Our Historical Drama Films
Quick Flicks 2024
Our annual film night, at which we screen the drama films we have made over the past eighteen months, will be held on Thursday 9th May in the Lecture Theatre, Ashby School, Nottingham Road, Ashby de la Zouch. Doors open 6.50, films start 7.20.
FREE ENTRY
Films to be shown:
Harriett, a 19th century housekeeper with a secret who worked at Calke Abbey
The Gift, Sir George Beaumont of Coleorton Hall and the founding of the National Gallery
The Visit, a group of people arrive for a tour of Breedon on the Hill church, but they are not what they seem
Hastings Tower, a short comedy about Ashby Castle set in the 15th century
The Beaumonts of Barrow Upon Trent, a historical drama made with Sale and Davey Primary School.
2023
The Visit
A group arrive at Breedon Priory Church for a tour, but these visitors are not what they seem. This film will be screened for public viewing at Quick Flicks in 2024 and may be screened in Breedon on the Hill later this year.
Harriett
Harriett Phillips was housekeeper at Calke Abbey for eighteen years. This film, completed in July this year, tells her poignant story.
The Gift
ir George Beaumont of Coleorton Hall and the story of the founding of the National Gallery
Hastings Tower
A short comedy aout Ashby Castle set in the 15th century.
2022
Four soldiers from different eras, but all with a connection with Ashby de la Zouch, meet in St Helen's Church on News Year Eve 2018. Why have they come back from the past?
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Five historical figures from different eras, who are commemorated in St Helen's Church, Ashby de la Zouch, are invited to dinner there in the year 2022. But who has invited them and why?
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Primary School children enact a story set in their village in the 17th century.
In March 2020, we just managed to finish our last film with Grace Dieu Manor School, Charles and Mary, before the first lockdown came. We were also half way through shooting "The Witches of Belvoir" when lockdown came and we had to cancel the second shoot, but we managed to finish the film using unconventional methods!
For the rest of 2020 and most of 2021, no further drama films were made by us, but we did make a number of factual or documentary films for museums and other organisations. See "other films" for more details.
Charles Booth was a Liverpudlian shipowner and importer but also a great philanthropist. He became famous for conducting a huge survey of poverty in London in the last quarter of the 19th century and produced street maps which were colour-coded to show the levels of poverty. He also campaigned to get state pensions for the poor. Mary, his wife, played a big part in this work. They lived with their children in Grace Dieu Manor from 1886. Charles died there in 1916. Mary lived on there until 1933 when she moved into a cottage on the estate. She died in 1939.
When the two young sons of the Earl and Countess of Rutland (Belvoir Castle) fell ill and died, witchcraft was believed to be the cause. Suspicion fell on Joan Flower and her two daughters. Joan died on the way to Lincoln Jail and the daughters were tried and hanged for witchcraft. Convictions such as theirs were based on little or no evidence and the accused were allowed no defence. We made this film to highlight the cruel injustice suffered by many women in the 16th and 17th centuries.
This very short drama was made in the summer of 2021 for the Sir John Moore Foundation Heritage Centre Museum to show everyday life in a typical Victorian School.
2019
The true story of Thomas Pestell. Vicar of Packington in the 17th-century, and a Royalist, he was ejected from his church and home by the Parliamentarians in 1646.
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Martha was just old enough to vote in the General Election of 1918, the first in which some women had the vote, but did she have enough self-belief to do so?
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Our second film made with pupils of Grace Dieu Manor School was the true story of John Johnson, steward to the 4th Earl Ferrers, murdered by him in 1760.
2018
Made with the pupils of Grace Dieu Manor School, this is the true story of what happened to the body of Roesia de Verdun, founder of Grace Dieu Priory, after the dissolution.
Made in partnership with Melton Carnegie Museum young volunteers, one possible theory on the origin of the phrase "Painting the Town Red."
Ashby C E Primary School children interview historical figures associated with St Helen's Church.
2017
The true story of Ann Ayre Hely from Ravenstone in Leicestershire who became a nurse in the Crimean War of 1854-6.
Made for Foxton Canal Museum, this drama illustrates some aspects of life for women and children working on the canals in the 1930s and 1940s.
Based on an idea by Stephen Scotney and set in the early 1900s, a girl disappears and a mysterious man is seen in the woods near the Moira Furnace.
2016
The widow of the last Master Hosier wants to keep his house and framework knitting workshops just as they were, but her daughter fears for her mother's welfare. Shot at Wigston Framework Knitters' Museum.
Made for the Friends of Ashby Bath Grounds, two fashionable young ladies from the 1830s come back to Ashby Museum one night to learn what has happened to the Bath Grounds and their beloved Assembly Rooms at Ivanhoe Baths.
Made with the pupils of Maplewell Hall School and in partnership with Leicestershire County Council's Century of Stories Project, an odd mix of characters find themselves involved in a murder on a train during the First World War.
2015
Bessie, a maid at Staunton Harold Hall, was one of only a few people in the house when the infamous murder of John Johnson took place in 1760. She tells her story.
This lady lived in Moira Furnace in the 1930s and 40s when it was in use as cottages. She comes back to reminisce.
Year 4 (9 year old) children from Moira Primary School find out about the lives of canal boat people during the First World War and then re-enact them at Moira Furnace. Made in partnership with Leicestershire County Council's Century of Stories Project.
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