Guernsey Press

‘Stunning’ Devon the true star of film – estate owner

AN ARISTOCRAT from Devon has accused Guernsey of cashing in on the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society blockbuster while her county, where it was filmed, misses out.

Published
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was filmed mostly on Lady Angela Stucley’s Hartland Abbey estate in north Devon. (21376908)

The complaints of Lady Angela Stucley – the owner of Hartland Abbey estate – have gone national through the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers.

She said the film’s producers had told her there ‘wasn’t enough unspoilt country and no tax incentive’ to film on the island and instead shot much of the movie on her estate.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society film, based on the book of the same name, was released a fortnight ago and is currently second in the UK box office charts having already taken more than £3m. in cinemas nationwide.

‘What [we] would love to do is to get it into the wider world that rather than – as widely advertised by Guernsey tourism – it being actually Guernsey, it is in fact the beautiful north Devon coast,’ said Lady Stucley.

‘We don’t want to do the dirty on Guernsey, but we just want to stick up for our patch and tell the world how stunning north Devon is. Actually, it’s quite ingenious of Guernsey [to cash in] as not one second was filmed there.

‘The producers told me that there wasn’t enough unspoilt country and no tax incentive. But it is all beautifully filmed,’ she said.

A large number of events have taken place to promote the island in the wake of the film, including a national advertising campaign.

The Heritage Festival has put on several talks and tours, a number of non-fiction books have been published by islanders and a special interactive website was launched by Visit Guernsey to attract tourists to ‘the island that inspired the story’.

Film showings at the Mallard have been sold out.

The stars of the film also travelled to Guernsey specially to be part of a local premiere for the film, which garnered international attention.

A spokesman for VisitGuernsey said: ‘The promotional campaign carried out by VisitGuernsey to coincide with the release of the film focuses on the story and the unique history of the island.

‘Thanks to the success of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, there is a renewed interest in both the book and the island’s history which the film’s release brings to new audiences. Mary-Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ novel of the same name, on which the film is based, already brings large numbers of visitors to Guernsey, wanting to experience the island that inspired the story.

‘As is often standard practice the film was not shot in the location it represents. After careful research and location scouting, the filmmakers decided it was logistically unrealistic to try to transform modern-day Guernsey into 1940s Guernsey for the full production and maintain the historical accuracy of the period in which the film is set.’