Hunting errors
Sir: Having just read Angela Huth's Diary (26 August) rightly criticising the careless- ness of film and television producers in relation to settings and clothes, I would point out that they are also guilty of the most blatant historical inaccuracies and social solecisms.
The latest film of Lady Chatterley's Lover was made on my estate; I was invited to read the script beforehand. Apart from obvious social inaccuracies such as referring to a Baronet's wife as 'Lady Constance' instead of 'Lady Chatter- ley', the producers insisted on introducing a scene depicting the outbreak of the first world war in the middle of the hunting season.
When I observed that everyone, at any rate in my own (inter war) generation, knew that war was declared on the 4 August 1914, and that even the most benighted city dweller would realise that this was not the hunting season, I was told that nobody would notice.
Even more astonishing, however, was the fact that the same terrace, which in reality faces West, was used in the filming of a scene supposed to take place in the evening and another scene supposed to take place in the morning. When I pointed out that most people would realise that the sun did not rise and set in the same direction, I was informed that nobody would notice because there was 65 minutes of screen time between the two scenes.
Does this not evidence an arrogant assumption that all cinema goers or televi- sion watchers are either ignorant of simple historical facts of are unobservant?
Julian M. E. Byng
Wrotham Park, Barnet, Hertfordshire
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