大象传媒

Martin Scorcese and Sarah Ferguson are not normally names you see together but they're both producers of the new film 'The Young Victoria'.

It's all about Queen Victoria's early life, stars Emily Blunt as the title royal, and some of it was filmed right here in Leicestershire!

Belvoir Castle can now impressively boast that it has played host to both the real and film royal.

Belvoir Castle

Listen: The Real and Film Queen at Belvoir

大象传媒 Leicester's Bridget Blair went to Belvoir Castle to find out more from Duty Manager Sally-Ann Jackson...

The Manners family have resided at the Castle for the last 500 years and have had many a visitor in that time, one of their most illustrious being Queen Victoria.

In December 1843 the queen visited Belvoir with Prince Albert and a large entourage that included the Duke of Wellington and prime minister of the time Sir John Peel.

The royal group travelled to Nottingham by train before taking a two and a half hour coach trip to the Rutland residence.

Inside a room ornately decorated with hand-painted Chinese wallpaper is still the bed that the royal couple shared in the 19th Century.

The bed was used for a bedroom scene in the film. Sally-Ann said, "It's quite nice that they used the bed that the real Queen Victoria actually slept on."

Queen Victoria slept here

Lights, Cameras, Sheep!

The filming process at Belvoir took three weeks of huge upheaval, with only seven of these actually involving recording time:

"We're quite used to lots of visitors in the summer, but when a film crew arrive it's totally different.

"Huge lorries turn up, a whole town moves in really, wires everywhere, cables, equipment, props, actors, extras, you name it."

The film crew used a number of rooms, and the park land surrounding the castle - this included a rainy scene with Victoria and Albert galloping on horse back:

"Now at Belvoir we get quite a bit of rain, but on that day nothing - so they had to bring in the rain machines for that. So the sun shines on Belvoir, you know!

"They also thought it would be quite fun to try and keep the sheep in shot, so we had quite a bit of fun with a whole film crew trying to act as sheep whilst hearding sheep in and out shot.

"So that was quite an entertaining day."

A dress from the film

Spot Belvoir on Film

Here's a list of some of the scenes from 'The Young Victoria' that were filmed at Belvoir Castle...

• The Elizabeth Saloon at Belvoir was used as the Duchess of Kent's drawing room.
• The Chinese wallpapered bedroom was the setting for Victoria and Albert's honeymoon suite.
• There is a scene in the ballroom where Queen Victoria speaks to her maid.
• The Regency Gallery is used as Victoria's dressing room before her coronation.
• The grounds and parkland are used for Great Windsor Park.

You can now see the film locations, the actual bed that Queen Victoria slept in during her visit, and three dresses featured in the film at Belvoir Castle.