Secrets from the Set

Anatomy of A Scandal

Netflix’s psychological thriller Anatomy Of A Scandal, in which government minister James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend) is accused of rape by an aide he was having an affair with, leaving his wife Sophie (Sienna Miller) wondering whether she really knows the man she married, is brimming with dark secrets. But the Whitehouses’ elegant Mayfair home, envied by viewers for its plush interiors, has plenty of secrets too.

For a start, it doesn’t actually exist. The Georgian townhouse with its copperaccented kitchen, parquet floors and black front door with a gilded lion’s head knocker was built on a set at Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

But that’s not all. Step inside and the house’s decor forewarns us of key plot twists, with the interiors reflecting the state of the Whitehouses’ marriage as the series progresses. ‘We worked with the architecture to tell the story very subtly,’ production designer Melanie Allen said.

At the beginning of the series the couple are shown in the living room (right), designed with a pale-yellow palette to represent their ‘golden couple’ status. Although even here there are design clues indicating that there’s trouble ahead. Cloudpatterned walls suggest ‘the winds are coming’, and in one early scene with the couple sitting next to each other on the sofa, there are framed family photos on the wall behind Sophie – but not James – subconsciously emphasising her commitment to her loved ones and his lack of it.

As more details of her husband’s sexual exploits are revealed in court, Sophie is often shown isolated in her trendy kitchen (top), cooking for her children. But the tree-patterned wallpaper in that room is more than just a stylistic choice, revealed Melanie – it hints at the sense that Sophie is adrift. When her domestic world collapses, she’s alone in the woods.

Then, as James’s dark past is revealed, more of the action is shot in his burgundy study (above), a masculine lair with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and no natural light. ‘We go darker for the study as we go into James’s world,’ said Melanie. ‘It’s the only time we wanted the colour palettes to be different from the rest of the house.’

The look of the house was inspired by research into the tastes of the political elite such as Boris Johnson and Samantha Cameron. ‘We wanted to tell the story that the Whitehouses come from generations of old wealth,’ said Melanie, who shopped for furniture in high-end shops frequented by interior designers and for antiques at Lots Road Auctions in Chelsea. Surely the best place to go if you’re looking for closets with lots of skeletons.

Shivani Kochhar Anatomy Of A Scandal is available on Netflix.