Martin Clunes stars in the new feel-good movie Mother’s Pride, filmed in the village of Norton St Philip. We sit down to hear his thoughts on filming in Somerset, his favourite places and why it’s best he doesn’t drink cider
When Martin Clunes is asked why he decided to star in Mother’s Pride, the new British comedy‑drama set in a struggling village pub, he makes no bones about what first attracted him. ‘Why do it? I need to earn a living like everyone else,’ he says, laughing. ‘That’s always the primary thing, but it seemed quite fun. And I knew the pedigree of the makers because I’d seen the Fisherman’s Friends films.’ Living in neighbouring Dorset, a love for this part of the world seems to have also played a role: ‘And of course, it was here in the West Country!’ he explains.
Mother’s Pride follows Mick Harley, a gruff landlord whose local, The Drovers Arms, is on its knees after the death of his wife. When his estranged son returns home, the family take a desperate gamble on brewing their own beer and entering the Great British Beer Awards, inadvertently turning the pub into a rallying point for eccentric regulars and a divided village. The feel‑good film starring James Buckley, Jonno Davies, Mark Addy and Gabriella Wilde mixes gentle humour with themes of loss, resilience and belonging.
On screen, the fictional Drovers Arms is played by the Fleur de Lys pub in Norton St Philip, with The George Inn cast as its slick rival across the way. Asked whether the pubs become characters in their own right, Clunes doesn’t hesitate: ‘Yes, I guess they were. We were there for weeks filming in Norton St Philip and I was intrigued by the pub on the other side of the road from ‘The Drovers’ – its amazing arches where horses and carriages would have gone in.’
The arches which captured Clunes’ attention belong to The George Inn, widely regarded as one of England’s oldest taverns. In fact, this isn’t the first time the pub has had a starring role, as it featured in the 1993 drama The Remains of the Day starring Anthony Hopkins.
The Grade I-listed medieval inn began life as a wool store for nearby Hinton Priory and evolved alongside Norton St Philip’s medieval wool fairs, offering lodgings and ale to travelling merchants. A licence to sell drink dates to 1397, with the timber‑framed upper floors and galleried courtyard added in the 15th century. The George later became a key coaching inn on the London to West Country route and a backdrop to poignant historical moments: the Duke of Monmouth used it as his headquarters during the 1685 rebellion, and Judge Jeffreys is said to have held Bloody Assizes here, ordering executions on the common outside.
Today, despite its film-starring role, it remains very much a real pub, its medieval bones still clearly visible behind the present-day Butcombe Brewery signage.
Just across the road, the Fleur de Lys – Mother’s Pride’s main location – has an equally rich past. Thought to date back to the late medieval period, it was trading as an inn by 1584, serving travellers on the busy route into Bath. Later records note Queen Anne of Denmark dining there in 1615, and Samuel Pepys breaking his journey in the village to ‘take the waters’. A weathered coat of arms on the north wall is linked to the Fortescue family, once major local landowners.
For all that bloody backstory, Clunes’ experience of the village was anything but grim. ‘It was lovely, everyone was very welcoming,’ he says of filming in Norton St Philip. ‘In fact, there was a lady who I haven’t seen since primary school, so it was lovely to catch up!’
The village itself gives the film much of its character. Its main street, lined with honey‑coloured stone buildings and those two prominent inns facing each other across the road, already feels cinematic. Residents signed up as extras, helping to create the sense of a real, close‑knit community holding on to its last local. On the green between the Church of St Philip & St James and The George Inn, a village fete set was set up for the production.
Clunes, who plays Mick opposite James Buckley’s wayward musician son, is full of admiration for his younger co‑star. ‘James Buckley, I’m a big fan of his. I wanted to work with him as I thought he was really clever, and I wasn’t wrong,’ says Clunes. Their relationship underpins the film’s emotional core: a father and son forced back together behind the bar, trying to save both the business and what’s left of their family.
Given the plot, it is tempting to see Mother’s Pride as an awareness movie about the plight of British pubs. Clunes is more cautious. ‘It hadn’t struck me, really, until I went to see it myself, that it highlighted the plight of British pubs. But I guess the pub shutting was as topical then as it is now,’ he muses of the idea that the movie is in fact more than a feel-good evening at the cinema. ‘But yes, when I went to see it, it really is an ode to the pub.’
Pressed on whether the film offers any solutions, he is blunt. ‘I don’t think it does really. It’s not a movie made to help the pub industry – it’s just about a publican.’ Yet his sympathy for real landlords is obvious. ‘The character I play is in a bit of a sad place because he’s newly widowed, and his son is missing and everything is going down the pan, the business is failing. But it doesn’t really examine the daily grind of being a publican which must be one of the toughest jobs in the world.’
He bases his views on witnessing those hardships first hand. Clunes and his wife, producer Philippa Braithwaite, once lived in the tiny Dorset village of Powerstock. ‘It’s tiny,’ he recalls. ‘Where we live now, we’re pretty remote so we don’t have that regular pub thing, but in Powerstock we could just walk down the road to the local. But you would see young couples come and just get crushed by it [running a pub]. It’s an all‑encompassing life.’
Despite that realism, Mother’s Pride keeps its tone firmly in the feel‑good camp. One of the standout sequences involves ‘disco Morris dancing’ – a gloriously daft mash‑up of bells, sticks and disco vibes. ‘Ah, now, I witnessed that, but I didn’t partake in it,’ he says, laughing. ‘James and Mark Addy were particularly good at it – amazing in fact. It’s a funny idea.’
While the film focuses on brewing beer, West Country cider inevitably came up in conversation, though Clunes insists he has to be careful. ‘I love cider’ he enthuses ‘but I’m generally not allowed it because it gives me opinions!’ he jokes. ‘I love old scrumpy cider.’
Although he lives over the border in Dorset, Clunes’ ties to Somerset run deeper than the Mother’s Pride shoot. ‘I have family in Alhampton so I visit regularly,’ he says when asked about forays over the border to our neck of the woods. As for favourite local spots, The Newt gets his seal of approval. ‘They’ve just got it right at The Newt, haven’t they? – they do everything so classily – but what I love most is the new Castle Cary train station,’ he says surprisingly. ‘I love that I can have a really good cup of tea and there is that amazing Newt shop and café [The Creamery]. It’s brilliant. I drive all the way to Castle Cary just to travel to London from the station. If I’ve got the time, I’ll go half an hour early to just enjoy it – there’s a fake heron that gets me every time.’
In the end, Mother’s Pride is a joyful and heartwarming film that doesn’t try to be the mouthpiece for struggling pubs. What it does offer is the pleasure of seeing familiar places on the big screen – Norton St Philip’s ancient inns, lanes and green – wrapped around a story about family, grief and the hope that a village local can still bring people together..
Share