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00:00Light, fancy baubles, tinsel and fairy lights. Job done.
00:06Unless you're decorating this, or this, or this.
00:14There 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 are responsible for bringing the festive season
00:26into some of Britain's best loved buildings.
00:31The logistics is a little bit more than moving boxes of baubles around.
00:36For Dave. Safety first. Laura.
00:39Ta-da! Brian and the rest. Juliana, Eve, Theodora, your end down.
00:45Christmas is a full-time job. Always get there in the end,
00:49through panic or coffee or gin. This is the bit that no one ever sees backstage.
00:54Top of the tree. Cute.
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.
01:10Right. Okay.
01:11Eight years of Christmas installations just keep getting bigger.
01:15Well, it totally looks like it's not going to fit.
01:17Balder. I'm just worried about that statue.
01:20And riskier.
01:21Good job! Good job!
01:24Sidestepping priceless antiques and cautious clients.
01:30How can they make an armoury Christmassy?
01:33Yeah.
01:34The clock is ticking.
01:35Three, two, one.
01:37To doors opening.
01:39God, it's fabulous.
01:41For Christmas.
01:44Next year's ambition is not to break the team.
01:47On the edge of Hyde Park in London, this is Kensington Palace.
02:06Home to royalty for more than three centuries, it has over 500 rooms, hosts state ceremonies,
02:13and 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 first actual royal palace.
02:33But it's going to be very different, and to a certain extent, a bit daunting.
02:36There are many grand apartments at the palace, but this one is particularly special.
02:46It's the birthplace and childhood home of none other than Queen Victoria.
02:51Mantle, arrangement, tree.
02:53A place for living in, rather than a royal showpiece.
02:58Historic royal palaces want it filled with memories of Victoria's treasured winter trips to the seaside.
03:06This 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.
03:26Grand finale.
03:28We're making peg dolls in the style of Victoria's own peg dolls.
03:33She 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.
03:52The 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 collared Kensington curator Miles to ensure their Christmas
04:08would be recognisable to young Victoria.
04:10I 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.
04:21They 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.
04:38A 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.
04:48Yeah.
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. We want to make sure that it is safe.
05:01So the painting here won't need to move.
05:03There'll be enough width here for wheelchair users to come through.
05:07Yeah, I mean we're probably losing about 10 centimetres total.
05:11Working in historic buildings is nothing new for Team Christmas.
05:19For seven years they've been installing festive displays in castles and stately homes across Britain.
05:31What 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.
05:58And a seaside holiday is hardly the usual Christmas fair.
06:06Charlotte and Adrian have come to Ramsgate to work out what links it with the young Princess Victoria.
06:12I 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.
06:28Oh yeah, look at that. It's amazing.
06:33Amazing outlook.
06:33Don't you really get the feel of it?
06:35Yeah.
06:36And 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.
06:51But she could have looked out and she would have seen the obelisk that was built to her uncle, George IV.
06:58Victoria visited Ramsgate several times in her youth.
07:01As heir to the throne, it offered an escape from the formalities of life at court.
07:07Sir Ramsgate was more casual in feel to her main childhood in Kensington Palace.
07:16Yes, and she loved it.
07:17She'd had a very difficult childhood, really, because she was going to become Queen,
07:22but that meant that there were factions trying to control her, including her mother.
07:27The princess's diaries reveal she led a claustrophobic childhood.
07:33She was under permanent adult supervision, had to sleep in the same room as her mother,
07:39and hold hands going up and down stairs, even as a teenager. Everything was regulated.
07:47It was sort of quite stressful, really, but Ramsgate was relaxed and happy as it is today.
07:53And Queen Victoria absolutely loved it.
07:55And I think there was a whole, you know, there were all things, issues that happened.
07:58I mean, there were donkeys and a bunch of Judy and all these, all these things.
08:02So it was, within the Victorian context, it was fun.
08:10In 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.
08:18But trips here were clearly more than a brief jolly for Victoria.
08:25Her diaries record conversations with fishermen and other local sights and sounds.
08:31They were memories she could conjure up back at the palace.
08:36I think we could go even further with that feeling of her, like, really just
08:40wandering the seashore, enjoying 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.
08:51Like a real, real informality of the setting of that room.
08:53Yeah, and it's kind of like a lovely kind of artistic chaos of all the different things
08:57and the things she was reading.
08:58Contrast to how the other rooms are feeling.
09:00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:01And 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.
09:09It's July.
09:16On an old farm in Yorkshire, Charlotte and Adrian's Team Christmas are gearing up for Kensington Palace's trip to the seaside.
09:27Model 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.
09:37And 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.
09:50Juliana's helping sort over 60,000 baubles to try to find any that fit the theme.
09:57Anything antiquey. It's kind of Victoria, but in Regency period.
10:04But I think we're allowed a little bit of artistic license.
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.
10:19So we've been stock planning decorations for eight years and nothing says Christmas,
10:23like a bit of sparkle. But glitter is not acceptable in these environments
10:30because it can get into the carpets, into the collection pieces.
10:33So we have to go for completely no glitter.
10:36I mean, we can't use these ones, obviously, because of the glitter.
10:40You know, there are some things that are more embellished.
10:43I'm hoping that we might get away with a few of these.
10:46The rules are strict.
10:48No glitter anywhere or on anything.
10:54So, yes, it is the first week of July.
10:58And yes, I will be going to Marks & Spencer's food shopping tonight.
11:01And yes, everyone will be looking at me because I'm covered in glitter.
11:06It'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
11:15before I even am allowed to walk into Kensington because it won't just be the decorations.
11:20It will be me just giving off glitter everywhere.
11:33Kensington Palace opens its festive display in two months' time.
11:37But Team Christmas is struggling to find baubles that comply with the strict no glitter policy.
11:46We'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.
12:01I'll get the first bubble in for you because that's the most difficult.
12:07And 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.
12:22First, he fetches a gather from the furnace.
12:25A blob of molten glass to dip in fritz.
12:29Powdered colours made of oxidised metals such as cobalt and tin.
12:34Right, now pick it up on the shiny.
12:37Yeah.
12:38Keep it turning and level.
12:41And then, plonk.
12:43Is that enough?
12:44Come on.
12:44No, no, give it some work.
12:46OK, give it some money.
12:47Yeah, and again.
12:49There.
12:50And the same in the blue.
12:51In that one?
12:52Yeah.
12:53And over and there.
12:56And then into the glory hole.
13:01Adrian has to heat the gather to over a thousand degrees,
13:05melting the fritz into the glass.
13:08Right, I'll take over now.
13:09You go and sit down and get the tweezers ready.
13:12Where's my tweezers?
13:14To do the icicle.
13:16Oh, this is exciting.
13:20This is aqua and gold.
13:26Right over, that's there.
13:31Am I right?
13:32Right.
13:34Have I made it difficult for us?
13:36No, no.
13:36No, no.
13:38Just different.
13:43Go 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.
13:59I like that one.
13:59Yeah?
14:00Yeah.
14:00Yeah.
14:01Very unique.
14:02Yeah.
14:03I like that one.
14:04Yeah.
14:06Bawbles became big news in Britain after Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, who introduced them from his native Germany.
14:13Quick.
14:16Well, it's still hot.
14:18Go.
14:19Give 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.
14:27Just a little puff now.
14:29That's fine.
14:30Modern maubles are machine blown by the million and spray painted, usually with a dreaded dose of glitter.
14:37A little bit more, come on, blow, blow, blow, blow.
14:43That'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.
14:57I 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.
15:18This year, Charlotte and Adrian have their sights set on London,
15:23and 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.
15:31Chiswick House is overseen by English Heritage, but they're not hiring Team Christmas.
15:40Team Christmas are hiring Chiswick House, installing a theme of their own,
15:45and 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.
15:55Three French hens.
15:57Four calling birds.
15:59I hold rings.
16:03It's lovely at Chiswick.
16:05You know, we don't have a client brief.
16:07It's kind of up to us at what we do.
16:09The tricky thing is, therefore, if people don't like it, it's all on us.
16:13It's all on us.
16:18They've plumped for the 12 days of Christmas.
16:20This is incredible, this room.
16:22And 12 drummers drumming.
16:23But Chiswick House is small, as these places go.
16:27So cramming in all the days will be a challenge.
16:30How are the geese represented then?
16:32One in the hearth, one off the hearth, then maybe one under a chair.
16:38What's more, their hire only covers installation and Christmas opening.
16:42Measuring tape 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.
16:54The tricky thing for us, Joy, is that because of the intense,
17:01beautiful compactness of the house, we're really reliant on people
17:05being able to get quite close to things.
17:07Yeah, of course.
17:08And to look at the detail because we don't want anyone to go away
17:11feeling like they haven't had their money's worth.
17:12Yeah.
17:13By their ticket price.
17:14So we would be generally, apart from the areas that you traditionally rope and pole
17:19due to valuable furniture pieces, inviting people to get as close to things as possible.
17:25Their biggest concern is going to be about wet shoes coming in and the extra traffic
17:29that comes through.
17:30Because the house is normally only open from April to September.
17:33Yeah.
17:33And whilst we do have the additional things in place by the front where, you know,
17:38we'll have matting and things like that for people to wipe their shoes off as they come in
17:41and people explaining that.
17:42But if we do want them to interact and be able to have free movement around,
17:46is it a case of flooring wall to wall?
17:49But then added cost.
17:51As well as nine lavish rooms, higher includes the outside.
17:59One, two, three.
18:02Four, five.
18:03Four, five, yeah.
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.
18:19Okay.
18:26August.
18:27There's now two historic properties and two sets of rules.
18:34At Christmas HQ, the team's been briefed.
18:40Silk, velvet.
18:42Juliana's steering clear of glitter by making clothing for Kensington's peg dolls.
18:47It's a bit drab, really.
18:50That 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.
19:01I'm marking out where these branches are going to come, just spacing them fairly evenly.
19:08I'm in danger of overthinking this now.
19:13And Laura's taking no risks either with her queen of Christmas.
19:17We're doing a base of faux greenery and then we will be covering it with foraged greenery from
19:29the 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.
19:52The team needs new ideas.
19:5815 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, it's an award-winning museum.
20:11At Chiswick, they have three rooms, the 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, so if you talk to my team, they're like,
20:23Charlotte does tables.
20:24Oh, really?
20:25I don't do Christmas trees.
20:26I do not go near Christmas trees or fairy lights, but I love to do tables, so 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, but at the same time it has to feel
20:40like the energy of the people that are using it, right?
20:43You do really do it exquisitely here.
20:47We have to kind of balance as well, so 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 a house that are being kind of used by the imaginary.
21:01As they would have been being used, yeah, absolutely.
21:04Injecting the Georgian grandeur with a sense of life is Sarah's speciality.
21:09And who made these mice for?
21:11Oh, it's what, our volunteers make them.
21:12Oh, do they? That's amazing.
21:14It's funny, because we're doing it this year, but with peg dolls.
21:17She relies heavily on food, even worse than glitter.
21:21It's banned from most heritage properties.
21:25But you can't eat any of this.
21:28Getting 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.
21:37Other bits we dry out ourselves.
21:39So you might notice the bread rolls.
21:40They're kind of really slowly dried in our ovens.
21:42Okay.
21:42Fruit cakes upstairs.
21:43Also, visitors love the smell of fruits and vegetables.
21:46It's kind of really powerful on, you know, kind of how you experience the space
21:49when the smell's included.
21:50So we get creative with how we display things.
21:53Wouldn't be completely without the pineapple.
21:54Well, at 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, so a couple of years ago, we made a decision to kind of remove all the ropes and barriers
22:07so visitors can kind of navigate around the spaces quite organically.
22:10So you do feel like you're sneaking around somebody's house.
22:13Yeah.
22:13We love the idea that the Fairfaxes have just left the room
22:16and you're kind of sneaking in to experience it.
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.
22:28With Christmas installation fast approaching, Charlotte's found plenty of food for thought.
22:34These jellies, they even wobble, so if you kind of wobble the plate,
22:37they've got a good kind of jelly, jelly wobble to them.
22:40Oh, they look amazing.
22:50It'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.
23:03Always get there though, through panic or coffee or gin.
23:06Kensington 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.
23:23Chiswick House will be home to the 12 days of Christmas, from partridges in pear trees to drummer's 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.
23:42They'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,
23:51because it's going to shed too much.
23:53But strict regulations at both properties are making life difficult.
23:58And time is running out.
24:04Adrian'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.
24:18Yeah, okay.
24:19So 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.
24:33There 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.
24:44Absolutely not.
24:45Absolutely not.
24:46Back in the bag.
24:47In 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
24:57and 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.
25:10Yes.
25:10Beside the sea in Ramsgate.
25:12So you couldn't be in a more specific.
25:15Now, don't ask me when we've used this in the past, because I have no idea.
25:18These I love.
25:19Yeah.
25:20Because it'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 than a gold-coated lobster.
25:34It's a good haul, but there's a catch.
25:39I know that anything new that I'm purchasing prop-wise, we've said anything in leather,
25:44wood, 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.
25:56And what does it do?
25:56So it basically removes any pests, anything that could have gotten into the material
26:02or 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, it's everything.
26:17So that would include any props that are here, along with all the new stuff.
26:20Exactly, yeah, because it's been taken out of the palace.
26:25That's just knocked two weeks off prep time.
26:28It's a bit of a maze, isn't it?
26:30Yeah.
26:31The least the palace can do is provide a tree or two.
26:34So 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, all artificial.
26:50Hang on a second.
26:51I think our wires are crossed.
26:53The earliest artificial trees were made using dyed goose feathers.
26:59But 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
27:13were the ideal way to eradicate dropped pine needles.
27:17And the modern fake tree was born.
27:19A general all over fluff is essential to get it looking good once it's in place.
27:24Who 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.
27:37But for a palace like Kensington, there's just too much risk that comes with having real trees in there.
27:42So...
27:42Bugs.
27:43Lots of bugs, pests that are in there, and real Christmas trees are so flammable as well.
27:49So, 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.
28:23Oh, gosh, it's beautiful.
28:25She 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, so it'd be quite nice to sort of,
28:34if we could allude to the winteriness of it via a natural element, like a little bit of snow dusting or ice,
28:41then we'd have that sort of Christmassy feel without it being about decoration.
28:46Decorations considered risk-free have to be kept separate until the transport arrives.
28:51So we've been really busy with Kensington.
28:54The arches have all been made, so we're storing them in these tents.
28:58But it's always a bit nerve-wracking putting them on the lorry after all your hard work.
29:04Fingers crossed it'll stay in one piece when we take it over to Kensington.
29:10Both properties are due to open their Christmases within days of each other.
29:14I am about to lose this land.
29:17The first thing you've carried all year?
29:19Yeah, exactly.
29:22Thank God there's somebody that knows what they're doing.
29:24Right, thank you.
29:25Next stop, London.
29:27Chiswick House.
29:42The first of two trucks has arrived from Yorkshire.
29:45An installation is meant to be well underway.
29:51But it's not.
29:52We had planned to do work outside, but 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.
30:30But 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.
30:47They're absolutely beautiful, but some of them do have traces of glitter and we can't have any glitter in the house.
30:52So we're just containing that at the moment.
30:56How many boxes have we got here, June, today?
30:58Probably about a hundred. It's probably about a quarter of the retail product.
31:04My first horror when I realised how stringent their stipulations were was that I was just going
31:11to have to just lose all this product and find other elements, but we've come to a good solution.
31:19Individually wrapping each bauble is slow going.
31:23They'll just have to make up time when everything else arrives.
31:31It's late afternoon, already half a day behind schedule.
31:36There'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
31:47lock down at 5pm. So I'm just going to go and talk to the Chiswick team and alert them and see
31:55if 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.
32:11Oh, pretty!
32:13Without it, they're relegated to the basement, Santa's Grotto. But even here, they've got to be careful.
32:20You 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, which is, again,
32:33sometimes a little difficult when you're just trying to get things done.
32:37It's 8pm. It'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. The stuff on the top of this box is for the mantle,
33:23so we're going a bit harbourside is the idea.
33:27Fifty boxes of decorations, eight Christmas trees and much more have to be carefully carried to their
33:33designated rooms. But that's easier said than done for the large, welded archways.
33:42Yeah, lift that ladder up.
33:44Somebody lift the bottom of it.
33:46Oh.
33:47Right, that's it.
33:48OK, we'll just hold it together and we'll get it through.
33:51It's quite narrow.
33:53It's quite narrow, isn't it?
33:58While floristry avoids trashing one building...
34:03Yeah.
34:04...master model maker Mark's checking for damage on another.
34:08We thought we might have a pile of matchwood,
34:20but we've by and large survived the journey.
34:24Unfortunately, we have had some damage to the railings.
34:31The downpipe for the drainage has come away and it's just generally been marked by transit,
34:38so the paintwork looks a little bit less than pristine. So not a disaster, but a bit of a pain.
34:47In Victoria's schoolroom, Adrian's struggling with his Christmas tree made of suitcases.
34:54We kind of want to get it more triangular.
34:56More triangular.
34:57But that might just be a case of us doing a little something small at the bottom.
35:01Yeah.
35:03This is all a bit precarious, isn't it?
35:05Yeah.
35:06Just slot in.
35:09That's good, because look at that.
35:11It's perfect.
35:14Yeah.
35:16With thousands of visitors expected over Christmas, safety is key.
35:21Yeah.
35:23All design changes need signing off by the palace.
35:27It's not stable yet. I'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 a little sailor boy.
35:44He does look as though he's got his trousers down, doesn't he?
35:47With those boots.
35:54Ten miles away, the team at Chiswick are trying to make up for lost time.
35:59The 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. Oh no, it needs to go this way.
36:15The festive queen is being dressed in green, gathered from the estate gardens.
36:25While the dancers are almost ready to take their places in the gallery.
36:31There we go.
36:32There you go.
36:32She's in, she's on.
36:35But yesterday's weather has taken the shine off the fifth day of Christmas.
36:42It was just, it was absolutely chucking it down with rain.
36:45And this got soaking wet, and it still landed a full paint job really,
36:53so it's just looking a bit worse for wear.
36:55So I'm just cleaning it back, um, before we give it another, another coat.
37:02And then it should look like a gold ring again.
37:06Am I okay to lift one of them?
37:08Yes.
37:08So you're just from the bottom right.
37:11The last day is also in jeopardy.
37:16It's the big yellow one on the right, I think it was.
37:20The drums were meant to be on a stand,
37:22but curator Lydia has declared it too precarious for the blue velvet room.
37:29There we go.
37:32Okay, so...
37:32She's overseeing Charlotte's emergency alternative.
37:36Yes, so this one is the back. Over there, swap it round.
37:40Yep.
37:41Everything has to be at least a metre from the delicate surroundings.
37:44I think this one is underneath here, and then that one's on top.
37:49This drum.
37:52Yep.
37:54Let's face forward.
37:56There we go.
37:57Okay.
37:59So there we have our 12 drums.
38:07Yeah, we're at 1.7-ish, 1.6, 1.07-ish.
38:11So we're good.
38:12Lovely, thank you, Lydia.
38:13That's all right.
38:14Good.
38:14Brilliant.
38:14Next.
38:15The mannequin-intensive Chiswick House is rapidly filling with lords a-leaping,
38:25maids a-milking, and ladies dancing in various states of undress.
38:39The biggest of all is ready for her fitting.
38:41Right, we have a rest. We have a rest.
38:46I'm not really resting, I'm kind of holding all the weight.
38:48Are you ready to go?
38:49Yeah.
38:54So can someone go in the middle?
38:55Yeah, go.
38:59Right.
39:01Yeah, go try and lift and slot it in, and watch your fingers keep my other way.
39:05One, two, three.
39:08Yeah.
39:08I can't like it went somewhere.
39:09Yeah, that's good.
39:10Mine's good.
39:16It's the final day of installation at Kensington.
39:21Christmas has to be all wrapped up by tonight.
39:23These are my vintage napkins that have been through the freezer.
39:30Glassware, we had to go modern to get a full set.
39:32Yeah, but we like the blue.
39:33And this is my dinner service.
39:38The palace is really beginning to sparkle.
39:45There's a little bit of glitter there, so I'm going to chop the end bit off.
39:48A little too much for Selena.
39:50When we made this, we originally thought that every product did not have any glitter.
39:56But 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, but it's just right on the end.
40:05So I've got to go through the whole of the banister
40:10and just cut off the ends of this particular copper leaf.
40:14Obviously, today's the final day.
40:15We're rushing around trying to get everything put in in time.
40:18So I'm just trying to do this and it's going to take as long as it takes
40:22to make sure that we've got rid of all the glitter.
40:23At Chiswick House, the 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.
40:44And 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.
40:58But the gold rings are still looking a little lacklustre.
41:01The trick to this is just don't put so much gold paint on that it drips everywhere.
41:08Because can you imagine having to go over it again?
41:11Seven swans have all been folded into one larger-than-life figurine.
41:17This could be her swan song.
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.
41:27You're fine.
41:28So I think two people on the heavy base.
41:31Yeah.
41:32And one person catching the top of the torso.
41:37To be honest, we could probably go up this way.
41:40Are you all right with her?
41:41Yeah, yeah, good. I'm holding...
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.
41:58Can we go a bit higher, maybe?
42:00She has a delicate exterior.
42:05But a heart of steel.
42:10Beneath her skirts is a metal frame.
42:13If anyone slips, it's hard to know who would come out worse.
42:17Her or Chiswick House.
42:19Yeah, could you be turned slowly?
42:22Yeah, yep.
42:22She's too wide, these doors.
42:24That's all right.
42:28OK, thank you.
42:30Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
42:31Two doors down.
42:32Come on up, guys. Excellent.
42:34Two to go.
42:39And then we're going to reverse.
42:41So, Megan, you're going to go in backwards.
42:45Megan, you OK?
42:46Do you want me to stop?
42:48I think...
42:48Yeah?
42:49Are you all right?
42:50We're almost there.
42:51OK.
42:55Just keep going a little bit further, Megan.
42:58There we go.
43:00Beautiful.
43:03With 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 than 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,
43:26so that none of that is going to scratch the stonework, because that can cause it to deteriorate.
43:31But 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.
44:19I was dubious when we were making them as to whether they were going to look good enough
44:24and 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.
44:40It's opening night.
44:49Our heads are fully in Christmas, 11 months of the year, which is ultimately pretty exhausting.
45:03The only time we can properly enjoy it is when we down-tooled, open the doors.
45:10And sit back and see whether the visitor really loves it.
45:13Yeah.
45:19In
45:22There are filters, I'm just going to do Grundy know.
45:24If you're looking for Grabie as you do, what is that?
45:26Have a sleep idea.
45:27In
45:43wear a little .
45:46It's a huge relief to have got it done, huge relief to have got it done, and I am really
46:00proud of it.
46:01I think we did very well.
46:04Well, perfect festive telly here on Channel 4, taking two amazing shows and smushing them
46:22together.
46:23The cast of Peep Show takes the tent for the great Christmas Bake Off, Christmas Day, two
46:28days to go from eight.
46:30Cupid's working overtime to beat the Christmas rush next with new First Dates at Christmas.
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