Oxford

Oxford has inspired story tellers and attracted film makers with its historic architecture and worldwide academic prowess.  Lewis Carroll, an Oxford mathematician who turned his creative talents to writing the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass after a rowing trip down the River Isis, draws tourists to see where he studied.  Similarly thousands of followers of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia and more recently Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, make a pilgrimage across the world to visit the city and Oxford University Colleges that inspired these authors, and whose stories have been retold in Hollywood films.

Helen James Productions has chronicled the making of these blockbusters getting behind the scenes footage for special features for broadcast TV news of the locations where they were shot and interviews with the producers, directors and cast. 

The Oxford Murders, starring John Hurt and Elijah Wood was also filmed here, along with Shadowlands directed by Richard Attenborough in 1993 which featured the Sheldonian Theatre.  Production crews of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter films have been frequent visitors using Oxford University Colleges and buildings like the Bodleian Library for various parts of Hogwarts – JK Rowling’s imaginary school for young witches and wizards.   

One of the earliest television dramas made in Oxford was Brideshead Revisited (Granada, 1981).  It launched the career of film actor Jeremy Irons, who co-starred alongside Anthony Andrews and Sir Laurence Olivier. 

When Evelyn Waugh’s story was adapted by Julian Jarrold for the 2008 version, Hollywood returned to Oxford University and Lincoln College where the interiors of Christchurch College and Merton College were portrayed, and Helen James Productions was there to help reveal the inside story of the filming.

Helen James Productions has also been behind the scenes in Oxford during filming of Inspector Morse featuring John Thaw and his side kick Lewis (Kevin Whately) now with his own ITV series.