The Nude in the Attic
The revealing statue of a Georgian high-society mistress has her beauty restored at Knole House in Kent, and Townend, a traditional Lake District farmhouse, undergoes a makeover.
The compelling and sometimes scandalous family stories behind two very different National Trust houses are revealed.
In Knole House, the sprawling Tudor ancestral seat of the Sackville family, a life-size nude statue of 18th-century ballet dancer Giovana Zanerini, commissioned by her lover John Frederick, is being conserved to slow the aging process and restore her legendary looks. Two other heirlooms at Knole - a set of 400-year-old rolled-up animal skin parchments - are so delicate that they haven’t been unrolled for many years.
At the traditional Lake District farmhouse Townend, a key part of the archive of the Browne family of yeoman farmers - a bound volume of 18th-century letters - is being conserved using traditional book-binding skills, and scientific paint analysis has revealed the house's original Victorian paint scheme.
On TV
Clips
-
Unravelling history
Duration: 02:17
-
Onion betwixt the buttocks
Duration: 00:58
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Director | Olly Rose |
Producer | Olly Rose |
Director | Sam Roubicek |
Producer | Sam Roubicek |
Producer | Gemma Duncan |
Producer | Corinna Gallop |
Line Producer | Laura Miller |
Assistant Producer | Millie Dobres |
Production Manager | Nancy Gladwin |
Editor | David Thompson |
Series Editor | Alex Raw |
Executive Producer | Sacha Baveystock |
Executive Producer | Sarah Spencer |
Production Company | Blast! Films |
Broadcasts
- Friday 21:00
- Saturday 17:30ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Two Northern Ireland & Northern Ireland HD only
- Saturday 18:00ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Two except Northern Ireland & Northern Ireland HD
- Tomorrow 00:30