I once said that I would never go and watch the location filming of the new series of Doctor Who, all that waiting around for not a lot to happen just did mot seem worth it. This resolve lasted all of two days, and I found myself making my way down to Cardiff for the location filming of Block 1. And yesterday they were filming in Swansea, guess where I spent the night?
I suspected that it was going to be cold in Swansea, down by the Marina, so I packed myself a flask of coffee to fend of the cold, and my Mother made me a stack of roast beef sandwiches, just to keep me going.
I was having a lift over to Swansea with Ian Golden and Tim Farr, who were meeting me outside Hirwaun, and my Mother took me over to the rendezvous. As she was babysitting, we also had my nephew James in the car, and he got really bored waiting for my friends to pick me up really quickly. Every time a car passed the roundabout outside the entrance to the Hirwaun Industrial Estate, he would ask “are they here yet?” Eventually they arrived, and I put my backpack in the boot of Ian’s car, opened the door and said “Private Rees reporting for Sadness Duty, Sir” which broke the ice nicely.
Arriving at the Marine Quarter of Swansea at 9pm, a technical crew were busy giving the mid September streets a dusting of artificial snow. Given a keen wind from the marina, it seemed cold enough for the real thing. A reasonable sized crowd had build up outside the Swansea Museum to watch the filming. A half a dozen different horse drawn vehicles were parked by the museum, including a stunning Victorian hearse, drawn by a pair of black stallions with black feather plumes in their mains.
At 9:15pm, both Julie Gardner and Russell T. Davies arrived, followed by a gaggle of press photographers, Mark Gatiss was somewhere in the vicinity, unfortunately I did not spot him tonight. I noticed that RTD was talking animatedly to a camera at this point, and as I think it is unlikely to be another Wales Today feature, then this must be for Making Of feature for the inevitable DVD release of the new series.
Shortly afterwards, at 9:20pm a car dropped Simon Callow off by the Swansea Museum, and a host of costumed extras came trailing after him, ready to take up their places. The first scene shot was a short establishing scene featuring Callow as Dickens being wished a “Merry Christmas” by a passer-by as Dickens walked past along a crowded street, in a flurry of acrid fake snow. There were two brief rehearsals of this shot, and then straight to a take. After a short break, the scene was filmed again from the opposite camera angle. With this shot in the can, the action moved a few yards down Gloucester Place to a scene featuring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper.
Piper was wearing a period evening dress, consisting of a full red skirt and black basque top with a dark red cloak and her hair up decorated with a red feather. Eccleston was in his standard brown leather jacket, black shirt and black trousers, thus ending speculation that his Doctor would appear in a more traditional doctorish outfit in this story.
In this scene, the Doctor and Rose are walking towards the Queens Hotel, deep in conversation, they stop to let a horse drawn vehicle pass, when the Doctor spots a newspaper seller, and switches direction, leaving Rose to hitch up her skirts and go charging after him. During the first take, Billie tripped on the hem of her skirts and almost went flying, proving that she, like Peri in Mark of the Rani is not used to “flouncing around in skirts”. On the next two takes, all went smoothly, and the actors disappeared whilst the cameras and lighting was re-arranged. When filming was due to start again, almost as soon as the director had shouted “action”, a very modern burglar alarm in a nearby building filled the street with an anachronistic squeal, delaying filming for a costly ten minutes. It must have been a false alarm, as it would have been a very foolish criminal who would try anything given the large number of uniformed police officers in the vicinity.
At this point I had to make my way home, however, I was impressed by what I saw. My feeling is that this is quite early in the story. My friend Tim Farr told me that the Lee Electrical vans and a van belonging to Any Effects Ltd. had been seen parked outside Cardiff’s New Theatre on Sunday, 19th September. It is likely that filming inside that Edwardian building, which could easily pass as Victorian, took place on that day. Given the way that Rose is dressed, and the brisk pace Callow’s Dickens adopted in his scene, I speculate that the Doctor is taking Rose to see one of Dickens’ famed readings, and this was filmed at the weekend.
