HISTORY D

on location in the UK in two key places – Lythe in North Yorkshire and in Fitzrovia in central London.

In the capital, many of the scenes were shot at a Grade I listed, five-storey, sevenbedroom mansion on Fitzroy Square, which in the film is the workshop and home of the fictional Reynolds Woodcock, played by Day-Lewis.

Within its Georgian walls Woodcock is shown designing and making clothes for royalty and high society, and also wooing his waitress girlfriend.

The Robert Adams-designed terraced property is now for sale. Built in 1790, it features eight reception rooms, private parking, 3.5-metre high ceilings and a full height cantilevered stone staircase.

It has planning permission to turn the rear mews house into separate modern dwellings with a basement pool.

The property is for sale at £15m through Knight Frank (020 3813 3647). edicated fans of First World War TV comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth – starring Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie – will know that General Melchett, played by Fry, was heavily modelled on a real soldier.

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, who commanded the British Expeditionary Force onto the bloody field of Flanders, has been heavily criticised since for his belief in near-suicidal frontal assaults, and the millions of casualties that followed.

But a change of heart among historians has occurred recently. A more balanced view of his military career has now been adopted, no doubt to the relief of his famous family.

One of his forebears, John Haig, helped found one of Scotland’s most famous distilleries and by the time Douglas was commanding troops in France, Haig whisky was already a global brand.

This whisky wealth paid for Eden Mansion, a sumptuous Victorian estate built by the family near St Andrews, a home Douglas would have known well.

Although no longer owned by the Haig family, it has recently been refurbished at great expense.

It has two halls, several reception rooms, a cinema and a main bedroom on the first floor, seven more bedrooms upstairs, a tower room and wine cellar, as well as a two-bedroom lodge, several outbuildings, garages and five acres of gardens.

It is currently operated as both a B&B and home and is on the market for offers over £1.75m. More information from Savills (0131 247 3738).