Hidden Treasures of the National Trust Season 3 Episode 2 - The Nude in the Attic

Airdate: 2025-May-16

Episode summary:

The compelling and sometimes scandalous family stories behind two very different National Trust houses are revealed.In Knole House, the sprawling Tudor ancestral seat of the Sackville family, a life-size nude statue of 18th-century ballet dancer Giovana Zanerini, commissioned by her lover John Frederick, is being conserved to slow the aging process and restore her legendary looks. Two other heirlooms at Knole - a set of 400-year-old rolled-up animal skin parchments - are so delicate that they haven't been unrolled for many years.At the traditional Lake District farmhouse Townend, a key part of the archive of the Browne family of yeoman farmers - a bound volume of 18th-century letters - is being conserved using traditional book-binding skills, and scientific paint analysis has revealed the house's original Victorian paint scheme.

About Hidden Treasures of the National Trust series:

A look behind the velvet rope at the country's most beautiful and historic homes with the people saving Britain's priceless heritage.