BEHIND THE HEADLINES: Gwent plays its part in Doctor Who story

NEVERMIND the Daleks, Doctors and other aliens - Chepstow Castle is set to play a starring role in this Saturday’s 50th anniversary of Doctor Who special.

The BBC used the castle for several scenes in the episode - which stars David Tennant, John Hurt and Matt Smith - and it is not the first time locations in Gwent have been used for the programme in recent years.

Diverse Records, a record shop on Charles Street, Newport, was used in Blink, which starred Carey Mulligan and introduced the Weping Angels to the Whoniverse in November 2006.

The BBC came to look at the shop but did not tell its owners it would be used for Doctor Who initially – it would only say it was looking for somewhere to film.

The production team used the shop for three days and compensated the business for its use.

The shop transferred records to another shop over the road while it was occupied.

Mark Southall, who works at the shop, said: “It was a fabulous time - the whole street got a bit of a lift out of it.

“When David Tennant came on the Tuesday to do his scenes with his assistant [Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones] all the shops shut their doors and watched what was going on outside.”

He said the programme makers also used the an untidy desk in the Diverse Records storeroom as a prop in the show, rather than clearing it up.

The shop front was changed twice over the three days of filming and the first couple of days were spent setting up the scenes for the final day’s shooting.

But the most prominent location in Blink was Fields House - described by writer Steven Moffat as “ the creepiest house” he had ever seen.

It lay derelict for years and some of it was renovated for the programme.

Future Hollywood star Ms Mulligan, who played Sally Sparrow, broke into an old house where she encounters the Weeping Angels, who then stalk her throughout the episode, which was voted by Doctor Who Magazine as the second best ever.

Tredegar House has also been used in the programme and its spin-off show Torchwood several times.

Among other things, it has been used as the headquarters of the British Rocket Group, a school, a stately home visited by Agatha Christie in 1926, a dungeon and as a London street on Christmas Eve 1851 in The Next Doctor, which starred David Morrissey.

The first time it was used was in July 2005 for The Christmas Invasion, which saw David Tennant make his debut as The Doctor and Penelope Wilton guest starred as the Prime Minister Harriet Jones.

The epsiode saw the pair team up to repel an alien threat from their base of Tredegar House – or the British Rocket Group headquarters as it was in that edition of the series.

However, it was not the only Newport location to appear prominently in the Christmas 2008 special The Next Doctor .

Russell T Davies, the former writer of the programme, said he loved Victoria Place in Newport and wrote a scene in the episode to be played out there.

But the funeral procession in The Next Doctor descends into chaos when Cybermen and Cybershades attack mourners.

A year after the programme was first shot there it was mocked up again as a London street.

Duffryn High School served as a location for the episode School Reunion, which was filmed in August 2005 and shown in 2006.

Even the name of the school in the programme has a resemblance to Duffryn.

The school in the programme, Deffry Vale High, was controlled by an evil head teacher, played by Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Anthony Head.

He improves his school’s examination performance, but runs a ghastly regime which involves feeding students specially treated chips as part of a scheme to conquer the universe.

Billie Piper and Elisabeth Sladen, who starred in Doctor Who and the CBBC spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, also spent time filming at the school.

Reflecting on the time his school became a temporary film set, Duffryn High School’s head teacher Jon Wilson said: “They took the whole school over, used about 50 of our kids as extras and took it over for the summer holidays.

“They used it for six weeks and they didn’t finish in time.

“I said I wasn’t prepared to move the children from lessons.”

That meant the filming went on after the school day had finished, from 5pm until 2am.

On one day Mr Wilson spoke to David Tennant in a science lab about the actor’s school days, as he waited to finish a scene.

Mr Wilson said: “They used the dining hall and they crashed a vehicle into a building in a stunt and half the school came out to watch it.

“It was really exciting for the school at the time, I can’t believe it was eight years ago.”

For many of the people who have spotted the programme being filmed around Gwent, much of it comes as a big surprise.

Prior warning tends not to be given to locals.

One example is the time Cybermen arrived in Newport to shoot their scenes for the Christmas special in 2008.

A BBC production team turned an April day into a winter wonderland when they decorated Newport Cathedral’s cemetery with fake snow, leaving residents wondering what was going on.

Then the Doctor Who monsters appeared and things became slightly clearer.

A dog walker, Janet Hancock, told the South Wales Argus at the time: “I was going past the cemetery walls and saw lots of white smoke.

“A security guard said they were filming Doctor Who – it was very exciting.”

It is not only on film sets where Doctor Who invades Gwent life.

A fan site Doctor Who Locations says there are 70 locations in Gwent that have been used in the programme.

Last year, to promote an event in Cardiff, a pack of Oods – telepathic aliens with tentacles hanging from the lower part of their face – and the Silence – creatures modelled on Edvard Munch’s The Scream – walked through Newport to promote a Doctor Who exhibition in July before moving onto Cardiff and Swansea.

Because Doctor Who is based in Cardiff, its spin-off shows have used other Gwent locations too.

Pupils from Gaer Infant and Nursery School, who were in years five and six at the time, filmed for two hours with John Barrowman, who played Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood.

He was the show’s hero, a time traveller and former conman from the 51st century who made his debut in Doctor Who in September 2008 before taking a starring role in the spin-off.

The Gaer pupils saw their scenes aired in July 2009 during the Children of Earth storyline.

3D episode will be on big screen

SATURDAY’S eagerly-anticipated 50th anniversary Doctor Who episode will be shown in 3D at cinemas in Gwent this weekend.

The episode, which airs on BBC1 on November 23 and features three actors playing The Doctor, will be available for fans to watch at the Vue cinema in Cwmbran and Cineworld cinema in Newport.

Cineworld, based at Newport Retail Park, will have three showings over the weekend, at 7.30pm and 9:30pm on Saturday at 12.45pm on Sunday.

The viewing will cost £12.60 for adults and £9.90 for children, though discounts of ten per cent are available if you have a mycineworld card.

Vue cinema in Cwmbran will host two showings of the hotly-anticipated episode.

The first is at 7.30pm on Saturday and the second will be held at 12.30pm on Sunday.

It costs £9.90 for adults and £7.50 for children but a family of four can attend for a special discounted price of £30.

Due to the screening of the episode being in 3D, viewers will need to purchase glasses at the cinema to enjoy the full effects.