On the face of it, there would seem to be few disadvantages to inheriting a baronetcy and a 2,000-acre estate – certainly not when the estate, set in the most glorious part of Dorset, includes an entire village and a Regency pile of such unsullied charm that it has featured in a hit crime drama series.
But Sir Philip Williams, owner of the splendid Bridehead estate, might disagree.
After his house and grounds appeared in ITV series Broadchurch – as the backdrop for a rape, investigated by David Tennant and Olivia Colman – he lamented that fans were turning up whenever they felt like it, to the extent that he and his wife, Catherine, found people loitering on the lawn.
Now, I can disclose, they are selling up – for £30million.
Sir Philip, 74, the seventh generation of his family at Bridehead, declines to say whether his decision has in any way been influenced by the rush of visitors – who, by one local account, ‘plagued’ the family – following its Broadchurch appearance.
A sprawling country estate that was used to film ITV drama Broadchurch is on the market for £30m
The estate is being sold by Sir Philip Williams (pictured), whose family have owned it for more than 200 years
But David Hebditch, of Carter Jonas, handling the sale, describes it as ‘a very sad day for the family’, telling me that it’s taken ‘a long time to make the decision’.
It’s not hard to see why. With its lake, woodlands and sweeping lawns, the estate looks particularly idyllic now that summer has arrived. The nine-bedroom house has a magnificent oak library, a billiards room and a swimming pool – built into its conservatory – and even a prayer room.
Traditionally, the estate would be inherited by the couple’s only son, David, 43. But Sir Philip and Lady Williams have decided against this. ‘They have four adult children, who have their own lives and careers,’ adds Hebditch. ‘This is the only way that was felt to be fair.’
ITV’s crime drama Broadchurch starring David Tennant and Olivia Coleman
Olivia Colman as D.S. Ellie Miller and David Tennant as D.I Alec Hardy ‘Broadchurch’ in the ITV Programme
It’s not a view shared by Sir Philip’s kinsman, Francis Fulford, at Great Fulford in Devon. Intent on handing his estate – in the family for well over 20 generations – to his eldest son, Fulford refuses to sell a single acre. Instead, he replenished his coffers by starring in a fly-on-the-wall documentary, The F***ing Fulfords, in which he praised an ancestor who commanded a fleet of ships, killing 5,000 French – ‘a satisfactory result all round’ – and spoke proudly of his children because ‘they aren’t a bunch of poofs’.
What divorce? Getty heiress Ivy parties on
American heiress Ivy Getty recently filed for divorce from her husband, the British photographer Toby Engel, but she’s determined to show that she’s stepping in the right direction.
The 29-year-old great-granddaughter of oil industrialist J. Paul Getty has shared online this photograph of her posing on a stairwell during a friend’s birthday party in New York while wearing an Emilio Pucci mini dress.
American heiress Ivy Getty (pictured) attending the 2024 Met Gala
Ivy married Engel, the son of former Coronation Street star Cheryl Prime, in 2021, one year after her father, John Gilbert Getty, died of a fentanyl overdose and heart problems aged 52.
Guests at their three-day wedding celebration in San Francisco included Princess Olympia of Greece.
Regularly lobbing insults at his fellow surviving Monty Python members is an expression of love, insists John Cleese. ‘In this country, the more we love someone, the more we insult them,’ the Fawlty Towers star says. ‘Whenever I get together with Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, for instance, I take the mickey out of Michael for making boring travel documentaries and ask Terry when he’s going to make another expensive flop of a movie.’
Florence makes a pretty penny
Oppenheimer star Florence Pugh is making a fortune in Hollywood.
The Oxford restaurateur’s daughter has reported £1.1 million in profits at Flo Pug, the performing arts firm into which she channels her earnings.
Florence Pugh (pictured) attends the “Dune: Part Two” premiere at Lincoln Center on February 25
Its newly filed accounts disclose that money held in her company increased to £2.6 million in the 12 months to August last year. The privately educated actress, 28, held £1.4 million in investments and £1.3 million in cash among her company’s assets.
Demi and her dog are such a pair of wags
It’s not just the women who wait outside the Duke of York’s Theatre overwhelmed by Tom Holland‘s performance in Romeo And Juliet.
Hollywood star Demi Moore claims that pet chihuahua Pilaf was ‘moved’ by the Spider-Man actor’s West End appearance in Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Demi Moore seen arriving at ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ on January 31 with her dog
Hollywood star Demi Moore claims that pet chihuahua Pilaf was ‘moved’ by the Spider-Man actor’s West End appearance in Shakespeare’s tragedy
US actress Demi Moore poses with her Chihuahua dog named Pilaf
‘She’s like my little friend, my partner,’ Demi says of Pilaf. ‘She’s my little travel mate. And she’s just a joy. I usually have her in a little sling. We go everywhere together.
‘She’s been to the French Open and the Louvre. She’s been to Broadway shows.
‘She recently saw Tom Holland in Romeo And Juliet in London. She was quite moved. She thought the performance was extraordinary, as it was.’
Top designer Marc Jacobs has admitted that he’s been forced to give in to ‘bullies’ from the animal rights lobby. The American stopped using new fur in 2018. However, in a collection four years later, he used some second-hand animal pelts, leading to criticism from campaigners, as well as alleged intimidation. ‘It pains me to give in to bullies,’ he laments. ‘Unfortunately, my current situation — with a radical organisation (who will remain nameless) claiming to care about the lives of animals while endangering the well-being of innocent individuals and communities — leaves me no choice but to give in to a bully.’
Comic Stephen Merchant finds it difficult to sympathise with some who complain of suffering from mental problems.
‘What’s hard for me, as someone who perhaps doesn’t struggle with mental health, is to distinguish between what is a real mental health difficulty and what is just life throwing some s*** at you that you have to cope with and battle through,’ the co-writer of The Office tells the iweigh podcast.
‘There are times where people have said to me, ‘I can’t do that because it’s bad for my mental health’. I think, ‘Is it bad for your mental health, or is it that you just don’t want to do it, or is it stressful and difficult?’
