Tuesday Set Reports, Photos

Just got back from Cardiff city centre. I stayed for about half an hour from 10 pm on. ... When I was there, they were filming outside the entrance to Queen's Arcade using it as the entrance to a shopping centre. Again, it had been dressed to look like London, with an Underground sign by the entrance. It had also been prettified a bit with a couple of new, small iron lamp posts, but otherwise they didn't seem to have changed any of the shop fronts... There were assorted vehicles about the area, including two red London buses (the Routemaster type - one was route 74 to Putney Heath for those who really like their details), a couple of black cabs, an Evening Standard van, post van, and what seemed to be a small fire engine. Plus a massive crane to light the scene. RTD was in attendance and they were filming a couple of scenes with a female actress, who was wearing blue trackie bottoms with what looked like Adidas stripes, a pink top/jumper and a blue denim jacket. She was also carrying a blue, sequined denim handbag, a mobile phone and a white A4 piece of paper/envelope. The scene consisted of the actress (likely NOT Billie Piper) walking across the road talking on her mobile, while a couple of the vehicles drove past and the best part of a dozen normally dressed extras carrying shopping bags milled about. I could hear most of the dialogue, and following a line about where are you, she was talking to somebody she referred to as darling (boyfriend). As best I can remember the dialogue it was "I can't hear you, the signals breaking up. I'm just going to do some late night shopping." Gripping, huh? A second scene was quickly rehearsed where the same actress ran back out of the shopping centre followed by a tightly packed group of the same extras marching oddly. I have a suspicion that this might have been put on for the benefit of the audience though as the crew then broke for a meal without filming it. Hope that keeps your appetites whetted.
Anna Roberts

Just to give some extra info on last nights Cardiff shoot. On speaking to some of the film crew, four stuntmen were on hand as pyrotechnics were planned. A London bus was being organised to slide down the street, with many of the cars on either side set to explode. This was all set to take place around midnight.
Chris Thomas

I saw five bald headed masks (with splits up the back) being delivered at 10.00pm by a woman and a man in a white van. The Evening Standard hoarding said 'Proper Rigmarole' as its headline. A local trainer shop, on Working Street was turned into 'Classic Brides' at 6.00pm (I watched). A taxi was due to drive into a false window later that night. I left at midnight. The false window covered the doorway. Various rehearsals for a skidding taxi and bus (9.30pm approx). When Billie ran out of Howells (Henrika's in the story) she snatched a clear A4 wallet from a security guard. Various plant pots were placed outsside the fake tube station.
George Duffield

There was a shoe shop on Working Street; it was filled with an artificial shopfront and now it's called "Classic Bride" -- a bridal wear dealer. The windows had mannequins in them; the fake doors didn't even open, and I think only external filming would take place. The London bus-stop sign, the fake one, that appears in one of your photos was right next to the shop, and from the lack of further dressing I would assume that it was only used to evoke a sense of place in one external shot, probably from quite a high angle. The Exhibition pub (one half of the old library building), directly opposite, became a police station, with two hanging POLICE signs, and a billboard filled with public information/awareness literature. Elsewhere in the street were warning signs for the London "congestion charge zone" - a traffic toll recently imposed on drivers in central London, so it can be assumed that at least some scenes were set in the heart of the city, and in the present day or thereabouts. The entrance to Queen's Arcade (the curved stairway shown in the preview shots on your website) became a London Underground station, complete with the fake sign another of the photos shows, and a vendor stand for the "London Evening Standard" (a real newspaper), bearing the headline "Proper Rigmarole" - dunno if that's an exclusively British term? Just in case, my best international translation would be "Big Fuss, Probably Over Nothing".