Interview with production designer Pat Campbell

How did you go about bringing Wolf Hall to the screen?

I read Hilary Mantel’s books, then the scripts and then you just have to immerse yourself in the period. The most important thing was locations – we were looking for months. Peter [Kosminsky] is a director who comes from a documentary background, he’s factual. That meant that we did want to be true to the period, so we filmed in England rather than overseas as is often the case and the results are fantastic. We’ve been working across the South of England and we are basically filming in the majority of Tudor properties that still exist. It gives it a genuine reality to start with which is great. And it’s good for the actors: They walk into an old house and it feels right.

What places have you used?

Because we’re working in this country we have actually filmed in several manor houses that Henry VIII actually visited. He had a fantastic playground in the South of England - he travelled all over the place, he went hunting across the South, and he moved his huge entourage from house to house. We have been filming in some of those houses. For example, Berkeley Castle, which we have filmed in, had stained glass windows put in for his visit. These are still there, they’re beautiful and we saw them in our shoot. Nothing could be more ‘correct’ than the real thing.

How else did you go about achieving period accuracy and detail?

A lot of research. Much of it was to do with the amount of etiquette involved in the way people lived. We had special advisers to tell us how things would have been. Also documentaries like Tudor Monastery Farm and others like that when they go into minute detail about how a swan was cooked or something were hugely informative. Our graphic designers spent a lot of time in the British Library in areas where you can’t take books out. And the Vatican Library, where they have Henry’s love letters to Anne, have also helped out. Because the books are so well known the amount of help we have received has been fantastic.