Phil Spencer's Stately Homes — Season 2
Phil Spencer returns for another grand tour of some of Britain's magnificent stately homes
About this season
Phil Spencer returns for another grand tour of some of Britain's magnificent stately homes
Episodes (4)
1. Longleat
Aired 13 August 2018 • 47 min
Phil hears tales of lovesick ghosts as he surveys Longleat's lavish interior décor and some of the most elaborate gardening in history.
2. Belvoir Castle
Aired 20 August 2018 • 47 min
When is a stately home not a stately home? When it's a stately castle. In Leicestershire, Phil tries some medieval pest control and finds evidence of an aristocratic sex scandal and a lost railway.
3. Houghton Hall
Aired 27 August 2018 • 48 min
Phil is off to Norfolk and a grand pile built by Britain's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. He discovers jaw dropping costs, bedrooms, and a giant silver bed.
4. Blenheim Palace
Aired 3 September 2018 • 47 min
Phil explores the magnificent Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and gets to know its formidable builders, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, and his wife Sarah. Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, Phil’s host, explains that the palace was a gift to the Marlborough family from their friend Queen Anne, a monument to the Duke’s victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. However, in the archive Phil discovers the build was plagued with problems: fall-outs with the architect, unpaid builders and costs beyond even the wildest estimates. Phil tots up a total in today’s money that makes Blenheim the most expensive house he’s ever visited.