The Crown - Series 6 Episode 10

[John Robinson]

This, the final episode of the whole series (we assume) ended in, supposedly, St George's Chapel, Windsor.
The pictures shown, however, appeared to me to be exactly like York Minster.  I suppose they couldn't get Windsor for their filming!
Strangely, I had never heard about this before, and it seems that they even managed to obtain permission to have a Scots piper playing on the organ screen, something I suppose has never actually happened in real life.

[Philip]

Our choir visited York for a weekend in April and I arrived as they were setting down from the filming. Some of the stewards were cagey about admitting what it was for but I think it was common knowledge!

Incidentally, it was a fabulous weekend, and that restored organ!

[Peter Allison]

Probably York was cheaper, wonder if the crew had to pay the admittance charge?😁 on a different note, the TV series "Vera" showed then using a side entrance, that I have never heard of being used... The opposite side of the building to the regular one that is used. Was told it was artistic licence

[John Robinson]

From the pictures I saw on the programme, the Minster looked bigger than in real life.  Camera angles and lenses, I suppose.
Much bigger than Windsor anyway.
I hope that the bagpipes didn't do any harm to the organ only a few feet away (reflecting back on the discussion about Norwich and the bishop hammering the organ with his crozier)!

Oh, I'd say at least the admission charge, and no doubt quite a bit more on top!

[Rowland Wateridge]

6 hours ago, Peter Allison said:

Probably York was cheaper  …

I’m sure Windsor itself would never have been an option on any terms.  It is, essentially, the King’s private chapel (a ‘Royal Peculiar’) and even outside the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The closest visually to St George’s, both architecturally and with the knights’ banners, is the Chapel of King Henry VII in Westminster Abbey (also a Royal Peculiar) which can be ruled out for the same reasons as Windsor.  They simply don’t ‘do’ that kind of thing!  

Incidentally, I have only seen a piper at floor level for royal services both at Windsor and Westminster.

[Hebridean]

I don’t know anything about The Crown but I am puzzled no one seems to remember the piper playing significantly above ground level at the funeral of Her Late Majesty in Westminster Abbey.  Recording on YouTube.  I think he played ‘Sleep, dearie, sleep’.  Did I imagine it?

[Rowland Wateridge]

Yes, having checked, you are correct on both counts!  But the piper was not positioned on the Abbey pulpitum: a gallery (is it a Royal pew?) in the Nave arcade.  

At Windsor the piper was on terra firma for Prince Phillip’s funeral, marching slowly down the south nave aisle and out onto the Lower Ward. 

I equally have not seen ‘The Crown’ episode, and am uncertain whether the scene at York was the substitute for Westminster or Windsor (as previously assumed) as the place of the Queen’s funeral or the subsequent interment.

[Hebridean]

Phew, thank you, Rowland.  The music from the pipers at both services  was amazingly moving, in my humble opinion.  The pipes are just perfect instruments for laments. 

[Rowland Wateridge]

Not wishing to prolong this, I’m sure there was a piper at the St Giles’ Edinburgh service which was before both the London and Windsor services.  Sadly I no longer seem to have the recording I made at the time.

[Guest]

On a similar note I'm wondering why the members of Winchester Cathedral choir featured in episode 6 (who were pretending to be Westminster Abbey choir) had red roses embroidered onto their surplices.  Does the cathedral have a stock of such surplices solely on the off-chance they need to sing at an England rugby match? Were they specially made props for this ten seconds of television? The mind boggles...

[Rowland Wateridge]

Winchester surplices are correctly plain white.  The red rose, I suspect, is simply the producers’ artistic licence as was the use of York Minster* as the setting, the latter fully understandable for reasons already given.  

Frankly, it seems something of a gimmick as Westminster Abbey surplices (as one would expect!) are equally of ‘correct’ plain white form.

Edit:  Some clarification is necessary.  *The filming at York Minster depicted the blessing service of the (then) Prince Charles and Camilla at St George’s Windsor after a civil marriage.  The film at Winchester (of which I was unaware) represented the funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey.  There were no rose-embroidered surplices on that sad occasion.  

[Guest]

I was referring to episode 6, where the Queen has a dream that Tony Blair is crowned king, after which the choir sings D:Ream's Things Can Only Get Better. This was filmed in Winchester Cathedral with the cathedral choir doing the singing (I hope they all received a decent fee). I've now just realised that the rose on the surplices was perhaps the Labour Party emblem, so actually a choice by the film-makers that was appropriate for the fictional context (the Queen's preoccupation with Blair-mania).

[Rowland Wateridge]

The link goes full-circle back to Windsor where Tony Blair was the late Queen’s last appointment to the Order of the Garter.

From what you say, it seems that the Winchester choir sang more than once in the series.