Christmas At Harewood House (Channel 4 Friday 16 December 2022)

: Yorkshire’s Harewood House is one of England’s finest Treasure Houses.

It was constructed in the 1700s by Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron of Harewood, and was designed by Robert Adam and landscaped by Capability Brown. It features the world’s finest collection of Chippendale furniture.

This Palladian masterpiece is now managed as a museum devoted to fine art, making it more than just a tourist attraction. David Lascelles, the current 8th Earl of Harewood, and his family serve on the board of the charitable trust. This Christmas, their team has ambitious plans to transform all the grand state rooms with installations by eleven cutting-edge artists.

Long Live the Christmas Tree demonstrates how each artist interprets winter festivities. The exhibition embraces the contemporary and combines a variety of cultures and local craftsmanship, but this modern interpretation of a stately home is motivated by a difficult historical legacy.

The house was constructed with the wealth generated by the family’s West Indies sugar plantations. Although many British institutions have ties to slavery, Harewood was among the first to not only acknowledge but also own this difficult issue.

By acknowledging the historical debt to Caribbean culture, the Lascelles hope to mitigate the future by encouraging a renaissance of contemporary, diverse artists to exhibit at and visit Harewood.

We follow a chaotic and eclectic two-week Christmas installation in which staff, family, and eleven very different artists collaborate to create a one-of-a-kind Christmas experience… but will it meet the expectations of their 40,000 loyal visitors?

Airdate: Friday 16 December 2022 at 8.00pm on Channel 4.

Featured Image Credit: Channel 4