TV & Movies
Why The Tail Of A Curious Mouse Couldn't Film At Beatrix Potter's Real Home
And opted for Wales instead.
Christmas TV is what we all live for this time of year. And in 2020, we deserve the absolute best of the best. One television offering many of us are excited to sit down and watch is Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of A Curious Mouse, which sees a young Roald Dahl travel across the country to meet his childhood literary icon Beatrix Potter. As well as a great plot, you can expect to see some impressive scenery in the show, so where was The Tail Of A Curious Mouse filmed?
Much of the action in The Tail takes place in and around Beatrix Potter's famous home, Hill Top farmhouse. Potter bought Hill Top in 1905 with proceeds from her first book, the Tale of Peter Rabbit, and used the house and its surrounding countryside as inspiration for many of her much-loved books.
However, as the Times explains, the production team decided against filming in the real-life location "because of the hordes of tourists who visit the National Trust property in search of their own piece of storybook magic."
Instead, they opted for their own version of Hill Top near the town of Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Speaking about the location in an interview with BT recently, actor Rob Brydon (who's playing Potter's husband William Heelis in The Tail) said: "It’s charming, it’s witty, it’s moving. It’s going to look beautiful. When I arrived on set at the location for Beatrix’s farmhouse, they’d transformed it into a Christmas scene and it was absolutely enchanting. It was in the countryside in the Vale of Glamorgan which is a lovely area anyway."
Interestingly, Dahl actually grew up in Wales, as his childhood home was in Cardiff, which makes the location seem rather fitting.
As well as beautiful scenery, the Christmas special has magical animation and an impressive cast list that features Dawn French as Potter, along with a nine-year old Harry Tyler as Roald Dahl. It also includes names such as Alison Steadman and Bill Bailey.
Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse airs on Sky One at 8.15pm on Christmas Eve.
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