Underwater scenes were filmed at Action Underwater Studios.

The main scene, which has been verified, is the Greenwich Fireworks scene where Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), about to marry the Earl of Wessex (Colin Firth) attends Queen Elizabeth I’s (Judi Dench) banquet with him and her maid in tow, although it isn’t her maid it is Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) in disguise. Viola is called to an audience with the Queen. Wessex, who is suspicious of Viola and believes she is having an affair, asks her maid if Viola has had a man visit her. Naturally Will tells him that she has not knowing full well that he is in actual fact … her lover! The pair then join the Queen’s party. A number of bedroom scenes showing detailed wood panelling in the background may also have been used at Hatfield House in the sequences where Viola and Will meet in secret. The back of Hatfield House is lit beautifully during the fireworks scene, although the house is actually Jacobean in architecture!

Holkham beach afforded the perfect backdrop to the scene at the end of the film which sees Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) walking down a deserted beach supposedly in Virginia but actually in North Norfolk. As Holkham Hall was built 100 years after the film was set, all the scenes had to be carefully filmed so that no give-away distinguishing features were visible. The house therefore experience a limited film/TV tourism affect which could have been because there was no audience link between the house and the film.