Category: Articles

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Wessex on Screen: Sebastian

Sebastian is a 1968 cold war thriller from Paramount British, starring Dirk Bogarde and Suzannah York as Oxford-based codebreakers who fall in love. However, Sebastian’s (Bogarde) superiors take an interest after one of his subordinates is suspected of being a double-agent. Donald Sutherland has a small part as an American spy.

The story was by former cryptographer Leo Marks, who had previously written Peeping Tom for Michael Powell. Powell had initially been attached to direct, but Peeping Tom had been so controversial that even eight years later, his name was considered toxic. Eventually, the director’s job went to David Greene, a former member of the Oxford Playhouse repertory theatre. Powell stayed on as a producer, and the screenplay was extensively rewritten by TV writer Gerald Vaughan-Hughes., with Marks only receiving a story credit.

The film received lukewarm reviews upon its release, with a common criticism being that it was three films in one – a codebreaking story, a love story, and a story about the unmasking of the double-agent. Bogarde, who was famously unenthusiastic about promoting his films, agreed to several interviews for US media outlets – but only because he had been on holiday there and ran out of money! Paramount agreed to pay for his plane fare home on the condition that he helped promote the film there.

The promotion does not seem to have done much good. Whilst the film was made in the era before detailed box office records were kept, it does not appear to have been a success. However, it may have something to offer Oxford location-spotters.

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Essential Wessex: Wessex Culture

Wessex culture in this context does not mean the wider sense of anything to do with the region’s history, heritage or arts scene. Rather, it refers to the early Bronze Age culture of what would later become Wessex.

The term was coined in 1937 by the Hampshire-born archaeologist Stuart Piggott, in an influential paper for the Prehistoric Society entitled The Early Bronze Age in Wessex. Piggott was best known for his part in the excavations at Sutton Hoo, and was portrayed by Ben Chaplin in the Netflix film The Dig.

Wessex culture was characterised by burials in richly-furnished barrows, decorated with gold, copper and amber. It is related to the Hilversum culture of the Low Countries. It is usually subdivided into two phases, from c2000-1650 BC, closely associated with the building of Stonehenge, and from c1650-1400 BC, though this subdivision has been questioned. In the early stages of prehistoric studies, it had been thought that the Wessex culture constituted a distinct material culture, but nowadays, it is believed more to refer to an elite social class.

Regardless of changes in archaeological thought, the prehistoric landscape of Wessex is one of the region’s most distinctive features, and was the inspiration for Tolkien’s Barrow-Downs.

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Wessex Worthies: Philip Massinger

If William Shakespeare was the Bard of Avon, then Philip Massinger (1583-1640) could also lay claim to that title, even though the Avon in question is the one which flows through Salisbury, rather than the one which flows through Stratford.

Massinger was a younger contemporary of Shakespeare, and his family seems to have been long established in Salisbury, since at least 1415, according to the city records. Like Shakespeare, he was a member of the esteemed theatre company The King’s Men. There is no record of him having written with Shakespeare, but he is known to have written with other players associated with him, including John Fletcher, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.

It has long been suspected that Massinger was a secret Catholic, an accusation also levelled at Shakespeare, of course. Evidence for this assertion comes from the fact that he failed to obtain a degree from Oxford, that the Earl of Pembroke withdrew his patronage, and that his plays sometimes contain Catholic imagery and sympathetic portrayals of Catholic clergy. However, this evidence is inconclusive, and in the case of the plays, complicated by the fact that they were often written in collaboration with other people.

Perhaps Massinger’s most enduring legacy came long after his death. The phrase “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal”, later to spawn many variants, first appears in TS Eliot’s essay simply entitled Philip Massinger, collected in the anthology Selected Prose of TS Eliot (edited by Frank Kermode, Harcourt Brace 1975. ISBN 0-15-680654-1.)

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Wessex Attractions: Totnes Castle

Totnes is best-known as the landing site of Brutus of Troy in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s origin myth for Britain. But it also houses one of the best-preserved Norman castles in England. After William the Bastard invaded in 1066, he ordered a string of castles built in order to subjugate the native English population. Saxon Totnes was a thriving market town on the River Dart, with a mint. The castle was thought to have been built by one Juhel de Totnes, a Breton commander in the Bastard’s army, later passing to the De La Zouche family.

Today, the castle is owned by English Heritage. It is currently closed due to lockdown.

The postcode, for satnav purposes, is  TQ9 5NU.

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Wessex Attractions: Sudeley Castle

Sudeley Castle, near Winchcombe, is one of the Cotswolds’ premier attractions. It is known to have been the site of a manor since Saxon times, when Ethelred Unrede gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter Goda. It was fortified during the Anarchy, when its then-owner, John de Sudeley, sided with the Empress Matilda (or Maud). However, it was seized by King Stephen and turned into a royal garrison.

The oldest parts of the present building date back to 1442, built by Ralph Boteler and funded by spoils obtained from the Hundred Years’ War. It is the only private residence in England to house the grave of a queen, Katherine Parr. After Henry VIII’s death, Parr married Thomas Seymour, the owner of the castle, with whom she had been having a long-running affair,

Today, set in a magnificent 1200-acre estate, Sudeley Castle is home to 10 different gardens, each with its own unique character. It also contains a collection of rare and exotic pheasants, an adventure playground, and its own cafeteria.

The postcode, for satnav purposes, is GL54 5LP. Stagecoach West service W (Cheltenham to Winchcombe) stops at the War Memorial, about ¾ of a mile from the castle.