The Go-Between, 1970
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
Norfolk: Visit: Norwich Station, from London Liverpool Street
Tourism: Visit Norwich
Visit: Norwich Cathedral
Trivia
For more of American ex-pat Joseph Losey, see Accident or Secret Ceremony.
Stephen Poliakoff’s upcoming 1939, also with Julie Christie recently filmed at Melton Constable Hall.
The Go-Between location: ‘Brandham Hall’: Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk
Set in a golden Edwardian summer, punctuated by ominously mysterious flash-forwards to a damp and gloomy present, Joseph Losey’s shamefully neglected film of the LP Hartley story (adapted by playwright Harold Pinter) was made on location in Norfolk.
The Go-Between location: the older Leo arrives: Norwich Station, Norwich, Norfolk
13-year-old Leo Colston (Dominic Guard) suffers tragic consequences when he breaks turn-of-the-century England’s rigid class rules to pass clandestine notes between the aristocratic Marian, Lady Trimingham, (Julie Christie) and her secret lover, farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates).
In the present day scenes, the old and disillusioned Leo (Michael Redgrave) arrives at Norwich Station, Thorpe Road, to revisit the past.
The Go-Between location: Leo explores Norwich Cathedral, Norwich, Norfolk
In more innocent times, Marian takes the young Leo on a shopping expedition to Norwich. While Leo is sent to amuse himself in Norwich Cathedral, Marian furtively meets up with Ted Burgess at the horsefair on Tombland.
The Go-Between location: Marian and Leo walk in town: Tombland Alley, Norwich, Norfolk
Off Tombland itself runs the picturesque Tombland Alley, along which Marian and Leo stroll. The ghoulish name comes from the fact that bodies of plague victims are buried behind its walls.
The Go-Between location: the older Leo visits the graveyard: Church of St Peter and St Paul, Heydon, Norfolk
The local village is Heydon, just west of the B1149, about eight miles west of Aylsham (rail: Aylsham). Here you’ll find the Church of St Peter and St Paul, where the locals gather and where the older Leo walks in the graveyard.
The Go-Between location: the older Leo visits Marian at her cottage: Heydon, Norfolk
On the green opposite stands Marian ’s cottage, where the older, blighted Leo is callously asked to carry one last message.
The Go-Between location: the cricket match: Thornage, Norfolk
The cricket match, though, is not in Heydon. You can see the green, now rough, overgrown and planted with a couple of decrepit goalposts, just south of the village of Thornage. The three skeletal trees overlooking the green are still recognisable, as are the farm outbuildings. The B1110 runs right through the green.
Southwest of Thornage is Melton Constable on the B1354, and a couple of miles south on the road to Hindolveston, is a large unmarked gate which is the entrance to Melton Constable Hall, now apparently deserted and rather decrepit, which became ‘Brandham Hall’, scene of the tragic events.
