Torchwood returned to its spiritual home, with filming taking place in the evening at
- though shot from an angle away from the old "Hub" Water Tower! The daytime saw activity in another familiar location, outside the
which has served as Gwen and Andy's police headquarters ever since the first episode,
. A third location was also in use today, the exterior of the
).
With such high-profile locations, fans were clearly able to witness the activity for once! A few reports and photos follow.
I arrived in town at about 10am, and headed right for Mount Stuart Square, a 'classic' square of 'government-style' Victorian architecture used several times in
Doctor Who, previous
Torchwood episodes and even
Upstairs Downstairs. There were two locations, one, an old bank dressed to resemble perfectly a Cardiff police station, and the Coal Exchange, transformed into a modern city hospital. The amount of work done by BBC Cymru's art department was phenomenal.
The police station now had blue doors, frosted glass with the words 'POLICE' and 'HEDDLU' in frosted glass, and a shambles of real-looking police cars and vans parked outside it, and 'Crimestoppers' etc posters shabbily on some external windows. It really looked 100%
The Coal Exchange too, as a hospital, a tribute to its creators, a total transformation having been achieved in just 24 hours. Both of the oak entrance doors had been removed and been replaced with glass swing doors and modern 'foyer' architecture, and the signage was perfect for a contemporary hospital. We had an Emergency Admissions door, no smoking signs, hospital department signposts, gurneys, parked up ambulances, etc. You'd easily have been fooled it was real if you were a passer by!
Slightly eerily, a shrine had been set out in front of the hospital. Hundreds of cards reading such stuff as 'Another day with our precious Emily', and 'Come home soon, dad!' I notice one rather cheeky one which simply said 'We love you, Russell!' - with a happy smiley underneath. RTD would indeed be touched! The shrine was adorned with candles, burning incense and flowers, and looked real - and well established!
Several scenes were filmed here, the major one involving Eve, Kai and the baby in front of the hospital. Other scenes involved ambulances racing to and from the hospital. Amazingly, though on TV it will look as though they moved at speed, perhaps for hundreds of meters, in reality they moved for less than 20 meters before the scene was cut, and the next section of it filmed separately.
Eve and Kai were fluent and comfortable in their roles, though the baby was rather odd. On occasions - it was a real human baby, looking perhaps a year old. I other scenes, it was a mere bundle of perfectly-folded rags, lovingly taken out of a box marked 'Anwen'. What a way to transport a young child! Several people, by the way, thought raggy Anwen looked about half the size of real Anwen, but I guess we'll see if the cameras correct this apparent discrepancy!
We first saw Tom Price outside the mock police station, ex-Nat West police station. In full uniform, he was immediately personable, and actually played up for the crowd. At one point, he started photographing us with his white iPhone whist in character, and then made rather amusing faces. He posed for pictures, obligingly wearing his hat on request, and happily signed at least a million autographs. He's a cool guy. His shoot was ruined countless times by two rather noisy seagulls which, I think deliberately, decided to squawk immediately upon hearing the
word 'Action'!
The evening shoot started late, at around 10.30pm. We had our first glimpse of John Barrowman and Mekhi Phifer, who I was previously certain had returned to the US. Eve, in huge hair curlers, Kai, Rhys and plastic Anwen were on set too, all arriving in their own separate cars.
Eve, Kai, John and Mekhi were involved in the filming. Loads of goofs, John and Eve cracking up, some cartoon running meant we had at least 20 takes. After each one, John and Eve would 'let their hair down' and treat us to dancing, hand and thigh slapping and general JB tomfoolery. It really was funny to watch - they have awesome chemistry between them!
I loved it when John moved into his car to warm up between takes. Each time, he's smile, pose for more fan photos and would exchange a few words with us. He also enjoyed more than the odd laugh with other cast members, at one point dragging Tom Price into his car, and slepping him firmly across the buttocks! Tom immediately announced that he's enjoyed the experience!
Poor Mekhi appeared frozen to the marrow, was wrapped up like Scott of the Antarctic and was constantly drinking coffee in an attempt to stave off hypothermia!
Later scenes involved car chases, SWAT assaults, shooting and a kidnap... but here we're heading into spoiler territory!
You can find more photos from the day from both Chris Williams and Iris Halliez on Facebook.
The two scenes I saw yesterday were Gwen and Rhys meeting Andy outside the hospital, and Gwen, Rhys and Jack getting cornered by Rex and the Police, led by Andy.
During the first scene, Andy meets Gwen and Rhys (who is holding baby Anwen), smiles and says "long time no see", so this is their first meeting of the series by the looks of it. They then have a short exchange which ends in Andy saying to Rhys "Gwen Cooper was the best Police officer we ever had!"
Second scene was Jack, Rhys (again, with Anwen) and Gwen, sitting on the steps on the Plas. Rex seems to be with them, too. Jack is explaining something to Gwen. She asks him something, and he shows her his wrist, which has a red cut/scar on it, and no vortex manipulator. Rex, who is beside the trio, and has a white shirt with a gunshot wound and blood on, says something to Jack. Presumably he's asking him what's wrong, and Jack yells "It doesn't concern you!". Then he says "You there, CIA, do something useful!". Rhys then shouts "She's just a kid, Jack!", gesturing to Anwen. Then Police cars surround them from all angles, and Andy emerges.
Gwen: Hold it there! [to Andy]
Did you call them!? [the CIA]
Andy: They're in charge.
Jack: Say's who!?
Rhys: He can't arrest us, he's American!
Rex: This isn't an arrest (he then goes on to say
something about it being a plead for help)
Now get me out of here! Get me home, go!
That was it, more or less. At the end John made a little speech about how he was glad Torchwood was moving on to do bigger and better things, so looks like that's the end of the filming in Wales.
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