Doctor Who’s prominently featured in a new trail showcasing the various dramas produced by the BBC in Wales.
Clips from Series 7 Part 1 make up a montage of the shows, also including Sherlock, Merlin and Being Human, which are made in Wales and loved all around the world.
Doctor Who is now filmed at Roath Lock studios, in Cardiff Bay, where it is a stone’s throw away from the new Doctor Who Experience.
The Experience moved from London to the Welsh Capital back in the summer and is as popular as ever. By the end of its first year it’s expected to have had 250,000 visitors.
Half term has arrived, so it is a great excuse to get down to Cardiff to the Doctor Who Experience to take advantage of the host of activities they’ve got planned for the week!
Tomorrow (Saturday) fans are able to learn how to walk like a monster in a masterclass with choreographer Ailsa Burke. On Sunday, the Experience’s curator, Andrew Beech, will be sharing his insight into the worlds of Doctor Who in a series of informal chats – and Monday 29th October is sure to be a mayhem of monsters as visitors can get an alien makeover.
Halloween arrives at the Experience on Wednesday with more monster masterclasses, and visitors have been warned that not all exhibits will be as permanent as they seem…
On Friday 2nd November resident make up artist Bethan Kate Harris will return for more monster makeovers then series crew member Stephen Nicholas visits from Roath Lock studios – where the show is filmed – on Saturday 3rd Novemebr to share some behind the scenes trivia. This is before the final monster masterclass on Sunday 4th November.
Above – The latest Series 7 exhibits that were recently unveiled at the Experience.
Last Friday, they paid their first visit to the attraction’s new and permanent home in Cardiff Bay following its launch in the summer. There they made history by creating cemented prints of their hands before unveiling new exhibitions, which include boots and a dress – as worn by the new companion Jenna-Louise Coleman, and Matt said he felt “honoured” to have conserved his place in the show’s mythology.
He continued: “To be the first Doctor to take part in something like this is really special.”
“I am very excited and to have my hands preserved forever, and I’m quite relieved they came back out of the cement!,” showrunner Steven added. “I now know, for all my future crimes, that my fingerprints are readily and permanently available here…”
The new Experience, which has welcomed over 40,000 fans since its move from London to South Wales, is located a stone’s throw away from where the series is now filmed at Roath Lock and Matt described the city’s Bay area as “a spiritual home” for Doctor Who.
After last month’s mass break out, all the monsters have been secured and we’re prepared for the critically acclaimed Doctor Who Experience’s grand opening today!
The attraction’s new home is just a stone’s throw away from Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay where the show’s filmed, which means it’s the one stop destination for Whovians.
The Experience features a walk-through adventure in which fans get the opportunity to fly the TARDIS – not too shabby!
It also boasts a brilliant exhibition, sporting a momentous menagerie of monsters, props and costumes from the series. Get up close and personal with things you’ve seen on TV!
If you’ll be in Cardiff today for its launch (and we’ve heard word there may be one or two unwelcome guests also making an appearance…), do let us know how you get on! If not, you can come back to have your say below whenever you visit – we’ll put a link up to this post in the sidebar so you can post your reviews as and when. Book tickets here!
Warning! This article and its comments may contain spoilers...
The BBC’s today confirmed that Dame Diana Rigg will be starring in an episode of Series 7 next year alongside her daughter, Rachael Stirling.
The actresses will be recreating their real life relationship for the episode, by Mark Gatiss, which begins filming today (2nd July) at the new Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay. The first time they have ever worked together on screen, the pair will appear as “a mother and daughter with a dark secret” in the story, set in Yorkshire.
Rigg is best known for her roles as Emma Peel in The Avengers, and Tracy Bond in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Stirling, meanwhile, has been in Hotel Babylon and Another Life. Her most recent role’s in Snow White and the Hunstman.
Stirling has described her role in the new series as a “joy”. “I am looking forward to the madness of Doctor Who enormously,” she said. “Mark Gatiss has written a gift of a script, an on-screen relationship between Ma and I that is truly delicious. We’ve never worked together but when a funny and original script comes you know the time’s come.”
Her mother, Rigg, meanwhile, commented: “The first time Rachie and I will be working together is an episode of Doctor Who, written for us by Mark Gatiss – how lucky is that?”
Steven Moffat added: “Dame Diana Rigg, Rachael Stirling and a Mark Gatiss script – a combination of talents you could only get in Doctor Who! Frankly, I’m terrified already!”
The BBC’s released a new promotional video in which Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill introduce audiences to the recently opened Doctor Who studios.
Since its return to our TV screens in 2005, production on the series has been based at Upper Boat, but it has now moved to its new home at Roath Lock in Cardiff Bay, where it will be filmed alongside other popular BBC Cymru dramas, such as Casualty and Pobol y Cwm. The state of the art drama village covers 170,000 sq. ft.
The winning entry of the Olympic-themed Script to Screen contest will be shown on the CBBC Channel later today!
Round two of the competition was launched in January. The winners have today been revealed as pupils from Ashdene Primary School in Wilmslow, ahead of the premiere of their three-minute episode on this afternoon’s Blue Peter. Hand picked by Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner, it stars the Doctor and Amy and features the Weeping Angels. It was filmed at the show’s new Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay.
“It is unbelievable,” said Irene Spawton, Year 6 teacher at Ashdene Primary School. “I couldn’t believe it when I got the call to say that the children’s script had been chosen as the winner. They worked so hard and came up with some brilliant ideas. I am so proud of them – meeting the Doctor and Amy Pond is a fantastic experience.”
Doctor Who’s executive producer, Caroline Skinner, commented: “We loved reading the scripts from schools across the UK. The standard of entries was truly outstanding. It was brilliant to see so many children being creative in developing their story for the Doctor.”
Meanwhile, BBC Learning’s Executive Producer, Katy Jones, who also helped to choose the winner, has said that the competition proved successful as it set out to “inspire and capture the imagination of storytellers of the future”. “We are thrilled that so many schools engaged with it,” she said. “There was so much real talent displayed in the entries. The final episode is a testament to the hard work the school put in their entry.”
The mini-episode, Good as Gold, is on this afternoon’s Blue Peter at 5.45pm on CBBC…
BBC Worldwide has today finally announced that the Doctor Who Experience will be opening its doors to the public in Cardiff on 20th July 2012!
The attraction, which launched in London last year, will now become a permanent fixture in Cardiff Bay, located right next to where the series is now being produced at Roath Lock studios. The head of Exhibitions and Events at BBC Worldwide, Paula Al-Lach, accepted the keys to the building this afternoon. The first exhibits are now being moved in.
“The Experience sets out to engage visitors’ imaginations from the outset, immersing them into the world of Doctor Who,” said Philip Murphy, Managing Director of BBC Worldwide Live Events. “Where better to do this than Cardiff, the home of the show.”
Cardiff Council’s head of economic development, Ken Poole, added: “Doctor Who is a global brand and has really helped to boost the profile of Cardiff. This attraction will bring millions of pounds to the economy. Benefits will be immense in terms of tourism.”
The Experience, which is expected to attract at least 250,000 people a year, features an interactive walk-through challenge, in which fans step aboard – and fly – a replica of the Eleventh Doctor’s TARDIS. The adventure culminates in an epic 3D showdown, before visitors journey into the exhibition, the most extensive collection of props and costumes.
The museum will be updated constantly with the very latest props from the series. The Doctor’s cradle from A Good Man Goes to War, his sonic cane from Let’s Kill Hitler, and more items being kept under wraps are to be showcased in Cardiff for the first time.
Tickets for the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff will go on sale at 10am on 14th June.
Warning! This article and its comments may contain spoilers...
Today marked the end of an era for Doctor Who, as it was the final day of filming at Upper Boat Studios.
The series has been filmed there since its revival in 2005, but it is now time for it to move on to bigger and better things, as it heads to its new home at Roath Lock in Cardiff Bay. The first episode to be filmed at the state-of-the-art drama village will be this year’s Christmas Special, which will feature the debut of Jenna-Louise Coleman as the Doctor’s new companion.
Via the official Doctor Who Facebook, here’s some pictures of Upper Boat’s final day…
An exciting new chapter for Doctor Who has begun this month, as its new home at Roath Lock studios has officially opened in Cardiff!
The state-of-the-art BBC Wales drama village, located at the very heart of the city in Cardiff Bay, is where the series will be filmed from the autumn, alongside other flagship dramas, Casualty and Pobol y Cwm. By Christmas, the facility will have over 500 people working. Construction on the £2.5 million development began in June 2010.
The opening of Roath Lock also coincides with the forthcoming relocation of the Doctor Who Experience, which will become a permanent fixture in Cardiff Bay when it opens in the spring. Keith Jones, the Director of BBC Wales, has commented: “It’s very exciting that audiences will be able to come and enjoy the experience within a stone’s throw of where it is made… Locating the experience in Cardiff is a great development.”
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