Mistress of Hardwick was a British 10-part television drama broadcast on BBC 1 in 1972. The series dealt with the life of the four-times married Elizabeth née Hardwick, later Mrs Elizabeth Barley (or Barlow), Elizabeth, Lady Cavendish, Elizabeth, Lady St Loe and lastly Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 27 July 1521 – 13 February 1608). She was commonly known as Bess of Hardwick, and was the builder and chatelaine of one of the great Elizabethan prodigy houses, Hardwick Hall. The series was written by Alison Plowden, directed by Rodney Bennett, produced by Victor Poole and starred Hilary Mason as Bess of Hardwick. It is one of the BBC's "lost" series.

Plot In Radio Times, a 1977 abridged compilation of the series was described as "Scenes from an Elizabethan life. In 1603 Elizabeth lay dying in London. In Derbyshire, Bess of Hardwick and her granddaughter waited impatiently for news that the Queen had named her successor." As the series is lost, little more is known of the plot.

A tie-in book of the same name was written by Plowden, and published by the BBC in 1972. Its ten chapters have a slightly different order and naming to the television episodes.

Cast and characters Narrator: Gary Watson Bess: Hilary Mason Arbella, Bess’s granddaughter: Anna Cropper Arbella (as a child): Melinda Clancy Sir Henry Brounker: John Humphry William Cavendish (Bess's second husband): Barrie Cookson Shrewsbury (Bess's fourth husband): Preston Lockwood Lady Katherine Grey: Cecilia Darby Priest (The Rev Starkey): Peter Gale Bess’s mother: Wendy Johnson Robert Barlow (Bess's first husband): Robert Barry Jr Mary, Queen of Scots: Gilly McIver Elizabeth Cavendish: Clover Roope Charles Stuart: Graeme Thomas Lord Leicester’s man: Graham Suter Young man: Jeremy Wallis Arbella’s tutor: David Ashford (episode 4) Lutenist and music master: Michael Jessett Gilbert Talbot: Christopher Masters Eleanor Britton: Sheila Dunn Messenger from the council: Anthony Dutton Dorothy Stafford: Elizabeth Benson Lady: Sharon Duce unknown role: Jean Hampson Gentleman: Stephen Bradley Gentleman: Eilian Wyn Servant: Cyril Varley (episode 7) Henry Cavendish: Cyril Varley (episode 9) John Dodderidge: Eric Francis Gentleman: Jay Neill Stapleton: Michael Boone Chaplain: David Ashford (episode 10) Dancing master: Jack Edwards Dancers: The Nonsuch Dancers

Production

The series was based on thorough historical research, which was undertaken by Giles Oakley. Plowden wrote in the 1972 tie-in book "For the television programmes we reconstructed certain dialogue scenes from the letters of the Earl of Shrewsbury, Mary Queen of Scots and her mother-in-law the Countess of Lennox, of Bess herself, her grand-daughter Arbella Stuart and many others. We made use of diaries, account books, ambassadors' despatches, the reports of spies and the depositions of prisoners. None of the named characters was invented. There is contemporary evidence for every episode. Every significant line of dialogue, every quotation used, was either written or spoken at the time in question."

The series was filmed on location at Hardwick Hall. Plowden wrote "[...]in order to make the fullest possible use of the marvellous backdrop provided by that unique and beautiful house it was necessary, in writing the television scripts, to make use of a flashback technique, for Bess, who was not concerned with the problems of television producers and writer, did not begin to build Hardwick Hall until she was over seventy." It is assumed that the series was filmed in colour, as a screengrab of the title sequence is in colour. There is no information about whether the series was in black and white or colour in the scant BBC information available about the series.

The choreographer for the dance scenes was Peggy Dixon, and the dancers the Nonsuch Dancers.

Reception Plowden won the won the 1972 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best British Educational Script.

Broadcast history in the UK The ten 25-minute episodes (totalling 4 hours 10 minutes run-time) were first shown in April–June 1972, weekly on Sunday nights on BBC 1, with each episode repeated the following Thursday or a slightly later date, also on BBC 1. The following year the series was repeated, running from 13 April–15 June 1973 on BBC 2. From January to March 1976 the series was shown on BBC 1 Schools Programming. Finally, the ten episodes were condensed into a 95-minute-long programme, broadcast on 10 September 1977. This appears to be the last broadcast in the UK before the series was wiped.

Lost series Most if not all of the Mistress of Hardwick television series appears to be lost: "Unfortunately — and as is often the case with BBC programmes made at the time — almost all of this series appears to have been 'junked'."

The BBC has a long history of "lost media" — programmes that were broadcast live and so never recorded, or those that were recorded but later wiped, as the high cost of the tapes meant that many programmes had to be recorded over.

Episodes

Notes

References

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