When BBC One put together an historical narrative based on the life and times of Elizabeth Woodville and the famed War of the Roses, they had an epic frame in mind for the series and wanted to get as many of the details right as possible. It’s debatable whether or not The White Queen, which aired on BBC One in the U.K. and Starz in the U.S., was able to achieve those lofty goals, but regardless, it will achieve that attention to detail in the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release next month, at least if this exclusive Blu-ray clip Anchor Bay Entertainment graciously extended to us is any indication.
The White Queen is a tale about 15th Century England and the various conflicts between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, but the show’s centuries-old buildings weren’t scoped out in England, at all. Instead, the crew scouted out locations across Belgium, finding plenty of intricate and unique architecture in places like Bruges. Many of the buildings in Bruges (not to be confused with In Bruges) actually went up during the same time period that the narrative encompasses, and the filmmakers were able to give Season 1 a period feel.
Shooting on location may have been a good idea, but it wasn’t without challenges. As the clip notes, it was a lot of work to make sure that the looks of the buildings shot on location matched the looks of the sets that were created on a soundstage closer to home. Having watched The White Queen, I’d say the crew did their jobs; if I hadn’t been privy to this clip, I wouldn’t have noticed that filming was split between real 15th century buildings and sound stages that mimicked the looks of the real architecture.
If you enjoyed the series enough to want to own it, The White Queen is hitting Blu-ray and DVD on February 4. If you are already thinking about purchasing the release, you should be pleased as punch to learn that it will come with a slew of bonus features. Thanks to its heavily detailed story, most of these unsurprisingly take a look at the creation of The White Queen, including the architecture, costumes and a set tour. Additionally, a few of the extras will focus on the history behind the series. Since magic was a large part of the narrative, we know that the history has been stretched a little, and it will be nice to hear more of the story from a historical perspective.
You can check out the full list of extras, below, or pre-order the set over at Amazon.
The White Queen Bonus Features
- “The Making Of The White Queen”
- Series Overview
- Book To Series
- “The History Behind The White Queen”
- “The White Queen: Set Tour”
- Queen Elizabeth
- The King
- The Heir Apparent
- Woman In A Man's World
- Conjuring Up The Queen/Magic
- Dressing The Queen/Wardrobe
