Watch our Vanbrugh300 Celebration with the National Portrait Gallery

A huge thank you to Cathy Courtney for devising and researching this event, and to Lettie McKie and the team at the National Portrait Gallery for producing it. Many thanks to Django Pinter for filming and editing this event.

Thanks to the generous support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we were able to film the event and make this recording available to watch for free, allowing the event to reach audiences beyond those who were able to attend in person.

This sell-out event, presented in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, saw Dame Harriet Walter and Stephen Boxer bring to life the extraordinary correspondence between Sir John Vanbrugh and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, during the building of Blenheim Palace.

Harriet and Stephen illuminated sequences from their letters in what must be one of the most electrifying, witty and brutal epistolary exchanges ever recorded. The war of words between these two formidable characters ultimately ended in a court battle. But not before giving us a remarkable insight into the political and personal debates of this fascinating period in British history.

The afternoon began with a fascinating lecture from Ophelia Field, exploring the importance of Vanbrugh’s membership of the Kit-Cat Club, before moving into the dramatic exchange between Vanbrugh and the Duchess.