CREDITS THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, 1994 dir: Nicholas Hytner Nigel Hawthorne Helen Mirren Rupert Everett Ian Holm Rupert Graves

“Come on, smile and wave. That's what you get paid for. Smile and wave.”

Stage director Nicholas Hytnerís film of Alan Bennettís play, The Madness of George III, uses a slew of historic locations around southern England.

The opening concert is the sumptuous 17th century Double Cube Room of Wilton House, in the town of Wilton, two and a half miles west of Salisbury on the A30, Wiltshire. The house and grounds are open in summer. A popular filming location, Wilton House can be seen (frequently as an interior for another location) in Stanley Kubrick's hypnotically beautiful Barry Lyndon, as the venue for the court martial of Captain Bligh in Roger Donaldson's The Bounty, with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson (the exterior is Greenwich Naval College), as ‘Windsor Castle ’ in Mrs Brown, with Judi Dench as Queen Victoria, and as the sumptuous mansion of Madame Von Meck in Ken Russell's The Music Lovers (the exterior here is West Wycombe House) among others.

Wilton House is standing in, this time, for the interior of ‘Windsor Castle’, the royal residence in Berkshire, which has been extensively remodelled since George III’s reign.

The exterior is Arundel Castle, Arundel, in West Sussex (rail: Arundel, from London Victoria), the 12th century home of the Duke of Norfolk. The castle is open Sunday to Friday in summer. The entrance is on Lower Lodge Mill Road, Arundel, just north of the A27 between Worthing and Chichester.

The 'Palace of Westminster' exterior: School Yard, Eton College, Berkshire

The Palace of Westminster, too, has changed beyond recognition. The exterior is the School Yard of Eton College, north of Windsor, Berkshire a stone's throw from Windsor Castle. The steps lead up to the north porch of College Chapel. Between the buttresses at the foot of the steps, the game of Eton Fives originated. You can see the same yard in stacks of other films, including Chariots of Fire, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Fourth Protocol and Henry VIII and His Six Wives.

The public entrance to the school (it’s generally open from April to mid-October) is on Slough Road (admission charge).

The House of Commons interior, with author Bennett himself as an MP, used Convocation of Oxford University in Oxford, with the adjoining Divinity School standing in for the lobby. Both are part of the Bodleian Library complex on Catte Street, and are open to the public. The distinctive architecture of Divinity School might be recognised by Harry Potter fans as Hogwarts School's Hospital in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

About ten miles east of Oxford is the location used for the palace at ‘Kew Gardens’, where the King is sent to be cured by strict Dr Willis (Ian Holm). Itís Thame Park, Thame Park Road, just southeast of the village of Thame. A private house, it was bought with the intention of conversion into a hotel, but the plans fell through and, once again, it is planned to become a private residence. The grounds of Thame Park were used as the ‘French’ countryside in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.

Queen Charlotte's apartments: Broughton Castle, Banbury

The royal apartments of Queen Charlotte (Helen Mirren) are Broughton Castle, a moated 14th century Medieval castle which was much enlarged in 1550. The home of Lord and Lady Saye and Sele, it’s two miles southwest of Banbury, Oxfordshire, on the B40355 Shipston-on-Stour road. It’s open to the public Wednesdays and Sundays in summer. The castle was home to Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) in Shakespeare in Love and was also seen in Three Men and a Little Lady.

The lodgings of the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) also used Wilton House, as well as at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London SE10 (rail: Greenwich). It’s in the lavish Painted Hall of the Naval College that the royal family suffers through the handbell concert. In Christopher Wren’s building, until recently used as the dining room of the naval hospital, painter James Thornhill collaborated with architect Nicholas Hawksmoor for nineteen years on this trompe líoeil extravaganza. It was here that the body of Lord Nelson lay in state. The Painted Hall, also seen in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Quills, The Avengers and Michael Winner's 1983 remake of The Wicked Lady, is open to the public.

The handbell concert: Painted Hall, Royal Naval College, Greenwich

The Long Gallery, in which the King sees Pitt, is at Syon House in Syon Park (rail: Brentford or Syon Lane), on the north bank of the Thames between Brentford and Isleworth. The Prince of Wales’ breakfast room is also Syon House (admission charge; tel: 020.8560.0881). The house was previously seen in Joseph Losey's Harold Pinter-scripted Accident, also in The Avengers, King Ralph, two Henry James adaptations: The Wings of the Dove and Merchant-Ivory's The Golden Bowl, and Robert Altman's Gosford Park.

The triumphant finale is filmed on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, previously featured in two David Lean films: Lawrence of Arabia (TE Lawrence's memorial service)and Great Expectations (Pip's arrival in London), as well as in floodlit splendour in the 1950 film noir Night and the City and The Long Good Friday.