King James’ Royal Deerhounds

Where to begin?

One minute Ricky is sitting in the Edinburgh International Film Festival Premiere of Monsters - the next thing you know - Rogue and Rascal are the hounds of King James the VI of Scotland the unifier of Kingdoms and as James’ diary keeper put it ‘England no mor bot Graite Britaine’.

Perfect placement for Rogue and Rascal, to play the hounds of Mary Queen of Scots’ with little baby James. And what honour to be allowed into the Great Hall at Stirling Castle for one of the film sequences - possibly being the first hounds to grace this magnificent building in many’s a decade.

The movie - a docu-drama about the Life of King James VI of Scotland and I of England and how following the death of Gloriana, Elizabeth I the Last Queen of the Sovereign state of England, James Stuart took the throne to become the first King and founder of Great Britain.

We always think it quite fun that in his attempt to build a ‘union of love’, James scared Shakespeare and many others when his entourage moved into London to form an encampment which became known as the ‘Scotland Yard’. Shakespeare was so concerned about his future, that he had to find out as much as he could about Scotland and the King to write a fanciful, part fact, part fiction, adoration of King James and his Royal heritage entitled Macbeth. Strangely, the Stuart line (from Brittany as Norman stewards and attached to Prince David son of King Malcolm III around 1100) would become the Longest Ruling Royal family line on the British Isles, holding throne from the 1300’s until 1700’s this is even touched upon in Macbeth (go read a copy here).

The movie may not show how, in his endeavour to unite the nation, James created a twenty shilling note, ‘The Unity’ which was not a success, perhaps because it was half the annual average salary in such times. The movie does focus on the King James bible which, ‘profoundly’ created a wider global unity for many Christians. The full title of the eventual Bible to be "THE HOLY BIBLE, Conteyning the Old Testament, AND THE NEW: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by his Majesties speciall Comandement".

In the film, much of the skulduggery around James” life is featured - including the infamous Guy Fawkes and other attempts made on his life from childhood to deathbed - although we will have to wait and see the final edit before we find out how much appears and what ends up on the cutting room floor.

With the Bible celebrating the 400th aniversary of it’s publishing next year - look out for broadcast of this docu-drama in 2011 - when we find out where, we are sure to let you know. Meanwhile enjoy the video and pics and why not pop over to Brian Vass flickr page to enjoy some good quality images from on the set - view the slideshow following the link.

More filming is taking place in Derbyshire this week with some Derbyshire Scottish Deerhounds standing in for our Rogue and Rascal. We look forward to finding out who.

And a big thank you to all the cast and crew on the set and a loud howl for Clanranald from Rogue and Rascal for the walks and keeping warm sleeping on the grass with us.