Lights, camera, action!

Visitors to Hever Castle near Chiddingstone have the chance to learn of its links with the movies during a temporary exhibition.

On display are a number of posters and costumes from films that the attraction has appeared in.

There are two dresses from the film Anne of the Thousand Days, made 50 years ago this year, as well as the the chance to learn about La Peregrina Pearl.

Bought by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor during their first marriage, the $11millon dollar pearl was seen on screen when Taylor played a cameo role in Anne of the Thousand Days.

Once part of the Spanish Crown Jewels, and at the time of its discovery in 1513 the largest pearl in the world, the castle has two portraits which depict the pearl being worn by its somewhat more aristocratic former owners: Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth de Valois.

Visitors may also be amused by the story of a sword dredged from the castle moat in 2011.

It was used during the filming at the castle for 1984 film The Passionate Pilgrim, which starred Eric Morecambe and Tom Baker.

During the filming of a sword fight on the drawbridge, Tom Baker lost grip of his sword and it tumbled into the moat.

Twenty-seven years later, when the castle’s moat was drained, Baker’s sword was discovered poking out of the silt. It is going on display for the first time at Hever.

Photographs from an opera about Thomas Boleyn performed for the previous castle owners, the Astors, in 1972 and images from some of the many TV programmes that Hever Castle has appeared in will also be available to see at the exhibition which starts on May 13.

The show will be in castle’s moat room which is not usually open to the public.

Admission to the castle and gardens, including the exhibition, is £17.75 for adults, £9.95 for children.

Further details here.