Blenheim Palace in film and media

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace has frequently been the setting for books, TV programs and films and other events. These include:

As a filming location

A 2021 survey by House of Oak concluded that Blenheim Palace had made 71 appearances in film and television, more than any other English country house; the site offers a tour of the various filming locations there. Films shot at the exteriors include Spectre while the interior has been used as a filming location for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation among others.

Blenheim on film and TV

• Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
• Fan (2016)
• The BFG (2016)
• Spectre (2015) - doubling for SPECTRE's meeting in central Rome
• Rogue Nation (2015)
• The Royals (2015)
• Cinderella (2015) (Cinderella arrives at the ball)
• The Amazing Race 25 (2014)
• A Little Chaos (2013)
• Gulliver's Travels (2010)
• Lewis (2009) – Episode 3.03: The Point of Vanishing
• The Young Victoria (2009)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) (Snape's flashback by the Black Lake as a Hogwarts student with The Marauders)
• The Libertine (2005)
• The Lost Prince (2003)
• The Secret Garden (1949 film with Margaret O'Brien) & (2001) Back to the Secret Garden

• The Four Feathers (2002)
• Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001)
• Entrapment (1999)
• The Avengers (1998)
• Hamlet (1996) – The incumbent Duke has a role as a Norwegian captain. Only the exteriors of the palace were used.
• Inspector Morse: The Way Through the Woods (1995)
• Black Beauty (1994)
• Orlando (1992)
• Tonight Live with Steve Vizard (Australian TV Tonight Show) (1992)
• King Ralph (1991)
• Without a Clue (1988)
• Treasure Houses of Britain (1985)
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981)
• History of the World, Part I (1981)
• Barry Lyndon (1975)
• The Legend of Hell House (1973)
• Young Winston (1972)
• Half A Sixpence (1967)

Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank selected the Palace as one of his four choices for the 2002 BBC television documentary series Britain's Best Buildings.

Other media

The BBC Radio Four programme Just a Minute was recorded (twice) at Blenheim with Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones and Kit Hesketh-Harvey. They were broadcast in 1998.

In 2019 Blenheim was the subject of news-coverage concerning the exhibition and later theft of Maurizio Cattelan's sculpture America, a gold toilet.

Blenheim in art

American musician Barry Manilow performed a concert for over 40,000 fans on the grounds of the Palace on August 27, 1983. The recorded concert was released on VHS and later on DVD as "Barry Manilow: The Concert at Blenheim Palace."

The British painter John Piper (1903–1992) was commissioned to paint scenes in the grounds of the palace during the 1980s. In 2012, an exhibition of the artist's work entitled John Piper at Blenheim Palace was held in a room at the palace to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Piper's death.

In October 2004, British jazz-pop pianist Jamie Cullum released "Live at Blenheim Palace," a 145-minute live concert DVD of his performance at the Blenheim Palace Music Festival on 1 July 2004.