Downton Abbey star, Michelle Dockery, has been filming her latest historical drama at Bearwood College. The 30 year old Emmy-nominated actress, is best known for her portrayal of Lady Mary in the hit TV show, now in its third series. Her new role is for the BBC’s adaptation of William Boyd’s best-selling novel ‘Restless’, a two-part drama due to air towards the end of 2012.

The stellar cast of this enthralling new production also includes Sir Michael Gambon, Charlotte Rampling OBE, Rufus Sewell and Hayley Atwell.

The filming, which began over the Summer, has been split between South Africa and the UK. The scenes filmed at Bearwood College over two days in September took advantage of the beautiful Victorian Mansion House at the school’s centre and the magnificent 125-acre grounds. The Billiard Room with its original leather pressed wallpaper was dressed by the film crew and filmed as a study inside a gentleman’s club . Outside the Mansion, the College grounds provided the setting for a country lane where the actress stopped to make a call from a phone box.

The adaptation of Boyd’s novel tells the story of a young girl (Dockery) whose mother, Eva, (played by Rampling) unexpectedly reveals that she has been a spy for the British Secret Service on the run for the last 30 years. The drama follows Eva’s story from Paris 1939 to the present through an epic story of love, duplicity and betrayal.

Screenwriter and author, William Boyd, told the BBC: “To have the chance to film a novel like Restless over three hours is the sort of opportunity that only a television adaptation can provide. It represents the most enticing and alluring of possibilities – not only to tell an enthralling story of wartime espionage, love and betrayal but also to lift the lid on one of the last secrets of the Second World War.”

Bearwood College is delighted to have been involved providing the location for such an exciting production and we are very much looking forward to seeing the programme air later in the year.