Watch ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’

Julie Christie as Bathsheba in Far From The Madding Crowd

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Sunday 16 October, 2pm, The Plaza in Dorchester 

To mark the 55th anniversary of John Schlesinger’s Far from the Madding Crowd, the iconic 1967 movie is being screened at the Plaza Cinema, Dorchester.  Much of the adaptation of the famous Thomas Hardy novel was filmed in and around Dorchester, and starred film legends Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Peter Finch and Terence Stamp.

The event is a collaboration between Picturedrome Cinemas and Wessex Museums to complement the current Hardy’s Wessex exhibition. Harriet Still, exhibition curator said:

“It’s so exciting to have the film being played again in Dorchester. It made ‘Wessex’ a tourist attraction, featuring locations including Maiden Castle, Bloxworth House, Durdle Door, Scratchy Bottom, Gold Hill, Friar Waddon’s House, Abbotsbury Tithe Barn, Horton Tower and Thornhill House. The town scenes were filmed in Dorchester, Weymouth and Devizes in Wiltshire.

“The casting directors also recruited over 700 local extras to get Wessex’s ‘real faces and voices’ – it would be fantastic if any of those people or their relatives came to the screening!”

Far from the Madding Crowd was written in 1874, when the 34-year-old Hardy was living at Hardy’s Cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester. It went on to be one of Hardy’s first great writing successes.

Harriet added: “The story follows the story of Bathsheba Everdene who inherits her uncle’s farm, then surprises employees and locals alike by choosing to manage the farm business herself. But her life is soon complicated by the arrival of three men – the dashing Sergeant Troy, wealthy Farmer Boldwood and loyal Gabriel Oak. It is set in Weatherbury, Hardy’s fictionalised version of Puddletown.”

The Hardy’s Wessex exhibition runs until 30 October 2022 at Dorset Museum (Dorchester), Poole Museum, Salisbury Museum and Wiltshire Museum (Devizes). Terence Stamp’s costume from the film is on display at Wiltshire Museum, while the original handwritten manuscript of the famous ‘The Shearing Supper’ scene can be seen at Dorset Museum.

The screening talks place on Sunday 16 October, 2pm. Tickets are £4.50pp from the Plaza Dorchester website or call 01305 262488.

Far from the Madding Crowd poster

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