IN SEARCH OF THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN
by Richard Combs
The South Coast town of Kingswear is a ferry stop across river from Dartmouth, which by comparison is something of a metropolis. Kingswear does, however, boast a railway station, which was closed by British Rail as unprofitable but now does brisk business as part of a private line servicing the Dart Valley. Confirming that this is the West Country but introducing some confusion about the century, a modern joys-of-rail-travel advertisement carries an endorsement from Isambard Kingdom Brunei about how speed will enhance such journeys. The nineteenth century more forcefully returned to the twentieth at the end of October last year, when the unit of The French Lieutenant’s Woman moved in to complete a schedule that had begun in May and taken in locations in London, the Lake District and nearby Lyme Regis. For a few days, Kingswear station stood in for the grander Victorian concourse of Exeter; a steam engine of the old Great Western Railway shunted up and down the valley for the filming of the hero’s arrival; and actress Meryl Streep appeared and disappeared courtesy of Concorde for some fill-in shots, preserving the secrecy that has shrouded her work on the film throughout.