Set three decades after ITV’s Belgravia, the Victorian period drama, Belgravia: The Next Chapter, continues the saga of the affluent Trenchard family. At the conclusion of the original series aired in 2020, Lord Frederick Trenchard was on the brink of birth, and now he’s all grown up and about to tie the knot. Raised by Oliver and Susan Trenchard, he is blissfully ignorant that he is actually the biological son of Susan and her ex-lover John Bellasis. And what would a good costume drama be without the secrets of his past threatening to disrupt his new marriage to Clara Dunn?
Benjamin Wainwright, who portrays Frederick, reassures potential viewers that it’s not necessary to have seen Belgravia to comprehend the unfolding drama. “It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen the first series as there are various discoveries made during the season that can be quite entertaining to find out along with the characters,” he says.
(Image: © Carnival Film & Television Limited)
Harriet Slater, who plays his wife Clara, was captivated by the story as soon as she read the initial script. “I thought, ‘I understand this girl!’ Even though it’s set in 1871, it doesn’t matter because the anxieties that she has and the experiences she lives through, the struggles she and Frederick have in their relationship, they are age old.”
Her character Clara begins as somewhat shy, but gradually gains confidence and independence in her marriage to Frederick.
Harriet, 30, discloses that the filming schedule often meant she would be playing the more reserved Clara one day and the stronger Clara the next and that proved to be a challenge. “It’s been challenging because we’ve been shooting all eight episodes at the same time and flitting from the end of the show back to the start of the show,” she explains.
“We were shooting Clara and Frederick’s first ever date quite late in the shoot, which was so strange to go back to that point in the story after knowing where these characters end up and having grown in their relationship, and be the young, naïve versions of themselves when they’d only just met and it was all so exciting and new. It’s been challenging, but really fun.”
(Image: © Carnival Film & Television Limited)
Harriet credits Benjamin as a key reason why filming was enjoyable and why their characters have such great chemistry on screen. “He’s amazing, he’s such a dream to work with,” she says. “I couldn’t have been any luckier than I have been to be working with him.”
“We have such a laugh on set which I think is essential because for so much of the show our characters’ relationship is quite turbulent, so there are a lot of arguments and crying scenes. I think it’s really important that we can have a laugh in between those, which we do… maybe a bit too much sometimes!”
The original Belgravia series was written by Downton Abbey‘s Julian Fellowes, and Harriet, who is a Downton fan, was thrilled when the filming locations included some that were used in the TV hit.
“We’ve been at a different stately home every week since the start of filming which has been incredible. I’m a massive stately home nerd and I go to National Trust properties on my day off – this has been a dream come true,” she says. “I think my favourite was Basildon Park in Reading because I visited it a year before with my friend, and then as we were arriving to set I thought, ‘I recognise this place!’ It was somewhere I’d visited before, and now we’re back using it as our Eton home. That location was used quite a lot in Downton Abbey, which was fun to recognise.”
The cast also had the privilege of exploring private areas of Edinburgh Castle, thanks to the show’s historical advisor Alastair Bruce, who was governor of the castle until last year. “We got to visit Alastair’s house in Edinburgh Castle, and he did a private tour for us one evening, which was amazing,” Harriet recalls.
“We all got to have a dram of whisky on the top of Edinburgh Castle. It was a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which we were very lucky to experience.”
Benjamin, equally awestruck, adds, “You have to pinch yourself sometimes because every day you’re walking into these increasingly elaborate places and you just think, ‘Oh, this is my place of work!’ I have to remind myself it’s not normal to be given access to these places.”
Belgravia: The Next Chapter is available to stream on ITVX from Sunday 9 March.
View news Source: https://www.ok.co.uk/tv/belgravia-next-chapter-star-tears-34823024
