Latimer's 1990s Fete: Chamber of Secrets Clue?

DavidOkay, so get this. Somebody points a phone at a quiet Buckinghamshire village, and there's a fairground stall where the post office should be.

Becca HartwellA fairground in a village? Sounds like Tuesday in England, David.

DavidExcept this one comes with a full 1990s makeover. Welcome to The Sorting Room, everybody. I'm David.

Becca HartwellAnd I'm Becca, and this story deserves a proper welcome. So Latimer set videos surfaced this week showing fairground stalls, a fete setup, and the whole village dressed up like the '90s.

DavidAnd HBO has confirmed none of it.

Becca HartwellNot a word.

DavidWhich means everybody online has already decided it's Chamber of Secrets.

Becca HartwellHold on. Is it? That's question one.

DavidAnd question two is sneakier. When did filming actually start?

Becca HartwellOh, I have opinions on that one.

DavidWait for it, because we're splitting this cleanly with the Clips show on one side, what Fans are reading into them on the other.

Becca HartwellAnd the Fans are reading a lot.

DavidSome of it is sharp detective work, and some of it is a leap with a running start. We'll tell you Which is Which.

Becca HartwellFair warning, we don't agree on all of it.

DavidFirst, the Clips themselves. Okay, so ComingSoon ran a piece on two new Set Set videos, and the headline is about a village getting a 1990s full makeover, Fairground Stalls, a Fete setup, the whole costume party for a postcode situation.

Becca HartwellTwo videos. Not one blurry clip, two.

DavidRight. And that matters because two angles on the same place is harder to wave away as a Fan edit.

Becca HartwellThough I'd keep that modest. Two videos is better than one, but it's still footage we're getting secondhand through an article.

DavidSure, secondhand. That's why I keep saying the coverage describes, and we're repeating the description.

Becca HartwellFair, but look at what that coverage actually claims. Stalls, setup, period styling. That's a list of things you can see with your eyes.

DavidWhich is the good news. The visible column is short but solid.

Becca HartwellShort because there's a lot we can't say. We can't say who's in frame, we can't say whether a camera was rolling, and we can't say what any of it is for.

DavidRight. A video that surfaces online gives you the dressing, not the drama.

Becca HartwellAnd then there's the second ComingSoon piece, the one about a mystery unexpected season two filming location reportedly tied to Chamber of Secrets.

DavidReportedly. Pl- I wanna sit in that word for a second.

Becca HartwellPlease do.

DavidBecause that one word is carrying the entire Chamber of Secrets theory. The outlet isn't saying HBO told them. It's saying this is Reportedly connected. Somebody somewhere is the source, and we don't get to meet them.

Becca HartwellAnd that's the honest read of the headline. A mystery in headline language means nobody has the answer yet.

DavidExactly. A mystery is just a question with a nice font.

Becca HartwellSo the scorecard, Visible stalls, setup, period styling. Inferred, which scene, which chapter?

DavidAnd here's my problem. Fans jump straight to a chapter. Nothing in these videos says a chapter.

Becca HartwellDavid, I'll defend the jump a little. A fete is a very specific thing. You don't build Fairground stalls in a village for a quiet walk and talk.

DavidSure, but a fete could be background for anything, a crowd scene, a Muggle-world beat.

Becca HartwellOr it's the whole reason they picked the village.

DavidCould be. I'm just saying the clip gives you a setting, not a scene.

Becca HartwellOkay, but a setting is more than nothing. When a production dresses an entire village, that's money. Nobody pays to make a village look like the '90s for a three-second cutaway.

DavidOoh, that's a budget argument, and I like it. It doesn't prove the scene, though.

Becca HartwellNever said it proves the scene. I said it raises the odds.

DavidRaises the odds. Fine. I'll give you that much, and not an inch more.

Becca HartwellGenerous.

DavidHere's the test I use. If an outlet told me the clip shows a specific chapter, I'd wanna know who said so. Right now, the only thing on the page is a hedge.

Becca HartwellAnd the hedge is doing its job. It's telling you how much weight to put on it.

DavidSo where does that leave the scorecard? Visible is real. The mystery framing is one outlet's word hedged, and the chapter guess is entirely ours.

Becca HartwellOurs and the internet's, which brings up the question everybody keeps asking me in my head, "When did any of this happen?"

DavidFans want a date for all this, and honestly, the timeline is messier than the clips. Okay, so the widely reported line is that season two cameras started rolling at Leavesden in August. Asha Soetan, who plays Angelina Johnson, confirmed she was on set.

Becca HartwellWhich sounds tidy, too tidy because that August start is still unsettled.

DavidRight? And Variety has a different calendar. Variety reported back in May that HBO renewed the show for season two, adapting Chamber of Secrets with filming beginning in the fall.

Becca HartwellFall, not August.

DavidPlot twist, though, I don't think that's a flat contradiction. Variety was describing a plan in May. The August story is describing something that supposedly happened later. Plans move.

Becca HartwellOh, you're gonna defend the plan moving. Go on.

DavidAn actor on set can mean a lot of things: rehearsal, fittings, a first block at the studio. I'm speculating there, but it's why one confirmation from one actor doesn't settle the whole calendar.

Becca HartwellSure, except cameras rolling is a bigger claim than an actor showing up. If it's true, Variety's fall is already behind us.

DavidFair, and I'd add that Variety is the closest thing we have to an official schedule, so anything that departs from it earns a raised eyebrow in either direction.

Becca HartwellRaised eyebrow noted, and it's not the only eyebrow this week. The Sun reportedly said the season two scripts were discarded and rewritten.

DavidOoh, rewritten how?

Becca HartwellNo detail beyond that. The claim is that the rewrite pushed filming from August into October. That report came in early September

DavidAnd HBO hasn't confirmed it.

Becca HartwellNot a word. So I'm treating it as a rumor with a date on it.

DavidMeanwhile, the August start is shaky too, so we've got two unsettled timelines pointing in opposite directions.

Becca HartwellHere's how I sort them. Variety is a trade outlet reporting a schedule. The Sun is a report about a problem, and Asha is an actor saying where she was. Those aren't the same kind of claim.

DavidThat's a good split, and it's why the start date matters beyond trivia. If you believe August, season two is well underway. If you believe October, the picture looks very different.

Becca HartwellWhich is why I'm taking the bet that filming did start in August. An actor confirming she's on set is a first-hand thing. A tabloid saying scripts got binned is a whisper about a whisper.

DavidHa. Then I'm taking October just to be annoying. If scripts got rewritten, that's exactly the sort of thing a studio doesn't announce.

Becca HartwellDavid, that's an argument from silence.

DavidIt's the only kind of argument this week has. Hey, I'll own it.

Becca HartwellOkay, and the second bet, is Latimer actually Chamber of Secrets?

DavidI'm at maybe sixty/forty yes. The village is dressed too carefully for a throwaway.

Becca HartwellI'm higher, but here's my problem with both of us. Neither bet is settled by a fairground clip.

DavidAnd there's the honest limit. A clip can't tell you a filming date, and it can't tell you a chapter. Only a paper trail could.

Becca HartwellSo what do we do? Just shrug?

DavidWait for it, because that's the kicker. Something just landed that's stronger than any clip.

Becca HartwellThe report?

DavidThe report. It's about the road, and it changes how solid this whole location story is. Okay, so get this. The fairground clips were a mood. This next thing is paperwork.

Becca HartwellPaperwork, David? That's your big reveal?

DavidPaperwork is the most romantic thing a location can have. GB News reports that Plum Jam Productions, a Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiary, closed the main routes through Latimer for three days.

Becca HartwellThree days for a village.

DavidAnd the days matter. Emergency vehicles only on the Tuesday. On the Monday and Wednesday, permit holders could get through at set times.

Becca HartwellSo a resident could get home, but only if they'd planned their whole week around a fake fairground.

DavidResidents describe marshals, escorts, and diversions onto a single-track lane. Imagine meeting a marshal on a single-track lane when you just wanted milk.

Becca HartwellThat's the detail I trust most, honestly. That's residents describing their own week, not somebody squinting at a video.

DavidRight. It's texture. It doesn't prove scenes, but it makes the place feel like a place instead of a rumor.

Becca HartwellOh, man. Okay, but that's one outlet. I want a second voice before I get excited.

DavidYou get one. A separate report says Buckinghamshire Council approved a temporary road closure for filming in Latimer, and that came after its normal consultation process.

Becca HartwellNormal process. So nobody snuck this through on a Sunday night.

DavidNo. And the same report says the production wrote to residents beforehand.

Becca HartwellOkay, that changes my mood. A council signing off is not something a fan invents in a forum.

DavidAnd notice how different the kinds of evidence are. The clips are something you look at. This is something a council and a production company actually did.

Becca HartwellWhich is why it's stronger evidence, even if it's duller.

DavidRight. Whatever you think the clips mean, there's a real shoot with real permissions on real roads.

Becca HartwellHold on, though. I'll say the quiet part. Does any of this tell us what they filmed?

DavidNot a word. Both reports document a sanctioned location shoot. Neither says which scenes.

Becca HartwellPlot twist, the most solid evidence we've got is also the most boring about content.

DavidWait for it, because that's the deal. The closure answers whether it's real. It leaves which scene wide open.

Becca HartwellAnd that's a useful discipline. Two separate questions got stuck together. Is it real, and what is it for? The closure answers the first and is silent on the second.

DavidWhich is a neat way to get yourself in trouble. The temptation is to let a yes on the first question leak into the second.

Becca HartwellAnd that's where I think fans are going too far. People see the closed road, and suddenly they've got a shot list.

DavidHmm. I'd say they're overreading, sure, but you can't blame them. A three-day closure is expensive. Nobody shuts a village for a background wave.

Becca HartwellSure, but expensive for what? A big crowd scene? A single conversation on a pavement? A road closure is a cage, David. It doesn't tell you what's inside it.

DavidFair. I'll concede the cage, but a cage that big suggests something with movement in it.

Becca HartwellSuggests, that's the word doing all the heavy lifting.

DavidFine, it's doing squats. Still, the question has narrowed. We're no longer asking if Latimer happened. We're asking what they needed it for.

Becca HartwellWhich is a better argument to have, honestly.

DavidIt really is, and it's a fair one for the fans, too. Nobody's wrong to be excited. They're only wrong if they treat excitement as a source.

Becca HartwellPut that on a mug.

DavidSo which Chamber of Secrets scenes could need a village? Start with where the film's actually shot.

Becca HartwellOh, I've got opinions.

DavidOkay, baseline time. A film locations guide on movielocations.com lists where the 2002 Chamber of Secrets actually shot, and the Weasley house, built on Gypsy Lane near Abbots Langley.

Becca HartwellWhich is opposite Leavesden.

DavidOpposite Leavesden. The Burrow was basically built across the street from the office. Commute of the century.

Becca HartwellNobody had to pack a lunch. What else is on the list?

DavidGloucester Cathedral, Lacock Abbey, Durham Cathedral, and the Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Becca HartwellSo the film's big outdoor names are churches and a railway bridge. Notice what's missing.

DavidA village fete.

Becca HartwellRight. Nothing on that list is a village high street.

DavidCareful, though. A travel guide lists the places worth visiting. It isn't a full production ledger. So I wouldn't say the film never shot in a village. I'd say this list doesn't feature one.

Becca HartwellFair. That's the honest version, but it does show what the guide treats as the film's signature locations, and a village fete isn't among them.

DavidOkay, but that's the point for the show. The movies kept the Muggle-adjacent stuff small and built The Burrow from scratch. A travel guide only tells us what the film used, so this show has room to do it differently.

Becca HartwellAnd it already has. The same report that covered the council approval also notes that Upminster's Springfield Gardens stood in for Privet Drive in August last year.

DavidWait, a real street as Privet Drive?

Becca HartwellThat's what the report says, a real suburban street, not a backlot. So this production has form for using actual places.

DavidFine. That makes Latimer less weird, and a real street gives you texture a backlot has to fake.

Becca HartwellOr it gives you a lot of neighbors with opinions, which Latimer clearly has.

DavidNow the fun part, and I'm labeling this clearly pure guessing. No source names a single scene.

Becca HartwellAgreed. My guess is chapter four, the trip into Diagon Alley for school books, crowds, stalls, the Flourish and Blotts signing. A village fete is a crowd machine.

DavidLockhart's book signing in a fairground? I'll buy that, mostly because Lockhart would absolutely run a tombola.

Becca HartwellHe'd sign the prizes.

DavidBut I think you're stretching. Diagon Alley is fantasy architecture. You don't need a real village for it. You need a set and a lot of crooked chimneys.

Becca HartwellThen where do you put it?

DavidChapter Three, the Flying Car. A village would be the place the car flies over. Or Chapter Two, the Masons' Dinner at the Dursleys, if the show wants a wider suburb around it.

Becca HartwellOoh, Mr. Mason's Dinner. That's a suburb, though, not a fete.

DavidExactly, which is why I'm not attached to it. So I'll say it again, nothing here confirms anything.

Becca HartwellNothing, but the films went to cathedrals and abbeys for the wizard world. This show is going to a village for something. The fun is that nobody knows what.

DavidHere's a funny thing about all three guesses. They live in the first few chapters. Maybe a village is an early book resource, or maybe we just know the early chapters best.

Becca HartwellProbably both, and I'm not ruling out the second one.

DavidWhich leaves the last piece. A fairground plus a full 1990s makeover says something about how the show wants to look. That's the design question. Okay, so the design question. The Latimer clips show a full 1990s makeover, not a prop or two, the whole village.

Becca HartwellAnd that's the part I keep chewing on. Somebody decided the period look was worth paying for at village scale.

DavidRight. ComingSoon's headline on the second pair of videos calls it the entire village's 1990s makeover, and the article says the clips surfaced online.

Becca HartwellStill no HBO confirmation, though.

DavidNone. So I'll treat it as a signal of intent, not a receipt.

Becca HartwellFine, but what signal? The films never had to say it was the '90s. The Chamber of Secrets film just came out in 2002, so the modern world on screen was simply the present.

DavidOoh, so the movies got their Muggle-world for free.

Becca HartwellExactly. Cars, clothes, shop signs, nobody designed them. They just pointed a camera.

DavidWhereas the show has to build it brick by brick, stall by stall, which is a very expensive way to say we respect the calendar.

Becca HartwellOh, I love that, and I think it's the better choice, honestly. A period piece lets the magic feel hidden in a world with no smartphones.

DavidHold on. I'll argue the other side a little. A film gets to look timeless. A show that commits to the '90s can date itself if the styling gets cute.

Becca HartwellSure, that's a risk, but the Latimer clips read more like a fete than a costume party.

DavidEh, that's fair. A fairground doesn't need neon and cassette tapes to look right.

Becca HartwellRight. It needs bunting and a tombola.

DavidAnd that's my real test for period design. Does it look lived in, or does it look like a costume? A fete answers that because a fete is supposed to look a bit homemade.

Becca HartwellHomemade and expensive, the best kind of contradiction.

DavidWhich brings us to the watch list.

Becca HartwellOkay, what are you watching?

DavidOfficial HBO confirmation first. Nothing in the clips is official, so a single line from the studio would reset everything we've said.

Becca HartwellMine is more leaks. Leavesden and the UK locations keep producing footage, and every new clip either backs the '90s commitment or exposes it as a one-village trick.

DavidHa. One very committed village.

Becca HartwellEnough homework. Time for predictions.

DavidOkay, predictions, one line each. No hedging, no take backs. Mine is Latimer is the Diagon Alley signing. Lockhart on a village green, queue round the stalls, everybody in very good knitwear.

Becca HartwellUgh, I hate that. Mine is the flying car chapter. A village is exactly what a car would soar over, and a fairground can be very good wallpaper.

DavidYou're telling me they built a fairground so a Ford Anglia could go over it?

Becca HartwellA fairground can be wallpaper, David.

DavidFine, wallpaper with a Ferris wheel.

Becca HartwellDeal, and we both know nobody has confirmed a thing.

DavidSo here's the question for you at home. If Latimer turns out to be neither, if it's a scene we haven't even thought of, which chapter would you bet on? Go dig through your copy.

Becca HartwellAnd if you've got something better than our guesses, send it. Set photos, casting rumors, book details that we missed, we read all of it.

DavidFind us at @TheSortingRoom on social and follow The Sorting Room wherever you get your podcasts.

Becca HartwellAlso, if anyone in Latimer sees a tombola, we need a full report.

DavidWait for it. He'd sign the prizes.

Becca HartwellGood night, everybody.