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LMGI COMPASS
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Summer 2020
more appealing to a modern au-
dience. Written by Jack Thorne,
the original Edwardian setting
is moved to post WWII; a time
when Victorian attitudes to chil-
dren still persisted with 'seen
and not heard.' The post-war
depression would add another
emotional depth to the story
with the nation mourning the
death of its fathers and sons
and the landscape still scarred
by war. In the original story and
the many previous filmed ver-
sions, the secret garden was an
actual hidden, abandoned and
neglected walled garden that
the children cultivated back
into something beautiful mend-
ing their damaged souls and
forging new friendships. Beauti-
ful, but not particularly exciting
for today's audiences familiar
with flying wizards and talking
bears! Marc's secret garden was
to be a spectacular real space,
not built in Pinewood Studios
nor a computer-generated
backdrop. It had to be engaging
and honest. This secret garden
was to be made up from real
gardens and landscapes which
would be brought together with
the minimum of CGI interfer-
ence to make a 'tardis' walled
garden. CGI would play its role
but only subtly; flowers bloom
in front of our eyes; a robin be-
comes Mary's friend.
Despite these reinventions,
our story still begins in colonial
India, where Mary Lennox's (Di-
xie Egerickx) parents have died
from cholera leaving her an or-
phan abandoned in her home.
She is rescued by a British of-
ficer, shipped back to Blighty
to be lodged with Archibald
Craven (Colin Firth), a distant
uncle whom she has never met.
On arrival in England, she is
met by the dour Mrs. Medlock
(Julie Walters) accompanying
her back to the gloomy Mis-
selthwaite Manor on the edge of
some dark northern moor.
Mary's return to England re-
quired a journey from port to
Misselthwaite Manor for which
we used a period cruise termi-
nal on the Thames followed by
Gunnera Forest.
Photo ©2020 Studiocanal S.A.S./Courtesy of Trebah Gardens
