National Liberal Club - Film and Television Appearances

Film and Television Appearances

The club has been used as a location in numerous films and television programmes, including:

• Look at Life: Members Only (1965) - a two-minute sequence on the NLC as part of this short cinema featurette on London clubs.
• Casino Royale (1967) - a short scene filmed in front of the club's main entrance on Whitehall Place, with Derek Nimmo putting Joanna Pettet into a taxi driven by Bernard Cribbins.
• The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) - billiards room scene with Roger Moore and Thorley Walters, filmed in the basement ballroom. A later scene filmed in the same room is intercut with footage of Moore in the Reform Club, making it seem as if the room is part of the Reform.
• Zeppelin (1971) - numerous scenes filmed in the Gladstone Library, River Room, Billiards Room and various other areas of the club, all doubling for World War I-era government offices. Ronald Adam plays the unnamed Prime Minister, with Michael York, Richard Hurndall and Rupert Davies as various army and navy officers.
• The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (1971) - "Just one more please" sketch in which William Mervyn plays a politician emerging from the club, being chased by Marty Feldman's increasingly frenzied press photographer.
• Savage Messiah (1972) - two scenes of this Ken Russell film, shot in the Gladstone Library (which doubled for the interior of Paris' Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève), in which Dorothy Tutin and Scott Antony played the writer Sophie Brzeska and the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska meeting for the first time.
• The Professionals, episode 2.7, Not a Very Civil Civil Servant (1978) - duelling scene between Gordon Jackson and Lewis Collins, whilst Martin Shaw looks on, filmed in the basement ballroom.
• The Elephant Man (1980) - two scenes in this David Lynch film, both with John Gielgud and Anthony Hopkins. The first was filmed in an unidentified room of the NLC doubling for Gielgud's office, the second in the Gladstone Library doubling as a hospital boardroom.
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) - Episode 2 - scene filmed in the men's restroom, with Eric Porter and Edward Woodward playing Neville Chamberlain and Samuel Hoare.
• The Missionary (1982) - scene filmed in the basement ballroom, with the room redressed with a boxing ring and climbing frames to look like a sports-themed club, with Michael Palin and Denholm Elliott. There is also an establishing shot of the club's main hall.
• Brazil (1985) - Party scene in this Terry Gilliam film, set in the NLC's main staircase and basement ballroom, the latter having been heavily redressed in Gilliam's trademark style. Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin, Jim Broadbent, Katherine Helmond, Peter Vaughan, Jack Purvis, Kathryn Pogson and Elizabeth Spender all appear in this scene.
• House of Cards (1990) - Episode 2 - scene filmed in the Gladstone Library, with Kenny Ireland as Benjamin Landless, a thinly veiled spoof of Rupert Murdoch.
• The Wings of the Dove (1997) - establishing shot of the front entrance, followed by a scene filmed in the dining room, with Linus Roache, Alison Elliott, and Elizabeth McGovern.
• Spooks (2002–11) - numerous shots of the smoking room, staircase, main hall and exterior in many episodes, for instance series 05, episode 05, "The Message" (2006), in which Peter Firth and Tim McInnerny lunch at the latter's unnamed club.
• Sparkling Cyanide (2003) - scene filmed in the main staircase, doubling for a barrister's chambers.
• The Alan Clark Diaries (2004) - scene filmed in the dining room, with John Hurt playing Alan Clark.
• Hustle, episode 1.2, Faking It (2004) - exterior scene of the club entrance, with Marc Warren and Robert Pugh.
• The Constant Gardener (2005) - based on the John le Carré novel, with scenes filmed in the main entrance, smoking room and dining room, featuring Ralph Fiennes and Bill Nighy.
• And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007) - award ceremony scene filmed in the Gladstone Library, with Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent
• Shanghai (2010) - brief scene with John Cusack and David Morse in the smoking room.
• The Hour (2011) - Episode 1 - several scenes in the main hall and the smoking room.