Based on the best selling fictional novel by Dan Brown, which provoked considerable speculation concerning the legend of the Holy Grail resulting in the denouncement of the novel by many Christian denominations, Director Ron Howard brought the adaptation to screen in 2006. It proved to be one of the most anticipated – and hyped - films of the year previewing at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May. The film received the same criticism as the book with some Bishops urging their flock to boycott the film. Whilst film reviews were lukewarm and some extremely critical of the film and cast, The Da Vinci Code still earned US$230 million worldwide on its opening weekend where it screened at over 100,000 screens over 3 days; it was also the 2nd highest grossing film of the year. The story follows a well known historian, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) who is embroiled into the investigation following the bizarre death of the curator, Jacques Sauniere (Jean-Pierre Marielle) in The Grand Gallery at the Louvre, Paris. As the trail unravels he begins to uncover an astounding conspiracy based around the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. From a film/TV tourism perspective many of the locations used benefited from an increase in visitor numbers as a result of featuring in both the book and on screen. VisitBritain, the French tourism agency, Maison de la France, Novotel and Eurostar all recognised the potential for an increase in visitors and as such partnered with Sony Pictures to embark upon a promotional campaign to boost tourism to London, Paris and Edinburgh on the back of the film. Visitors were encouraged to take their own Da Vinci Code Trail and follow in the footsteps of the stars. A number of locations used showed a noticeable increase in their visitor numbers. For example, Lincoln Cathedral which doubled for Westminster Abbey experienced an average of 25% increase in their monthly admissions during the first year of the film’s opening. Burghley House’s, whose grounds are actually in Cambridgeshire whereas the house is in Lincolnshire (outside the East of England), admissions were also up by 20% but this could equally be attributed to the house being used in the 2005 screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Two locations were used in the East of England:

Release / Airing: 19/05/2006