THE Cotswolds was taken over by filming crews – drawn in by quintessential country settings – in August 1986.

Over two weeks, Fairford’s market place, churchyard, fairground by the River Coln, and The Bull Hotel, were all used as the perfect backdrop for a 1947 period drama based on Elizabeth Taylor’s A Wreath of Roses.

The 90-minute show was to be screened on Granada TV, the creators of Coronation Street, and featured stars such as Trevor Eve, lead detective in Shoestring and Fulton Mackay, Porridge prison officer.

Fairford was chosen after a lengthy search for appropriate locations.
Peter Mayes, a press officer for Granada, explained: “It is a period play, and it is difficult to find somewhere that can double as a small country town in the 1940s, which still has all the facilities for filming. We had to look high and low before we came across Fairford.”

Christine Smith, landlady of The Bull, said having a film crew around during the summer rush had at times been “quite awkward.”

“But they are a great crowd and it has been a lot of fun having them.” she countered. 

Fairford had also seen cameras for the BBC’s Just Another Day series a few weeks earlier.

Meanwhile in Northleach and Cirencester, an Agatha Christie ‘Miss Marple’ thriller Nemesis, was being filmed. 

Television aerials on properties close to Northleach Parish Church were removed for one day, as not to ruin the 1920s aesthetic. 

Despite the historical appeal of the town, the 15th century restoration work in the interior of the church was deemed “too modern,” and the crew moved onto Chipping Campden for those scenes.