Reference guides for Film and TV

[Tarbicus]

There was a historical epic of the English Civil War made a couple of
years ago called: To Kill A King. The musketeers were wearing
pikemen's helmets. The producers didn't think to ask the Cromwell
Association - we could have told them (and the authentic felt hats
would even have been cheaper to make than the helmets, too)! 8)

That's one I worked on. All I'll say is that, in fact, it may have been the case that they simply couldn't afford to have the felt hats made, and it's quite amazing that the film was finished at all. To Kill a King was refused grant finance, which was quite startling given the subject matter and the pap that has received such before. The production design was very thoroughly researched (that's where I got my instructions from), and I'm sure, for the time and what was available, so were the costumes. To Kill a King is quite a deceptive film in one sense, in that what you see onscreen belies the paltry finance available to the makers, and is actually quite a credit to them. I'm really not joking when I say they might not have been able to afford the additional felt hats, and if they managed to get a costume deal that included helmets and not hats then that could be the reason.