Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE LARKINS’ FOOD
The series was shot mainly on location in the lush Kent countryside, the setting for HE Bates’s Darling Buds Of
May books. ‘We wanted to create those sun-bleached summer days of times gone by,’ says production designer Lucy Spink. ‘We had a theme of green to echo the fields and orange to bring back those sunny days.’ Many scenes were shot with a gold filter for added warmth.
Romshed Farm, just south of Sevenoaks, was perfect for the Larkins’ home. ‘It’s beautiful and felt so right,’ says Lucy. ‘The flow of the rooms made it easy to film in and a lot of period features were intact.’
The owners moved into a barn on the property, running their farm from there, and the house was emptied of their belongings. The production team brought in Victorian furniture such as dressers and Ma’s beaten-up wing armchair. ‘The scenic artists knocked the kitchen dressers about so everything feels as if it’s been there for generations. We moved through the ages to bits like Ma’s electric mixer and 50s fridge, so there’s a layered feel. We added pops of colour. We put Art Nouveau doors in and painted them salmon pink. They’re exaggerated to bring out the Larkins’ personalities. This is about having fun.’
A home economist produced all the food, including the huge feasts cooked by Ma. ‘We had a rule that the Larkins’ food should be 25 per cent bigger than normal so it felt sumptuous. There were huge
platters of turkeys, pies and puddings. Because of the different dietary requirements of the actors, food had to be made gluten- or dairy-free but still looking perfect. The farmhouse had an electric cooker we couldn’t take out, so we dressed it to look like an Aga.’
Another nearby location was the strawberry field where the Larkins pick fruit to augment their income as scrap merchants. ‘Unfortunately we filmed there before the fruit was out,’ says Lucy. ‘We brought in strawberries raised in polytunnels and put them on the plants for the shot as if they were growing there, holding some in place with chopsticks or skewers. You can’t get the old wicker punnets any more but we found some in Poland.’