Greetings from Balmoral… well, Knebworth House actually, but Knebworth House decked in tartan and hunting trophies and full of men in kilts. For currently we are home to King George VI and expecting a visit from Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill, of course, has visited Knebworth House before (his painting of the Banqueting Hall hangs there), but then he didn’t look suspiciously like Timothy Spall. And over there is the King’s consort, Elizabeth, who when she was a teenage Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon used to pop over to Knebworth House from St Paul’s Walden for her dancing lessons (in what is now our Indian Exhibition) … but then she didn’t look quite as much like Helena Bonham Carter. The King, however, now he does look familiar. He was here last summer, looking perplexed on the doorstep. But then he wasn’t the man in the skirt – then we were St Trinian’s School and that was Rupert Everett, the Head Mistress. This time we’re Balmoral and we’ve let Colin Firth into the house, to play the stuttering King George in a film to be released in the autumn currently titled “The King’s Speech”. Who knows, maybe one day they’ll make a film with actors playing Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter visiting Knebworth House… but they will probably shoot it on location at some other house!
Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com