Blenheim Palace in film and media

Blenheim Palace has frequently been the setting for books, TV programs and films and other events presumably enjoyed by the paying public. These include:

Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank selected the Palace as one of his four choices for the 2002 BBC television documentary series Britain's Best Buildings.

Blenheim Horse Trials is an annual three day event rated CCI*** (the second highest level of eventing), and Blenheim hosted the European Eventing Championships in 2005.

The Wakestock 2008 music and wakeboarding festival will take place at the front of Blenheim Palace in June 2008.

Blenheim on film

The following films have had scenes filmed at Blenheim Palace:

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Snape's flashback by the Black Lake as a Hogwarts student with The Marauders)
• The Avengers (1998 version)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 version)
• Barry Lyndon
• Entrapment
• The Four Feathers (2002 version)
• Hamlet (1996) The incumbent Duke has a role as a Norwegian captain. Only the exteriors of the palace were used.
• History of the World, Part I
• Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
• King Ralph
• The Lost Prince
• Orlando
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
• The Libertine
• The Young Victoria
• The Oxford Murders
• The Legend of Hell House
• Gulliver's Travels (the 2010 film version)

A number of sources also credit the Berlin book-burning rally in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as having been filmed at Blenheim Palace. However, these scenes were actually filmed at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.

Other film-based media

The Roman Style Bridge features in synthpop band OMD's music video for their 1981 single, Souvenir. Other parts of the video show band member Andy McCluskey driving his Volkswagen Karmann Ghia through the grounds.

Other media

The BBC Radio Four programme Just a Minute was recorded (twice) at Blenheim with Sir Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones and Kit Hesketh-Harvey. They were broadcast in 1998.

Blenheim in fiction

• The setting for T. H. White's novel Mistress Masham's Repose is a huge, ruined estate called Malplaquet. While this is an obvious parody of Blenheim Palace, it is also related to the landscape, architecture and local geography of Stowe School where T.H. White taught for many years.
• In Neil Simon's play Brighton Beach Memoirs, (and the film adaptation), Eugene mentions "Blenheim Castle" in the dinner scene.
• There is a scene in a partially finished Blenheim Palace in The System of the World, the last volume of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. John Churchill also plays a prominent role in the last book.
• Blenheim Palace, the ninth Duke, Consuelo Vanderbilt and Gladys Deacon feature prominently in Robin Paige's novel Death at Blenheim Palace.

Blenheim in art

The British painter John Piper (1903–1992) was commissioned to paint scenes in the grounds of the palace during the 1980s. In 2012, an exhibition of the artist's work entitled John Piper at Blenheim Palace was held in a room at the palace to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Piper's death.

In October 2004, British jazz-pop pianist Jamie Cullum released "Live at Blenheim Palace," a 145-minute live concert DVD of his performance at the Blenheim Palace Music Festival on 1 July 2004.