The Chronicle

People occasionally contact me to ask how they can meet the cast or see filming to the extent that I now have a standard answer and here it is:

The Doctor Who studios are on an industrial estate at Upper Boat near Pontypridd. I believe there is a lot of security and you would be extremely lucky to see much more than vehicles arriving or leaving through the gates. When the series first came back in 2005, it was quite easy to catch them location filming and even get quite close but now locations are a carefully guarded secret until the crew start setting up and are in increasingly obscure or closed off locations as the series popularity is such that filming attracts bystanders and journalists in sufficient numbers to potentially get in the way of filming. Even when you do find a location in use, the main cast may not be present for the sequence being shot or it may be a night or an interior shoot.

The best way to find out about a location shoot is to find an online forum in which location shooting is posted about by fans as it is happening. One of the most popular is currently at www.gallifreybase.com/forum and you would need to become a member of this forum (which is free) to access it. Within their television series section there is a thread called “photo-posting and set reports” where all the latest location filming sightings are posted.

If you do find and a visit a location shoot in progress there may be very little to see as a two minute scene can take several hours to get right and commit to tape with much waiting around while very little happens very slowly between takes. This does not mean the cast and crew have much time to interact with bystanders. Although this luxury sometimes occurs, they are there to work and have lines and positions to get right, camera moves and lighting to prepare and continuity with previously shot material to match.

If you’re determined to try, please remember to not talk or use flash photography during takes and it’s good policy to co-operate with any reasonable request from the programme makers as spoiling a take is not the way to show your appreciation for the series.

However, if you’re interest is more casual and hours of standing around doesn’t appeal, there is instead plenty to do in Cardiff, Europe’s fastest growing capital city and further places of interest can be found throughout South Wales.