CREDITS THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN, 1982 dir: Karel Reisz Meryl Streep Jeremy Irons Leo McKern David Warner Penelope Wilton Richard Griffiths Peter Vaughan

A box office smash but a not too successful filming of John Fowles’ novel, replacing the literary commentary with a present day parallel relationship.

But the abiding image is of the mysterious Sarah (Meryl Streep, or rather, a stunt double) in a big cloak standing on the Cobb in Lyme Regis, Dorset. The Cobb is a curving breakwater built in the 13th century by Edward I to improve the harbour.

Filming on location around Lyme Regis included the abandoned railway station, which actually closed in 1965; the Undercliff, the coastal area between Lyme Regis and Axmouth; and Broad Street, including the Royal Lion Hotel, and Mr Chapman’s Bookshop, which has been left as dressed for the movie after shooting finished.

The ‘Exeter’ scenes were actually filmed at Kingswear, over the River Dart from Dartmouth, in Devon. The bar and the bedroom scenes of the ‘Endicottís Family Hotelí were shot at the Steam Packet Inn, Fore Street (tel: 01803 752 208), while the Royal Dart Hotel, The Square (tel: 01803 752213) was repainted in brown and cream to suit the 1867 setting.

‘Exeter St David’s Station’ was Windsor Central Station, Berkshire, which has been radically modernised since filming.

Smitten Victorian gent Charles (Jeremy Irons) searches for Meryl Streep among the whores in Green Dragon Court, the dark, pillared space used as a carpark behind the Globe pub (where Bridget Jones lives in the movie of Bridget Jones's Diary) in Borough. Period street scenes were filmed in the narrow all-purpose byways between the warehouses of Bermondsey in London.

The dock office is an elaborate set built on the Thames front at Shad Thames. Virtually all that is seen of the real location are the warehouses opposite.

'Jeremy Irons' London house: 2 St James's Gardens, Holland Park

Charles’ London house is 2 St James’s Gardens, opposite St James Norlands Church, Holland Park, west London (which, at the time of filming was home to TV presenter Robin Day).

For the modern scenes, movie actress Anna (Meryl Streep, again) stays at The Savoy, 1 Savoy Hill, Strand, WC2 (tel: 020.7836.4343). The gleaming entrance court to the hotel, on the south side of the Strand, is straight out of an RKO musical. Even down to the fact that traffic drives on the right (this is allowed nowhere else in Britain). The hotel, an adjunct to the Savoy Theatre (built to stage the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan), was given its sleek deco makeover in 1929.

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