6. LORD ROTHSCHILD OF WADDESDON

By Patrick Forbes, series director
The National Trust seems like an organisation that is changing itself and as yet does not know where it's going. That places it in sharp contrast with Jacob Rothschild. As you become immediately aware on meeting him, Lord Rothschild is a man who knows his own mind absolutely. He has no doubt that a) everyone will do his bidding, and b) his bidding will be right (and history has shown him to be correct in this respect). So there's a very interesting atmosphere at Waddesdon which is unlike most National Trust properties. It's a treasure trove of some of the richest artefacts you'll find in the National Trust. You name it, it's there burnished and gleaming and it speaks to the richness of the people who own it.

"They were all converging in one night on this unlikely house on a hill"

We filmed one night when Jacob held a dinner to mark the 150th anniversary of Château Mouton Rothschild, the wine. You suddenly became aware of the spread of Rothschild power and influence. They've got the world's best wines, some of the world's best-known and most powerful banks, several of the world's richest people and they were all converging in one night on this unlikely house on a hill in Buckinghamshire. You were conscious of being in a wholly different world.

It was summed up for me when Jacob Rothschild rose to make his speech in front of this array of intelligent, acute faces. He said he'd recently received one of the rudest letters of his life from his cousin Philippine, in whose honour this dinner was being held. She was furious with him because he'd not come to one of the events that were marking the anniversary of the wine. She had also sent a letter to Evelyn who runs NM Rothschild, the family bank.

He said, "Evelyn's excuse was better than mine - he was selling the family bank to our French cousins and we must raise a glass to that. My excuse was that I was simply giving dinner to the Queen and President Putin. Philippine replied, 'Put them off! Put them off!'" In that one brief interchange you got a whiff of history: presidents, kings and queens may come and go but the Rothschilds are forever.