Revisiting an ivy-covered age

How the organisers of all those visits to secondary schools in northern England, to say nothing of the Oxford Black Boys Can programme, must wince at news that Sebastian Flyte and Aloysius are loose again on the banks of the River Cherwell.

For if Walt Disney Motion Pictures get its way a whole new generation of young people will exposed to champagne-quaffing toffs, shuffling around medieval quads, gossiping about the latest debagging episode.

Who cares if it is set in the Oxford of the 1920s? For some it is still difficult to pass under the Bridge of Sighs without an image of the angelically blond Anthony Andrews coming to mind, sliding down a lamp post.

That memory lingers from 1981, when poor Anthony as Sebastian in the famous television adaptation, become almost as type cast as Oxford University. Now the £10m feature film, with a stellar cast led by Emma Thompson and Ben Whishaw, is opening in cinemas.

Even the Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten, made no attempt to hide his irritation about Brideshead Revisited, when he delivered a speech on "our educational legacy" to a conference of public school headmasters and headmistresses.

"Punts, champagne, white tie and tails, Latin grace, gowns, ivy-covered dons in ivy-covered quads: all that is part of the scenic vocabulary," he groaned.

"I wish, how I wish, that Brideshead Revisited had been set in Aberystwyth. We are an easy cheap shot for left-wing politicians on a quiet weekend."

But it seems that it is not only outsiders who risk being led astray by the latest adaptation of the Waugh novel.

The film's director, Julian Jarrold, told me he had come under a bit of gentle pressure at Christ Church, where a number of important scenes were shot. College staff were apparently anxious that one of the novel's most memorable drunken japes, might be taken up by modern day students if it found its way on to film.

"Anthony Blanche is a really wonderful character," he said. "But sadly we did not film the scene where he is dunked into the fountain because we were not allowed to.

"One of the wardens wasn't too keen. He thought it would encourage students to do it. He thought he might have trouble stopping students on a drunken night out.

"Hundreds of tourists were coming around and we needed a lot of favours," he laughed. "But at that stage we were still playing around with a script. So it wasn't a blanket ban. People were predominantly hospitable.

"I'm sure Oxford now wants to distance itself from a time when students did not seem to do any work and just fooled around. Obviously, it is not true now," he says diplomatically.

Jarrold had been busily taking on another national treasure, directing Anna Hathaway in Being Jane, a film about Jane Austen in love, when he was invited to direct Brideshead Revisited.

"I initially said 'no'. I was cautious about doing it because everyone remembered the television series so well. It is also such a sacred cow in this country. Everyone has such strong images about what it should be.

"But when I went back to the novel, I realised there was more in it than I'd thought. Everyone always remembers the first half with Sebastian and Charles swanning around Oxford in punts. I deliberately haven't watched the television series because I thought I'd end up copying it or reacting against it."

Producer Robert Bernstein said that while going through a list of classic novels never made into films, he was astonished to find Brideshead fell into the category. Evelyn Waugh, an undergraduate at Hertford College in 1922 , had granted MGM an option to develop a screenplay in the 1950s. But he had not liked the script, unhappy about Hollywood's determination to take out all the religious elements of his novel.

"The rights were with the Waugh estate," said Mr Bernstein. "They had not chosen to give the rights to anyone else. We had to give them a pitch, explaining that we wanted to put the focus of the film on the love triangle. They liked the idea. Yes the family were quite formidable. But that is part of the job."

The film makers' luck, however, did not hold out when filming started in the summer of 2007.

With Castle Howard in Yorkshire once again reprising its television role as the eponymous country seat, the cast was staying in the flooded city of York when people were canoeing to the pub. When they moved to Oxford, the shocking weather was not far behind.

But Mr Bernstein said: "We were very lucky. We left just days before the floods happened in Oxford. If you see the film you will not know it was the worst summer that we've ever had, apart from this summer of course."

A week after they had packed up many of the key locations were under water, including the stretch of the River Thames/Cherwell where the punting scene was shot, where Charles sees Sebastian for the first time.

Kevin Loader, the film's co-producer, said: "Oxford is a beautiful place to work. It has its own challenges, one being that it is full of tourists. During the shoot in Oxford, the film makers needed to quickly establish key points in the story. We had to really establish the sense of wonder of Charles's first experiences of the architecture and the hustle and bustle of Oxford and then the difference between Sebastian's world and the one that Charles has come from, which is reflected a little in the difference between their two colleges. Sebastian's college, Christ Church, is one of the grandest and richest, with the largest quadrangle, where as Charles's at Lincoln is much more intimate and domestic."

Ben Whishaw, who plays Sebastian in the film, said: "They meet when Sebastian vomits through Charles's window one evening and its kind of a love at first sight moment. Sebastian is very aware of the class difference between them and knows that Charles is fascinated by him because of that." Asked whether Brideshead would perpetuate the myth of Oxbridge being louche seats of learning Emma Thompson, who plays Lady Marchmain replied: "What myth? I went there, I am saying that ironically.

"It is in some ways a myth. But women were not granted membership of Cambridge University until 1949. When I went for my interview the dons would literally hug the walls when women passed. And that is not that long ago."

Many of the extras in the film were actual Oxford students who were given parts as long as they agreed to have short back and sides hair cuts. Members of one notorious Oxford University club, happy to be seen keeping alive the spirit of Brideshead, arrived on set with a hard-won drinking competition cup.

Lincoln College was to figure prominently. Mr Loader said: "It was a multi-purpose venue for us and the college was extremely welcoming although there was a lot of anxiety from the Lincoln College gardener when we were careering all over their lawn with a lot of people playing drunken students." If the film hardly boosts Oxford University's image as a classless, modern university, open to all talents, it looks certain to help tourism to the city.

City councillor Mary Clarkson, member for culture and heritage, said: "It's a period piece and it will show the traditional side of Oxford. People love that conventional image of Oxford and it already brings a lot of tourists into the city — especially Americans — so I think it is quite exciting and definitely something the city will be able to capitalise on."

Anne Gallagher, of Oxford's Tourist Information Centre, said previous films such as Harry Potter and The Golden Compass and TV series like Morse and Lewis have already been a big attraction for tourists.

"It's huge for us, you can't buy that sort of publicity and it's great film crews continue to come here and use Oxford as a backdrop.

Terry Bremble, who is one of Oxford's registered tour guides, said: "We already run a themed tour in the city looking at the various locations where films have been shot. I'm sure this will become part of that."

But then Brideshead has somehow remained an unwanted part of Oxford to for a long time now. It can be serious. Twenty two years ago when Olivia Channon, the daughter of a Conservative minister died from an overdose in Christ Church following a party to celebrate the end of exams, journalists wasted little time invoking the image of the pampered Brideshead set.

Things have changed for the better since 1986. But Brideshead will remain a stick to beat Oxford University for as long as Waugh is read, punts are hired and Old Etonians drink champagne.