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A Very British Christmas Season 1 Episode 3
#A Very British Christmas
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#A Very British Christmas
#RealityInsightHub
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
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FunTranscript
00:00Light, fancy baubles, tinsel and fairy lights, job done.
00:07Unless you're decorating this, or this, or this.
00:13There are three things that hold Christmas up at Castle Howard.
00:16Chicken wire, glue gun sticks, and cable ties.
00:20One crack team of Christmas crafters
00:23are responsible for bringing the festive season
00:26into some of Britain's best-loved buildings.
00:30The logistics is a little bit more than moving boxes of baubles around.
00:36For Dave...
00:37Safety first.
00:38Laura...
00:39Ta-da!
00:40Brian and the rest...
00:42Juliana, Eve, Theodora, your end down.
00:45...Christmas is a full-time job.
00:48Always get there in the end, through panic or coffee or gin.
00:51This is the bit that no-one ever sees backstage.
00:54Top of the tree.
00:56Cute.
00:57Designer, an ex-theatre producer, Charlotte.
01:00How do we feel about buying a kilometre of green lights?
01:03And business partner, former costume designer, Adrian.
01:07If they'd been purchased at full price, it was over 7,000 pounds.
01:10Right.
01:11Okay.
01:12Eight years of Christmas installations just keep getting bigger.
01:15Well, it totally looks like it's not going to fit.
01:17Balder.
01:18I'm just worried about that statue.
01:20And riskier.
01:21Good job!
01:22Good job!
01:26Sidestepping priceless antiques and cautious clients.
01:30How can they make an armoury?
01:32Christmasy.
01:33Christmasy, yeah.
01:34The clock is ticking.
01:35Three, two, one.
01:37To doors opening.
01:39God, it's fabulous.
01:41For Christmas.
01:43Next year's ambition is...
01:45Not to break the team.
01:46On the edge of Hyde Park in London, this is Kensington Palace.
02:02Home to royalty for more than three centuries, it has over 500 rooms, hosts state ceremonies,
02:14and is a major public attraction.
02:19This year, it's decided to go big for Christmas and has called in the experts.
02:25We're really excited because this is our, like, first actual royal palace.
02:32But it's going to be very different and, to a certain extent, a bit daunting.
02:38There are many grand apartments at the palace, but this one is particularly special.
02:45It's the birthplace and childhood home of none other than Queen Victoria.
02:51Mantle, arrangement, tree.
02:54A place for living in, rather than a royal showpiece.
02:57Historic royal palaces want it filled with memories of Victoria's treasured winter trips to the seaside.
03:05This is the room where we're imagining departure from the palace.
03:09Central luggage structure.
03:11As if it's sort of getting ready to be loaded onto a carriage.
03:15Adrian and Charlotte have to sprinkle festive magic over ten rooms,
03:20including Victoria's nursery and the Red Saloon.
03:24Grand finale.
03:25Grand finale.
03:28We're making peg dolls in the style of Victoria's own peg dolls.
03:32She had an extensive collection, over 300.
03:35So we imagine that she imagined her seaside pier Christmas scene as little peg dolls.
03:45Christmas in 1800s Britain was beginning to look a lot like, well, Christmas.
03:51The now familiar tree was introduced by Victoria's German grandmother.
03:56Decorated with candied fruit, nuts and candles.
04:00This is where we want to present Victoria's tree.
04:03Charlotte's coloured Kensington curator, Miles, to ensure their Christmas would be recognisable to young Victoria.
04:11I think for us this is about telling quite an exciting but relatively unknown story.
04:15That Christmas as we know it today in many ways was born here at Kensington Palace.
04:19So Christmas trees were placed on tables, they weren't left on the floor as we might display them today.
04:24Presents were displayed around the tree but they were not wrapped.
04:28So it's still relatively vintage in look and feel.
04:32And I think what's really important is trying to evoke a sense of period authenticity,
04:37a real kind of look and feel that is complementary to the historic interiors here.
04:43The rooms in which Victoria was born, grew up and enjoyed Christmas.
04:47So that's a full arch.
04:49Adrian's checking the plans with Laura from the palace.
04:52On this side of it, there's a floristry archway.
04:55She's got a long list of house rules.
04:57It's quite a small room.
04:58We want to make sure that it is safe.
05:00So the painting here won't need to move.
05:03There'll be enough width here for wheelchair users to come through.
05:06Yeah, I mean we're probably losing about 10 centimetres total.
05:10Working in historic buildings is nothing new for Team Christmas.
05:15For seven years they've been installing festive displays in castles and stately homes across Britain.
05:30What is new is the theme.
05:34Previous Christmases have been pure flights of fancy.
05:38From Mad Hatter's Tea Parties, the Land of Oz, fairy tales and pirates.
05:44But Kensington Palace has asked for something grounded in historical fact.
05:57And a seaside holiday is hardly the usual Christmas fair.
06:02Charlotte and Adrian have come to Ramsgate to work out what links it with the young Princess Victoria.
06:13I would love to show you where Queen Victoria slept.
06:17Fabulous.
06:18Local historian Clive has brought them to Albion House, where she stayed not long before she became Queen.
06:25Oh yeah, look at that, it's amazing.
06:32Amazing outlook.
06:33Don't you really get the feel of it?
06:35Yeah.
06:37And I think they might have had, well they would have had donkey rides on the sands,
06:41and they would have had bathing machines so that people could dip in the sea.
06:46So the Royal Pavilion would not have been here at that time?
06:49That was later.
06:50But she could have looked out and she would have seen the obelisk that was built to her uncle.
06:54George the Fourth.
06:56Victoria visited Ramsgate several times in her youth.
07:01As heir to the throne, it offered an escape from the formalities of life at court.
07:07So Ramsgate was more casual in feel to her main childhood in Kensington Palace?
07:15Yes, and she loved it.
07:16She'd had a very difficult childhood, really, because she was going to become Queen.
07:21But that meant that there were factions trying to control her, including her mother.
07:28The princess's diaries reveal she led a claustrophobic childhood.
07:32She was under permanent adult supervision, had to sleep in the same room as her mother,
07:38and hold hands going up and down stairs, even as a teenager.
07:42As a teenager, everything was regulated.
07:45It was sort of quite stressful, really.
07:48But Ramsgate was relaxed and happy as it is today.
07:52And Queen Victoria absolutely loved it.
07:55And I think there was a whole, you know, there were all the things, issues that happened.
07:57I mean, there were donkeys and Punch and Judy, all these things.
08:01So it was, within the Victorian context, it was fun, you know.
08:09In terms of research, this is not a bad gig.
08:14Your treat for being a good girl by the seaside.
08:17A good girl by the seaside.
08:19But trips here were clearly more than a brief jolly for Victoria.
08:24Her diaries record conversations with fishermen and other local sights and sounds.
08:30They were memories she could conjure up back at the palace.
08:34I think we could go even further with that feeling of her, like, really just wandering the seashore,
08:41enjoying it, picking up pebbles and shells and, like, watching the characters
08:46and then rushing back to paint them and get all the details down about the way they looked.
08:51A real informality of the setting of that room.
08:53And it's kind of like a lovely kind of artistic chaos of all the different things and the things she was reading.
08:57A contrast to how the other rooms are feeling.
09:00Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the contrast of what her room would have been like at Kensington,
09:04and everything in its place and everything ordered and everything just a bit dull.
09:13It's July.
09:16On an old farm in Yorkshire, Charlotte and Adrian's Team Christmas
09:20are gearing up for Kensington Palace's trip to the seaside.
09:24Model maker Mark is starting a miniature of Albion House for the drawing room.
09:31Laura's in charge of a series of grand floral arches.
09:36And Dave's welding a support for a suitcase Christmas tree to go in the schoolroom.
09:42This is the kind of dirty steel part that will eventually end up being a beautiful display.
09:50Julianna's helping sort over 60,000 baubles to try to find any that fit the theme.
09:57Anything antiquey.
09:59It's kind of Victoria, but in Regency period.
10:03But I think we're allowed a little bit of artistic licence.
10:06It is Christmas after all.
10:08But the full list of rules has come in from the palace.
10:12It's not good news.
10:14Kensington, zero glitter.
10:16So we've been stock planning decorations for eight years and nothing says Christmas, like a bit of sparkle.
10:25But.
10:26Glitter, not acceptable in these environments because it can get into the carpets, into the collection pieces.
10:32So we have to go for a completely no glitter.
10:35I mean, we can't use these ones obviously because of the glitter.
10:38You know, there are some things that are more embellished.
10:42I'm hoping that we might get away with a few of these.
10:45The rules are strict.
10:47No glitter anywhere or on anything.
10:51So, yes, it is the first week of July.
10:57And yes, I will be going to Marks and Spencer's food shopping tonight.
11:00And yes, everyone will be looking at me because I'm covered in glitter.
11:05It's just part and parcel of the job.
11:07In fact, I'll probably have to have a full, like, detox several days of showering before I even am allowed to walk into Kensington.
11:17Because it won't just be the decorations, it will be me just giving off glitter everywhere.
11:32Kensington Palace opens its festive display in two months' time.
11:38But Team Christmas is struggling to find baubles that comply with the strict no glitter policy.
11:45We'll start you off with making clear icicles, like so.
11:51Adrian and Juliana have come to one of Britain's last glassblowers to try to make their own.
11:57They're perfect for our scheme for that tree in Kensington.
12:00I'll get the first bubble in for you because that's the most difficult.
12:06And you'll put the pattern in and arrange it.
12:12Tim Simon has been making bespoke glassware for over 40 years.
12:17Right, are we ready?
12:18Yeah, I'm going to go first.
12:19OK.
12:20First, he fetches a gather from the furnace.
12:25A blob of molten glass to dip in fritz.
12:28Powdered colours made of oxidised metals such as cobalt and tin.
12:33Right.
12:34Now pick it up on the shiny.
12:37Yeah.
12:38Keep it turning and level.
12:40And then plonk.
12:42Is that enough?
12:43Come on.
12:44No, no.
12:45Give it some welly.
12:46OK, give it some welly.
12:47Yeah.
12:48And again.
12:49There.
12:50And the same in the blue.
12:51In that one?
12:52Yeah.
12:53And over.
12:54And there.
12:55And then into the glory hole.
12:58Adrian has to heat the gather to over a thousand degrees.
13:04Not so far.
13:05Melting the fritz into the glass.
13:07Right, I'll take over now.
13:09Yeah.
13:10You go and sit down and get the tweezers ready.
13:12Where's my tweezers?
13:13To do the icicle.
13:15Oh, this is exciting.
13:20This is aqua and gold.
13:25Right over, that's there.
13:28Yeah.
13:31Am I right?
13:32Right.
13:34Have I made it difficult for us?
13:36No, no.
13:38Just different.
13:42Go on, keep pulling.
13:46A unique icicle.
13:49And down.
13:51A little bit of tension there.
13:53Keep it straight.
13:54And rattling out.
13:57Yep.
13:58I like that one.
13:59Yeah?
14:00Yeah.
14:01Very unique.
14:02Yeah.
14:05Baubles became big news in Britain after Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert,
14:10who introduced them from his native Germany.
14:15Quick.
14:16Well, it's still hot.
14:18Go, give it some welly.
14:20At the time, they were all made this way.
14:24Whoa, whoa, whoa.
14:25Not too big.
14:27There you are.
14:28Just a little puff now.
14:29That's fine.
14:30Modern baubles, a machine blown by the million.
14:33And spray painted, usually with a dreaded dose of glitter.
14:38A little bit more.
14:39Come on.
14:40Blow, blow, blow, blow.
14:42That's fine.
14:44Adrian and Julianas are going into a kiln to cool slowly.
14:49Yeah.
14:50It'll be at least six hours before they're tough enough to handle.
14:53I don't think you could equip an entire tree in the way that we decorate trees, which are loaded.
15:02You know, our standard eight-foot trees have got about 2,000 decorations on it.
15:06Nice.
15:07I think I'd be here for weeks if I had to create enough baubles to do the coverage that we would normally do.
15:15This year, Charlotte and Adrian have their sights set on London, and they've decided to go big or go home.
15:26As well as the palace, they're taking a massive gamble on a second British landmark.
15:34Chiswick House is overseen by English Heritage, but they're not hiring Team Christmas.
15:39Team Christmas are hiring Chiswick House, installing a theme of their own and hoping to make it pay by selling tickets directly to the public.
15:52Partridge in a pear tree.
15:54Two turtle doves.
15:55Two turtle doves.
15:56Three French hens.
15:58Four calling birds.
16:00Five old rings.
16:03It's lovely at Chiswick.
16:04You know, we don't have a client brief.
16:06It's kind of up to us at what we do.
16:08The tricky thing is, therefore, if people don't like it, it's all on us.
16:13It's all on us.
16:14Yeah.
16:18They've plumped for the 12 days of Christmas.
16:20This is incredible, this room.
16:21And 12 drummers drumming.
16:23But Chiswick House is small, as these places go.
16:27So cramming in all the days will be a challenge.
16:31How are the geese represented then?
16:32One in the hearth, one off the hearth, then maybe one under a chair.
16:37What's more, their hire only covers installation and Christmas opening.
16:42Measuring tapes at the ready.
16:44They won't see it again until November.
16:46One zero, six zero, eight.
16:48And another venue means events manager Joy has another set of rules.
16:53The tricky thing for us, Joy, is that because of the intense, beautiful compactness of the house, we're really reliant on people being able to get quite close to things.
17:07Yeah.
17:08And to look at the detail.
17:09Because we don't want anyone to go away feeling like they haven't had their money's worth.
17:12Yeah.
17:13For their ticket price.
17:14So we would be generally, apart from the areas that you traditionally rope and pole due to valuable furniture pieces, inviting people to get as close to things as possible.
17:24Their biggest concern is going to be about wet shoes coming in and the extra traffic that comes through because the house is normally only open from April to September.
17:32Yeah.
17:33And whilst we do have the additional things in place by the front where, you know, we'll have matting and things like that for people to wipe their shoes off as they come in and people explaining that.
17:41But if we do want them to interact and be able to have free movement around, is it a case of flooring wall to wall?
17:49But then added cost.
17:55As well as nine lavish rooms, Haya includes the outside.
17:59One, two, three, four, five.
18:03Yeah.
18:04A giant queen of Christmas will greet the punters.
18:07But even out here, there's restrictions.
18:10She'll be about 15 feet tall and she'll be dressed in foraged greenery.
18:14We would need to run that past the garden because of bringing in alien species into the garden.
18:18Right, I see.
18:19Yeah.
18:20Okay.
18:25August.
18:27There's now two historic properties and two sets of rules.
18:34At Christmas HQ, the team's been briefed.
18:37Silk.
18:39Silk.
18:40Helvet.
18:41Juliana's steering clear of glitter by making clothing for Kensington's peg dolls.
18:47It's a bit drab, really.
18:49That might be nice.
18:51That's what you want.
18:52Oh, yes.
18:53That's perfect.
18:54Dave's avoiding anything organic with a steel pear tree for Chiswick's main hall.
19:00I'm marking out where these branches are going to come off.
19:05Just spacing them fairly evenly.
19:08I'm in danger of overthinking this now.
19:11And Laura's taking no risks either with her Queen of Christmas.
19:18We're doing a base of faux greenery and then we will be covering it with foraged greenery from the grounds in Chiswick.
19:30The reason why we can't just forage here and install it is because the trees are sort of protected there.
19:39So you have to use their greenery on their grounds so that we don't cross-contaminate.
19:45London's heritage properties are proving complicated.
19:51The team needs new ideas.
19:5415 miles south in the historic city of York, this is Fairfax House.
20:04A grade one listed building from the same period as Kensington and Chiswick.
20:09It's an award-winning museum.
20:11At Chiswick, they have three rooms.
20:13The red, the green and the blue velvet rooms.
20:16Charlotte's come to quiz curator Sarah about what makes it so special.
20:20This is one of my favourite things.
20:22So if you talk to my team, they're like, Charlotte does tables.
20:25Oh really?
20:26I don't do Christmas trees.
20:27I do not go near Christmas trees or fairy lights, but I love to do tables.
20:30So that's my thing.
20:31So I'm always looking for ideas of how you can create a piece that's...
20:35It's that balance, isn't it, between it not being a mess,
20:38but at the same time it has to feel like the energy of the people that are using it, right?
20:43You do really do it exquisitely here.
20:46We have to kind of balance as well.
20:48So lots of these are collection items.
20:50Yeah.
20:51We have to kind of do a mixture of kind of displaying these pieces,
20:54so they're kind of showcased because they're part of our collection,
20:56but also making them feel like they're objects in the house that are being kind of used by the...
21:00Being used, as they would have been being used.
21:02Yeah, yeah.
21:03Absolutely.
21:04Injecting the Georgian grandeur with a sense of life is Sarah's speciality.
21:09And who made these mice for?
21:10Oh, it's what?
21:11Our volunteers make them.
21:12Oh, do they?
21:13That's amazing.
21:14It's funny, because we're doing it this year, but with peg dolls.
21:17She relies heavily on food.
21:19Even worse than glitter, it's banned from most heritage properties.
21:24But you can't eat any of this.
21:27Getting good replica food, right?
21:29It's hard.
21:30It's hard, but you've got some amazing pieces here.
21:32So where do you source your replica food?
21:34So some of it we buy from specialist makers.
21:36Other bits we dry out ourselves.
21:38So you might notice the bread rolls, they're kind of really slowly dried in our ovens.
21:41Okay.
21:42Fruit cakes upstairs.
21:43Also, visitors love the smell of fruits and vegetables.
21:45It's kind of really powerful on, you know, kind of how you experience the space when the smell's included.
21:50So we get creative with how we display things.
21:53Wouldn't be completely without the pineapple.
21:56At Chiswick, we are doing the 12th night party.
22:00You haven't got any rope and pole or anything in here, have you?
22:03No.
22:04A couple of years ago, we made a decision to kind of remove all the ropes and barriers so visitors can kind of navigate around the spaces quite organically.
22:10So you do feel like you're sneaking around somebody's house.
22:12Yeah.
22:13We love the idea that the Fairfaxes have just left the room and you're kind of sneaking in to experience it.
22:17Yeah.
22:18That is something that we want to achieve at Chiswick with a party in motion.
22:23This is just an exquisitely darn example of what we're trying to achieve.
22:27With Christmas installation fast approaching, Charlotte's found plenty of food for thought.
22:33These jellies, they even wobble. So if you kind of wobble the plate, they've got a good kind of jelly, jelly wobble to them.
22:39Oh, they look amazing.
22:41It's September.
22:51In eight weeks time, the team in Yorkshire have to take Christmas to two high profile London venues.
22:58As it gets closer to install time, it can get a bit manic. Always get there though, through panic or coffee or gin.
23:07Kensington Palace is being filled with the seaside memories of a young Queen Victoria.
23:12Her mother and her governess. And the worst, most difficult bit was to make an organ grinder and his monkey.
23:22Chiswick House will be home to the 12 days of Christmas, from partridges in pear trees to drummers drumming.
23:30I am currently pinning in one of the nine ladies dancing that is going to Chiswick House.
23:36There's about 16 costumes we're making in total for Chiswick.
23:41They'll be all in different colours, gorgeous baroque style fabric.
23:46So I just had a chat with Adrian and we'll have to trim off all the glitter from these because it's going to shed too much.
23:53But strict regulations at both properties are making life difficult.
23:58And time is running out.
24:03Adrian's back in London, on the hunt for guilt-free decorations.
24:08So, ideally, we're looking prop-wise for primarily anything that can do the seaside theme.
24:17Yeah, okay.
24:18So anything that's existing in this fabulous secret store of props.
24:26This is an official prop store for places like the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace.
24:32There must be something they can fish out for Kensington.
24:35What have we got?
24:38I have no idea.
24:40Oh.
24:41Okay.
24:43Glitter.
24:44Glitter finish.
24:45Absolutely not.
24:46Absolutely not.
24:47Back in the bag.
24:48In it goes.
24:50It's just very hard because there's so much product.
24:52Even if it's like a tiny little detail, you've really got to stand and look at each piece and just make sure that it's passing the no glitter test.
25:00A lack of glitter isn't his only constraint.
25:03Because it's not even Victorian.
25:05No.
25:06It's Princess Victoria's Regency 1835 Christmas.
25:09Yes.
25:10Beside the sea in Ramsgate.
25:11So you couldn't be in a more specific.
25:14Now, don't ask me when we've used this in the past because I have no idea.
25:18These I love.
25:19Yeah.
25:20It's got that kind of nice vintage-y feel.
25:23These look fun.
25:24And I think these were used for the display around King George IV's coronation.
25:28Nothing screams a seaside.
25:30More than a gold lobster.
25:31Than a gold-coated lobster.
25:33It's a good haul.
25:35But there's a catch.
25:37I know that anything new that I'm purchasing prop-wise, we've said anything in leather, wood, textiles, paper, has to go through the freezing process.
25:48Yes, yes.
25:49So we have to have things frozen before it comes into an interior site like Kensington Palace.
25:55And what does it do?
25:56So it basically removes any pests, anything that could have gotten into the material or the fabric that could then spread.
26:05How cold is the freezer?
26:06So we would have things in the freezer for two weeks at minus 21 degrees.
26:12And it's not just the new stuff.
26:15It's everything.
26:17So that would include any props that are here along with all the new stuff.
26:20Exactly, yeah.
26:21Because it's been taken out of the palace.
26:23That's just knocked two weeks off prep time.
26:28It's a bit of a maze, isn't it?
26:31The least the palace can do is provide a tree or two.
26:35So this is our Christmas tree room.
26:38Our floristry, our Christmas trees.
26:40This is music to your ears, I think.
26:44Kensington Palace needs at least eight trees.
26:47All artificial.
26:49Hang on a second.
26:51I think our wires are crossed.
26:53The earliest artificial trees were made using dyed goose feathers.
26:58But by the late Victorian period, there was a surprising new development.
27:03I would hate to think how many trees I have decorated in the last five years.
27:09Toilet brush manufacturers realised their bristles on a stick were the ideal way to eradicate dropped pine needles.
27:16And the modern fake tree was born.
27:19A general all over fluff is essential to get it looking good once it's in place.
27:25Who knew they'd end up in a royal palace?
27:27How do you feel about faux trees versus real?
27:31Faux trees versus real?
27:32Well, in my house at Christmas, we always have a real one.
27:34Yeah.
27:35I think my family wouldn't let us get away with a faux one.
27:36But for a palace like Kensington, there's just too much risk that comes with having real trees in there.
27:42Bugs.
27:43Lots of bugs, pests that are in there.
27:46And real Christmas trees are so flammable as well.
27:48So it's just a no to have them inside our historic spaces.
27:53Seeing it out, and actually out in a bigger space, Laura, I think this is actually quite good for room one.
27:56It's quite a good size.
27:58The height's good, but what I'm happy about, it's purposefully slim.
28:07November.
28:09Only two weeks until pretty much everything has to go into quarantine.
28:14Juliana, I'm almost finished. Do you want to come up and have a look?
28:18Including a replica of young Victoria's Christmas dress.
28:22Oh, gosh, it's beautiful.
28:24She has to go in the freezer as well, because it's silk and cotton.
28:28And all the wooden peg dolls.
28:30My only thing about this is it's quite summery.
28:33So it'd be quite nice to sort of, if we could allude to the winteriness of it via a natural element, like a little bit of snow dusting or ice.
28:40Then we'd have that sort of Christmassy feel without it being about decoration.
28:45Decorations considered risk-free have to be kept separate until the transport arrives.
28:51So we've been really busy with Kensington. The arches have all been made.
28:55So we're storing them in these tents.
28:57But it's always a bit nerve-wracking putting them on the lorry after all your hard work.
29:03Fingers crossed it'll stay in one piece when we take it over to Kensington.
29:09Both properties are due to open their Christmases within days of each other.
29:14I am about to lose this life.
29:17First thing you've carried all year.
29:19Yeah, exactly.
29:20Thank God there's somebody that knows what they're doing.
29:23Right, thank you.
29:24Next stop, London.
29:38Chiswick House.
29:42The first of two trucks has arrived from Yorkshire.
29:45An installation is meant to be well underway.
29:50But it's not.
29:54We had planned to do work outside.
29:57But the weather is very inclement.
30:00So we've put a bit of a stop to that.
30:02And I'm just getting a huge team effort in to get ourselves organised with our retail offer.
30:08And then the next big thing that's going to happen today is that we've got our second vehicle arriving.
30:13And that's got some of the big set pieces on it and all of the costume and all of the floristry.
30:18Adrian and Charlotte have taken a gamble hiring Chiswick House for their own Christmas display.
30:25To help cover costs, they'll be running an on-site gift shop.
30:29But it's created a job that no-one bargained with.
30:33We are currently just bagging up all of the decorations that have glitter on for the retail space in Chiswick House.
30:46They're absolutely beautiful, but some of them do have traces of glitter and we can't have any glitter in the house.
30:51So we're just containing that at the moment.
30:54How many boxes have we got here today?
30:57Probably about a hundred.
30:59It's probably about a quarter of the retail product.
31:02My first horror when I realised how stringent their stipulations were
31:08was that I was just going to have to just lose all this product and find other elements.
31:14But we've come to a good solution.
31:17Individually wrapping each bauble is slow going.
31:22They'll just have to make up time when everything else arrives.
31:27It's late afternoon.
31:33Already half a day behind schedule.
31:35There's still no sign of the second truck.
31:38They've just told me the driver's not going to be here until 4.30 and Chiswick House and Grounds locked down at 5pm.
31:50So I'm just going to go and talk to the Chiswick team and alert them and see if there's a problem solve in case anything in Friday night London traffic makes things any worse.
32:02Still missing the materials to protect the house from accidental damage during install.
32:09Without it they're relegated to the basement Santa's grotto.
32:18But even here they've got to be careful.
32:21You can't put anything against the wall so we're having to leave quite a bit of a gap.
32:26And then I have to be careful myself to not hit or knock anything.
32:31Which is again sometimes a little difficult when you're just trying to get things done.
32:37It's 8pm.
32:44It's what I love on a wet Friday night in West London.
32:50Waiting for a lorry.
32:54And the fear of being locked in the park.
33:07At Kensington Palace the team have just two days to install Princess Victoria's Seaside Christmas.
33:17It's a very simple decorative scheme on these trees.
33:20The stuff on the top of this box is for the mantle.
33:23So we're going a bit harbour side is the idea.
33:2650 boxes of decorations, 8 Christmas trees and much more have to be carefully carried to their designated rooms.
33:35But that's easier said than done for the large welded archways.
33:42Yeah, lift that leg up.
33:44Somebody lift the bottom leg.
33:46Oh.
33:47Right, that's it.
33:48And then we'll just hold it together and we'll get it through.
33:52It's quite narrow.
33:54It's quite narrow, isn't it?
33:57While floristry avoids trashing one building...
34:02Yeah.
34:04Master model maker Marks checking for damage on another.
34:17We thought we might have a pile of matchwood but we've, by and large, survived the journey.
34:23Unfortunately, we have had some damage to the railings.
34:28The downpipe for the drainage has come away.
34:33And it's just generally been marked by transit so the paintwork looks a little bit less than pristine.
34:41So not a disaster but a bit of a pain.
34:44In Victoria's schoolroom, Adrian's struggling with his Christmas tree made of suitcases.
34:53I kind of want to get it more triangular.
34:55More triangular.
34:56But that might just be a case of us doing a little something small at the bottom.
35:00Yeah.
35:01This is all a bit precarious, isn't it?
35:04Yeah.
35:05We'll just slot in.
35:06That's good because look at that.
35:10It's perfect.
35:11Yeah.
35:12Done a walk.
35:13With thousands of visitors expected over Christmas, safety is key.
35:22All design changes need signing off by the palace.
35:26It's not stable yet.
35:27I'm just trying to get it visually correct.
35:30And then we will deconstruct it and rebuild it with an awful lot of fishing wire.
35:41She's having a little chat with the little sailor boy.
35:44He does look as though he's got his trousers down, doesn't he?
35:47With those boots.
35:48Ten miles away, the team at Chiswick are trying to make up for lost time.
36:03The floor protection has arrived, so decorating can begin in earnest.
36:07We need to make sure that nothing's at risk of bumping into any parts of the house.
36:12One.
36:13Oh, no.
36:14It needs to go this way.
36:16The festive queen is being dressed in green, gathered from the estate gardens.
36:24While the dancers are almost ready to take their places in the gallery.
36:31There we go.
36:32She's in, she's on.
36:34But yesterday's weather has taken the shine off the fifth day of Christmas.
36:41It was absolutely chucking it down with rain.
36:45And this got soaking wet.
36:47And it still landed a full paint job really.
36:52So it's just looking a bit worse for wear.
36:55So I'm just cleaning it back.
36:58Before we give it another coat.
37:02And then it should look like a gold ring again.
37:05Am I okay to lift one of them?
37:07Yes.
37:08So you're just from the bottom.
37:10Right.
37:11The last day is also in jeopardy.
37:14Ten.
37:15What's the big yellow one on the right?
37:18I think it was.
37:19The drums.
37:20The drums were meant to be on a stand.
37:22But curator Lydia has declared it too precarious for the blue velvet room.
37:32She's overseeing Charlotte's emergency alternative.
37:35Yes.
37:36So this one is the back.
37:38Over there.
37:39We swap it round.
37:40Yep.
37:41Everything has to be at least a metre from the delicate surroundings.
37:45I think this one is underneath here.
37:47And then that one's on top.
37:50This drum.
37:52Yep.
37:54Let's face forward.
37:55There we go.
37:57Okay.
37:59So there we have our 12 drums.
38:07Yeah, we're at 1.7-ish.
38:081.6.
38:091.07-ish.
38:11So we're good.
38:12Lovely.
38:13Thank you, Lydia.
38:14That's all right.
38:15Good.
38:16Brilliant.
38:17Next.
38:18The mannequin intensive Chiswick house is rapidly filling with lords a-leaping,
38:24maids a-milking,
38:26and ladies dancing in various states of undress.
38:38The biggest of all is ready for her fitting.
38:41Right, we have a rest.
38:42We have a rest.
38:46I'm not really resting.
38:47I'm kind of holding all the weight.
38:48Are you ready to go?
38:49Yeah.
38:50So can someone go in the middle?
38:55Yeah.
38:58Right.
39:01Try and lift and slot it in,
39:02and watch your fingers keep them all the way.
39:05One, two, three.
39:07Yeah?
39:08Mine's good.
39:09Mine's good.
39:10It's the final day of installation at Kensington.
39:20Christmas has to be all wrapped up by tonight.
39:26These are my vintage napkins that have been through the freezer.
39:29Glassware we had to go modern to get a full set.
39:31Yeah.
39:32But we like the blue.
39:33And this is my dinner service.
39:38The palace is really beginning to sparkle.
39:44There's a little bit of glitter there.
39:46So I'm going to chop the end bit off.
39:48A little too much for Selena.
39:51When we made this,
39:52we originally thought that every product did not have any glitter,
39:55but it turns out that this particular one
39:58just has a tiny smattering on the ends of these leaves of this branch.
40:02So most of it actually hasn't got it,
40:03but it's just right on the end.
40:05So I've got to go through the whole of the banister
40:09and just cut off the ends of this particular copper leaf.
40:13Obviously, today's the final day.
40:15We're rushing around trying to get everything put in time,
40:17so I'm just trying to do this.
40:20It's going to take as long as it takes
40:21to make sure that we've got rid of all the glitter.
40:30At Chiswick House,
40:31the 12 days of Christmas are coming on apace.
40:38Last-minute adjustments should see the dancing ladies decent
40:42before the lords leap into action.
40:47And Laura's adding a note of finesse to floristry.
40:50We're in the red velvet room, which is the pipers piping,
40:54so we wanted to sort of reference the music.
40:57But the gold rings are still looking a little lacklustre.
41:02The trick to this is just don't put so much gold paint on
41:06that it drips everywhere.
41:08Can you imagine having to go over it again?
41:10Seven swans have all been folded into one larger-than-life figurine.
41:15This could be her swansong.
41:21As we lift her, she's going to go in on her back.
41:24So if any damage happens, it's round the back of the dress.
41:27It's fine.
41:28So I think two people on the heavy base...
41:31Yep.
41:32..and one person catching the top of the torso.
41:34So, to be honest, we could probably go up this way.
41:40Are you all right with her?
41:41Yeah, yeah, good.
41:43Made with dozens of paper doilies and origami creations,
41:47Meg, Sarah and Adrian have to squeeze her through four doorways
41:52to reach her resting place in the bedchamber.
41:55Can we go a bit higher, maybe?
42:00She has a delicate exterior...
42:02Right, you like that one?
42:04..but a heart of steel.
42:10Beneath her skirts is a metal frame.
42:12If anyone slips, it's hard to know who would come out worse.
42:17Her or Chiswick House.
42:19Yeah, could she be turned slowly?
42:22Yes.
42:23She's too wide, these doors.
42:24That's all right.
42:29OK, thank you. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
42:31Two doors down.
42:33Come on up, guys. Excellent.
42:35Two to go.
42:36More slowly.
42:37Yeah.
42:39And then we're going to reverse.
42:41So, Megan, you're going to go in backwards.
42:45Megan, you OK?
42:46Sean, can you stop?
42:48I think...
42:49Yeah? You all right?
42:50We're almost there.
42:51OK.
42:54Yeah.
42:55Just keep going a little bit further, Megan.
42:58There we go.
42:59Beautiful.
43:00With time running short, Eve's hanging nearly 100 metres of faux spruce garland.
43:09It's another job that's taking longer than expected.
43:15We've essentially realised that we need a lot more protection
43:18than we first expected on the stonework.
43:20So, what we've had to do is back all of the garlands and the wreaths with hessian
43:25so that none of that is going to scratch the stonework
43:28because that can cause it to deteriorate.
43:30But we've also had to do a lot with the contact points.
43:35So, we've got bubble wrap, we've got hessian involved.
43:38It's taken us about four hours so far.
43:40We've still got a little bit more to do and the light's going.
43:43So, I think it's time to crack on and hopefully get done.
43:50The countdown to Christmas is almost over.
43:53Just a few last details on this very sweet seaside painting retreat.
44:13Oh, wow.
44:16It's down to the final few baubles.
44:20I was dubious when we were making them as to whether they were going to look good enough
44:23and whether they'd work with the scheme on this tree.
44:26But they look really lovely.
44:28They're really sweet.
44:30Nice to put in a little handmade touch.
44:31It's opening night.
44:40Our heads are fully in Christmas, 11 months of the year, which is ultimately pretty exhausting.
44:49The only time we can properly enjoy it is when we down-tooled, open the doors.
44:57And sit back and see whether the visitor really loves it.
44:59Yeah.
45:00Yeah.
45:01Yeah.
45:02Yeah.
45:03Yeah.
45:04Yeah.
45:05Yeah.
45:06Yeah.
45:07Yeah.
45:08Yeah.
45:09Yeah.
45:10Yeah.
45:11Yeah.
45:12Yeah.
45:13Yeah.
45:14Yeah.
45:15Yeah.
45:16Yeah.
45:17Yeah.
45:18Yeah.
45:19Yeah.
45:20Yeah.
45:21Yeah.
45:22Yeah.
45:23Yeah.
45:24Yeah.
45:25Yeah.
45:26Yeah.
45:27Yeah.
45:28Yeah.
45:29Yeah.
45:30Yeah.
45:31Yeah.
45:32Yeah.
45:33Yeah.
45:34Yeah.
45:35Yeah.
45:36Yeah.
45:37Yeah.
45:38Yeah.
45:39Yeah.
45:40Yeah.
45:41Yeah.
45:42Yeah.
45:43Yeah.
45:44Yeah.
45:45It's a huge relief to have got it done, huge relief to have got it done, and I am really
46:00proud of it.
46:01We did very well.
46:31We did very well.
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