BERKELEY Castle was home to a BBC film crew over the summer as scenes for the series Wolf Hall, first broadcast last night, were shot in and around the castle.

The series Wolf Hall, a serialisation of two Hilary Mantel books, was filmed at the 12th century castle in May last year.

Filming took place during the course of one week and the filming crew used most of the main rooms in the castle as it was transformed, room by room, to create the set they wanted.

There were over 100 cast and crew on site on occasions and the castle car park was entirely taken up by crew vehicles during the week.

Owner of Berkeley Castle, Charles Berkeley, said: “Filming projects are always exciting to be involved in and Berkeley Castle’s unique architecture and atmosphere certainly seem to appeal to the film industry.

“The way the set designers manage to maintain the spirit of the Castle but sometimes make it look entirely different on camera always amazes me.

“We were delighted to host the Wolf Hall crew and that wasn’t the only high profile project to be involved with filming at the castle last year.

“We are contractually bound to secrecy on many of these projects until they are broadcast but I can tell you that we are being shortlisted for more exciting projects for the coming year so our visitors may have the chance to bump into some of the people involved.

“At the very least they can walk in the footsteps of the famous actors and, in some cases, even the footsteps of the historic characters they are portraying, such is the depth of history at Berkeley Castle.”

The series is a historical drama chronicling the rise of Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who became King Henry VIII’s chief minister, as he navigated the corridors of power in the Tudor court.

Estate manager Roland Brown said: “We were delighted to be able to host the Wolf Hall team.

“Filming projects of this size aren’t without their challenges but we pride ourselves on being flexible enough to deal with most eventualities, even if this does mean moving and storing 40 paintings in a matter of hours.”

The series showcases several National Trust buildings and main stars Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis. It was first shown yesterday on BBC 2.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, January 28 at 9pm on BBC Two and there will be six episodes altogether.