Shakespeare in Love
Miramax Films - 1998
Director: John Madden
Script: Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard

Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Judi Dench, Ben Affleck

The winner of 7 Oscars and 3 Golden Globes, this brilliant romantic comedy about Shakespeare's struggle to overcome his mental block with his new play, provisional title 'Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's daughter', is intertwined with a love story involving a young noblewoman who wants to act on stage - a profession exclusively male at the time.

East Anglia's involvement in the filming is the end sequence of the film. Shakespeare is describing his latest play in which the heroine is shipwrecked and cast ashore on a desert island, and we see Gwyneth Paltrow walking from the sea across the beach.

The beach used to film the sequence is at Holkham on the North Norfolk coast.
East Anglia map Ref: C1

This beach sequence inspired the pop group All Saints to come to Norfolk to film the video of the song 'Pure Shores' for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie 'The Beach'. Unfortunately they came in the middle of winter, and finished up filming in overcoats!!

Copyright © Ken Ward 2004
Last Updated: 08 November 2004