Murder Most Famous

3 Mar 2008

Last month, 6 famous faces made Barnett Hill their quarters, as they embarked on a budding novelists career path competing in Fever Media's, ‘Murder Most Famous' - a brand new series launched by BBC 2 in conjunction with RaW (Reading and Writing) - the BBC's campaign to improve reading and writing in the UK.

The celebrities; Brendan Cole (Strictly Come Dancing), Sherrie Hewson (actress most recently seen on Loose Women), Kelvin Mackenzie (former tabloid editor and current Sun columnist), Matt Allwright (TVs ‘Rogue Traders' presenter), Angela Griffin (former star of ‘Coronation Street' and ‘Cutting It') and Diarmuid Gavin (Celebrity Gardner and make-over Expert) completed daily assignments, living life on the frontline of murder detection, under the watchful eye of best-selling author and crime novelist Minette Walters.

During filming, the celebrities were asked to complete a series of tasks and use what they had learnt to complete daily writing assignments.  Barnett Hill, its grounds and facilities, was used as the base for the show, which aired between 3rd - 7th March 2008, to tie in with World Book Week.

Filming in conjunction with Surrey Police in Guildford, the production team needed to secure a nearby location in a venue that could meet strict criteria. A central location was vital for this, and the venue's drawing room, chosen for its unique period features, was used for the main elimination scenes.

Freelance production coordinator Sophie Clarke has been organising and working on similar projects for the past two years. The busy job involves organising the logistics of the shoot, making sure the facilities are in place to get people from A-B, and that everybody knows what they are doing and where they are meant to be.

She talks about the qualities she was looking for when searching for the perfect venue for this programme, "The building needed to be impressive and beautiful with plenty of grounds. It also needed to be somewhere that we could make look slightly sinister in the evenings due to the crime novel association.

The filming period stretched through almost three weeks so the venue had to have accommodation that we would be happy for a celebrity to use."

"The project was low-budget and the staff at Barnett Hill were excellent in negotiating a suitable price, and arranging the various requirements that we had. We found the staff to be extremely accommodating; everybody went out of their way to meet all of our requirements - it was clear that we were working with a team of people experienced in looking after people and running successful events where nothing is too much trouble."