Leeds Castle (1979) • Peter Greenaway shorts

Every two years John Packer of the Scottish cloth manufacturer Reid & Taylor put on a show. His fashion extravaganzas promoted some of the most expensive fabrics in the world, and attracted top designers and an audience of fashionistas, including guest of honour Princess Margaret. It was just the kind success story that suited the Central Office of Information’s cinemagazine series This Week in Britain, which exported a positive image of Britain to the world – including Reid & Taylor’s target market of Australia. The castle backdrop and classical fashions were also perfect fodder for director Peter Greenaway, who spent over a decade constructing such stories for the COI. It was here that he learnt his craft and earned enough to self-finance his own experimental shorts, which would eventually lead to acclaimed feature films like The Belly of an Architect (1987) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989).