King's St Alban's
17 January
Netflix Crowning Glory for King’s Choristers
The Netflix show The Crown is one of the most successful television series of recent years, and the last series aired in December, with the final episode featuring 36 boys from King’s Worcester Senior School and King’s St Alban’s!
At the end of the Easter holiday last year, our boy choristers, alongside pupils from a school in Surrey, made their way to York Minster to film the scene depicting the marriage blessing of Charles and Camilla, which originally took place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. For reasons of historical accuracy, our girl choristers could not be included in the filming of the choir, but our Cathedral Choristers were supplemented by other music pupils from King’s for other aspects of the filming; their role was to record the singing of a hymn, Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.
The production company told us that it was the largest shoot they had done in all of the series, featuring 500 extras playing roles such as the guests at the wedding.
After a night in a hotel in the city centre of York, which included being entertained by a singing waiter in an Italian restaurant, the boys were up very early to make their way to York Racecourse, which was the staging area; even at 7.00 am, the hustle and bustle were incredible. After a quick breakfast, the boys were off to make-up and costume, with lots of hair products! The level of detail was such that all the boys had their photos taken at the beginning of filming, and between each recording session; the make-up artists referred back to the original photo to make sure that each person looked the same throughout the recording session for continuity purposes
The recording took place in the splendour of York Minster, and the boys spent about 30 minutes singing multiple versions of the hymn. Following that, there was more filming as they were in-shot for other scenes.
Once the recording session was finished, the boys casually walked down the aisle out of the Minster. There was a wonderful moment of spontaneous appreciation as the 500 seated “guests” in their regalia applauded the boys walking down the nave.The boys feature towards the end of the very final episode of the show and everyone at King’s is incredibly proud of their part in this remarkable production.