Derbyshire Launches New Movie Map and Super Competition

Tuesday September 9, 2008

Beautiful women, handsome cads, heaving bosoms, gorgeous scenery, fabulous houses - the British certainly know how to make ravishing costume dramas. This season's biggie, The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as one of the 18th century's most famous women (and an ancestor of Princess Diana), opened in London yesterday.

If you're a fan, you could, I suppose, stand in the rain waving your autograph book at the stars. But a better way to get into the fantasy of the British costume drama is to walk around on the sets. That gorgeous scenery and those fabulous houses are real and most of them are open to the public.

The Peak District is particularly rich is such associations. Besides The Duchess, the BBC's Jane Eyre and its landmark Pride and Prejudice, with Colin Firth, as well as The Other Boleyn Girl, have all been filmed in its beautiful countryside and such gracious homes as Haddon Hall, Lyme Park and Chatsworth (the real location of much of the story of The Duchess).

Now, Peak District & Derbyshire Tourism have launched a Movie Map to help you follow the footsteps of the stars. The map, entitled Great Films, Great Locations is available from Derbyshire Tourist Information Offices ( which you can phone or email as well as visit).

To celebrate all of this, they've launched a terrific online competition. You could win a 2-night luxury break for two, including first class train tickets, at the Devonshire Arms, a historic inn on the Chatsworth Estate! Prizes will be awarded on the 29th of every month, starting this month, with the last draw taking place on July 29, 2009.

_{Keira Knightley at the London Premier of The Duchess by Dave Hogan/Getty Images}