June 5th

We travelled down to the West Country this morning for two days filming at Brean Down on the Somerset coast.

Driving down the coast road it's easy to find the location today as the rocky peninsular is now capped with a row of Tudor tents. For us this will be Tilbury, on the Thames estuary, where four thousand men prepared to defend the gateway to London against the 16,000 men of the Duke of Parma's army.

To be honest the site of Brean does not look a lot like Tilbury did - Tilbury was a flat estuarine settlement now largely covered by a major container port, and Brean, in a steep down overlooking Weston-Super-Mare, with distant views across the sea to Wales. But bearing in mind the impossibility of shooting at modern Tilbury and our need for clean sea vistas (not lined with modern hotels and houses) across to where the armada was imagined to be attacking from, it suits our story perfectly.

June 6th

Elizabeth arrives on horse back in full battle array to inspire the troops.
Seeing Cate Blanchett crest the ridge of Brean Down on horseback, in the armour and mailcoat specially made for the film, the sea breeze streaming her red hair behind her, it's easy to see what effect Elizabeth's arrival must have had on this hopelessly outnumbered band of men. With the sun sparkling on her polished armour plates she must have looked more angel than human, and every man and boy there hoped she would prove to be an angel of victory.

PHOTO GALLERY