Guy Ritchie admitted he retreated to a local hotel while the cast of The Gentlemen took over his Wiltshire estate to film a lavish hunting party for the Netflix crime drama’s second series.
The 57-year-old filmmaker allowed production to use his 1,134-acre Ashcombe Estate, near Salisbury, as the setting for the opening episode. But he chose not to remain at the property once filming began.
Speaking at the world premiere in London on Wednesday, Ritchie said he had little idea what the cast and crew got up to between takes.
“I don’t know what they got up to. I think it’s best I don’t know,” he said. “I went and stayed in someone else’s gaff. I was staying in the local hotel.”
The decision may have spared him further disruption, with Theo James describing the production as considerably more unruly when filming later moved overseas to Italy.
James, 41, returns as aristocrat-turned-drug lord Eddie Horniman. Recalling the arrival of the British contingent, he said: “In Italy, 200 Brits just going f***ing bonkers.”
Kaya Scodelario, who plays criminal empire boss Susie Glass, added that some members of the production had allegedly been removed from the country within days.
“Some of them got kicked out of the country a week in!” she joked.
Filming at Guy Ritchie’s Ashcombe Estate
The cast revealed the behind-the-scenes chaos during a question-and-answer session held in the medieval Great Hall at Guildhall, where guests later watched the first episode beneath the building’s Gothic windows.
Guildhall Yard had been dressed as a country estate for the premiere, with topiary, wrought-iron gates, hunting dogs and handlers in flat caps, waistcoats and wellington boots greeting guests on a green carpet.
Ritchie’s own property offered an unusually authentic backdrop for the show’s world of landed wealth and organised crime. The director has spent more than 20 years developing Ashcombe into a private country retreat with shooting facilities, fishing lakes, luxury accommodation and a microbrewery producing Gritchie beer.
The Georgian house was once home to society photographer Cecil Beaton. Ritchie and Madonna bought the estate for a reported £9 million in 2001, and he retained it following the end of their marriage in 2008.
He now divides his time between Ashcombe and London with his second wife, model Jacqui Ainsley, and their family. The estate remains a working farm and family home set among more than 1,100 acres of chalk downland.
Its grounds and sporting lake appear in the new series, providing the setting for a hunting gathering attended by wealthy landowners and powerful figures from the drama’s fictional underworld.
The second series sees Eddie and Susie’s criminal operation expand beyond the English countryside to the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Scodelario also revealed that Susie’s wardrobe receives an international upgrade, with the character dressed “head to toe in Dolce & Gabbana” during the Italian storyline.
Ray Winstone, Vinnie Jones, Joely Richardson, Hugh Bonneville, Giancarlo Esposito, Michele Morrone, Maya Jama and Chris Eubank Jr were among the other stars at the premiere.
Ritchie attended with Ainsley, 44, and his 26-year-old son Rocco, whom he shares with Madonna. Following the screening, guests continued the celebrations in the red-lit medieval crypts beneath Guildhall.
All eight episodes of The Gentlemen series two are now available to watch on Netflix.
