted Gregory’s novels The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Kingmaker’s Daughter. This time, however, there is not believed to be any involvement from the Beeb.

I decided to head down on a rainy Tuesday afternoon to see if I could use my investigative journalism skills to find out more. 

On arrival it’s clear that I haven’t been completely misled, from afar I can indeed see a few of the members of the royal court sheltering under a gazebo near the cathedral’s main entrance.

My finely-honed journalistic instincts tell me to find the people in the know, so I loiter round some crew members and security for a bit, hoping to catch an exclusive.

But these guys are good. “It’s for a US TV production company called Starz,” one tells me. “You know, the ones that do Black Flag.”

Before I can find out which members of the Hollywood elite have taken temporary residence I’m swept aside to let a stream of extras past, most of them such as these clergymen pictured below battling to keep their wafer thin ponchos from blowing up into their faces and revealing their golden cassocks.

For a few minutes the place is alive with movement. It’s almost as if I’ve found myself in a medieval coach station, with costume clad extras waiting to load onto a convoy of minibuses to take them back to the unit base near the Lloyds Amphitheatre. 

“It’s lunchtime,” one of my contacts in the crew informs me.

Snooping is a key part of the investigative journalist’s armoury, and with the site closed for lunch I decide to see if I can get a better look at the inside workings of the operation.

Before I can get a proper look though, I’m accosted by a security guard, who labels me a paparazzi and tells me the site is closed for lunch.

This security guard is more tight lipped than the last one and parries all my questions with the simple but effective: “I’m not allowed to tell you that mate.”

My loitering has clearly got to him, as he radios in one of his superiors to come and smoke cigarettes and stare at me from five metres away. 

My new friend puts an end to the possibility of anymore snooping so I turn to the last string in my Woodward and Bernstein bow, and try to scout out another member of the press to help me out. 

A photographer from a local news agency tells me that he’s waiting for Rachel Weisz and Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark in Game of Thrones) who should be returning from lunch shortly.

Much to the frustration of my security minder I decide to wait with him. The secret arrival of a big time Hollywood actors would surely be the exclusive I’ve been searching for. 

Eventually a fleet of cars with blacked out windows drive past us towards the cathedral cloisters, but they come to a stop slightly too far away for either of us to get any sort of legible picture of anyone getting out. 

Especially with the barracking we are both receiving from the security for standing in the road.

Could this be Mrs Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz?

As the empty cars drive back out of the site past us, the mystery remains somewhat unsolved much to the chagrin of my editor.

Were members of Hollywood’s elite plying their trade inside Bristol Cathedral? I’m sorry but I don’t know.

My Pulitzer Prize nomination will have to wait for another day. 

Read more: On the trail of Banksy in Weston-super-Mare