The Lumber Room: October 2023

Another sojourn to a site used in the filming of my favourite Sherlockian comedy, ‘Without A Clue’ [1988] (though with the only competition being the Cook/Moore HOUND & Will Ferell’s piteous ‘Holmes & Watson’ that’s not saying much).

Catching a train from London Marylebone, I alighted an hour later at Oxford Parkway. From here it was a fifteen minute bus ride to Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, and named after the 1704 Battle of Blenheim, was built between 1705 and 1722, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is most notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill, but it was for its appearance as ‘The Royal Mint’ in ‘Without A Clue’.

‘Holmes’ and Watson are summoned here following the disappearance of printing plates for £5 banknotes, to meet with Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones), Lord Smithwick (Nigel Davenport) and Royal Mint employee Mr. Hadlers (Richard Henry). The counterfeiting of these notes would cause the inevitable collapse of the economy if they were allowed to circulate.

Making my way to the house, I took plenty of photos from the Great Court, which features prominently in the scene, before making my way inside to the State Rooms and the Great Hall which appears as the interior of the Mint.

Having wandered around all the State Rooms, enjoying the ‘Film Trail’ highlighting the many productions filmed in the House (but not ‘WAC’), I exited back into the Great Court via the Churchill Exhibition, which includes the room in which he was born in November 1874.

It was then time for a few external locations from other productions. Blenheim Palace was the employer of the blackmailing George Dale (Christopher Fairbank) in ‘Inspector Morse: The Way Through The Woods’ [1995] and later in the story he is found dead on the estate, the body having been moved to throw Morse off the trail. Morse later interviews one of the suspects, Williams (John Malcolm) in the park with the Grand Bridge being clearly visible in the background. I therefore crossed the bridge, taking photos looking back.

It was then a brief detour to the filming location for Snape's flashback under a tree by the Black Lake as a Hogwarts student with the Marauders in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ [2007]. Luckily this was clearly marked on the Visitors’ Map as ‘Harry Potter Tree’.

The Palace has also appeared in ‘Spectre’ [2015] (doubling for SPECTRE's meeting in central Rome), and ‘Cinderella’ [2015] (Cinderella arrives at the ball)

Making my way back around the House, and pausing briefly in the shop to buy a few postcards, I caught a miniature train to the Pleasure Gardens on the far side of the Estate. On arrival, the steward had trouble scanning my entry ticket (which had worked perfectly at the main gate and the House), but finally I was allowed in to where scenes of the birthday party of Jessica Rattenbury (‘Elementary’s Ophelia Lovibond) in ‘Lewis: The Point of Vanishing’ [2009] were filmed, including a murder in the Marlborough Maze.

I then proceeded to get lost in the maze, finally finding my way out, but this meant that I would now miss a planned connection in central Oxford, leading to my having to postpone a planned trip to two ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ [2011] locations - Mycroft’s Castle and the Church where Watson marries Mary.

Instead, I exited the estate, and caught a bus back into central Oxford (visited on a previous Sojourn), but this time I spent the afternoon visiting ‘Inspector Morse’ locations, including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Covered Market, three different Oxford Colleges, and the bar of the Randolph Hotel (now renamed ‘The Morse Bar’).