The Great Fire | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Written by | Tom Bradby |
Directed by | Jon Jones |
Starring |
Andrew Buchan Rose Leslie Jack Huston Daniel Mays Perdita Weeks Oliver Jackson-Cohen Charles Dance Nicholas Blane Andrew Tiernan |
Composer(s) |
Dan Jones Elizabeth Purnell |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Lucy Bedford Douglas Rae |
Producer(s) | Gina Cronk |
Running time | 50 minutes (inc adverts) |
Production company(s) | Ecosse Films |
Distributor | ITV Studios |
Release | |
Original network | ITV STV UTV |
Picture format | 16:9 1080i |
Audio format | Stereo |
Original release | 16 October | – 6 November 2014
The Great Fire is a four-part television mini-series first shown on ITV from 16 October to 6 November 2014. It is set during the Great Fire of London in England in 1666. It was written by Tom Bradby and produced by Ecosse Films. Each hour-long (including commercial breaks) episode is set in one day of the fire.
The series portrays events from the point of view of the Farriner family, in whose bakery on Pudding Lane the fire started, and from the point of view of the royal court in responding to the fire.
The storyline includes events that are not recorded from the real fire. The fire was shown as starting when Farriner's daughter left the oven's stoke-hatch open and the fire ejected a hot ember which ignited loose straw on the wooden floor. It suggests Farriner had a contract to supply baked goods to the Royal Navy and was suffering financial difficulties as a result of the Navy persistently delaying payment. It also follows a sub-plot in which there is a suspected Catholic plot to kill King Charles II, in which the Farriners become suspected of complicity.
Cobham Hall was used to film some of the London street scenes and Penshurst Place in Kent doubled as the exterior of the King's palace.