Mapp & Lucia is a British television series, set in the fictional Sussex coastal town of Tilling and based on three 1930s novels by E. F. Benson, beginning with Mapp and Lucia. It was produced by London Weekend Television, filmed in Rye (on which Benson based Tilling) and neighbouring Winchelsea in the 1980s, and starred Prunella Scales as Mapp, Geraldine McEwan as Lucia, Nigel Hawthorne as Georgie, and Denis Lill as Major Benjy. The script was by Gerald Savory. There were ten episodes, (which aired in two series of five) broadcast on Channel 4 in 1985 and 1986. The opening title painting was painted by the artist Reg Cartwright. These have been repeated over the years, and a new BBC adaptation, Mapp & Lucia, aired in 2014.
Series one is a five-episode adaptation of Mapp and Lucia (1931). Season two adapts both the fifth book (Lucia's Progress, 1935) in the first three episodes, and the sixth book (Trouble for Lucia, 1939) in the final two episodes.
Filming took place in Rye and Winchelsea as well as Kent – Chilham features in episodes 1, 2 and 10, doubling as Risholme and Hever Castle features as the residence of Poppy, Duchess of Sheffield.[1]