Why Wales is feeling the Dr Who effect

Apr 5 2008 by Catherine Jones, Western Mail

Wales’ biggest export is back on our screens tonight. Doctor Who, the series which put Cardiff on the world map, is made here, its big boss Russell T Davies is Welsh, and many of our iconic buildings are used in the filming. Catherine Jones goes behind the hype to ask what the series has done for the entire nation

SUCH is the buzz about what Doctor Who is doing for Wales, you’ve got to wonder if a statue of the good Russell T Davies – the creator of the new version of the classic show and its spin-off Torchwood – will one day be erected in the Welsh capital’s main shopping drag.

In years to come, just as it is currently de rigueur for pranksters to scale the monument to Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the National Health Service, will it become a rite of passage for students to place a bollard atop the head of Mr Davies, the creative genius who seems so instrumental in putting Cardiff on the contemporary map?

Might a Russell Road or a Davies Drive be in order to acknowledge the city’s debt to the Swansea-born writer who has boosted the fortunes of the Welsh film and tourism industries?

For this business about Doctor Who – the fourth series starts tonight on BBC One – drawing the right kind of attention to Wales is no media hype based on a couple of desultory mentions in London-based television reviews.

This is real. For those who have been living on another galaxy, Doctor Who – which attracts around 10 million viewers per episode – and Torchwood are filmed in Cardiff and make use of locations including the Millennium Stadium, Queen’s Arcade Shopping Centre and Wales Millennium Centre.

Cardiff Bay is home to the Wales branch of Torchwood, an elite unit who use alien technology to solve both human and alien crime.

The special operations team, headed by Captain Jack Harkness, is based in ‘The Hub’ (a hi-tech operations centre hidden beneath the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay) which is also the centre of The Rift (a tear in the fabric of space and time that has resulted in increased extra-terrestrial activity in the city).

Now, thanks to high ratings, Davies and The Doctor have ensured thousands of visitors are treating Wales with the kind of reverence Hollywood movie aficionados afford Los Angeles.

There’s the Doctor Who Up-Close exhibition in Cardiff Bay’s Red Dragon Centre, replete with Daleks and Cybermen, props and costumes and monsters – now part of the tourist campaign for Wales. More than a million people have gone through its doors since it opened in 2005, while hotels such as the Park Plaza in Cardiff’s Greyfriars Road are hosting Doctor Who weekends.

Cardiff Tourist Information Centre is handing out maps of filming locations used across the city so it’s no wonder Visit Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government’s tourism team, are delighted with the exposure the award-winning programme gives the country.

“We believe location work, as seen in Doctor Who and shows like Torchwood, does us good and raises the profile of the entire country,” says a spokesman.

“It opens up Wales to huge audiences, many of who wouldn’t have possibly thought about coming here to visit before.

“We can’t say how much such tourism is bring to the Welsh economy, but anecdotally we’re hearing from tourist centres, hotels and the like, that it’s really successful.

“We think these cult series are bringing new people to Wales and will continue to do so.

“You’ve only got to look at places like Portmeirion for evidence. That’s where the series The Prisoner was shot, and people still flock there to see where it was made.”

Fans will go to some lengths for the complete Doctor Who experience, even signing up for the Doctor Who package at the Park Plaza hotel.

It costs £125, but for that you do get a free remote control Dalek on arrival and free admission to the Doctor Who Up Close exhibition.

Caroline Sims, director of sales and marketing, says, “We’ve been inundated with visitors since we launched in March last year, welcoming visitors from all over the UK and the world who are coming to Cardiff just to see the now-famous Doctor Who landmarks.

“A high number of families were booked in over the Easter holidays, eager to experience where all the action happens, and we’re expecting another surge of bookings once the new series starts.”

Richard Houdmont, the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s director for Wales, reckons hotels should be cashing in on the cult show’s success.

“The Doctor Who package offered by Park Plaza is an impressive example of how to capitalise on what’s popular right now,” he says.

“Just as London has EastEnders and Oxford has Morse, Doctor Who has given Cardiff its very own TV series with a large fan-base that is attracting thousands of tourists to the city and this package offers everything a fan could want.

“With a viewing audience of millions, Doctor Who offers the perfect marketing opportunity to attract visitors from across Wales and the world to experience the famous set for themselves whilst showcasing Cardiff’s best assets.

“The majority of Cardiff’s landmarks that feature in the programme, such as the Millennium Stadium, Mermaid Quay and Howells department store, are amongst the city’s major attractions making it easy for fans to track the Doctor’s adventures.

“As such, the cult TV show can be credited with breathing extra life into the city’s tourism industry.”

And to think there was pique among the great and the good in Wales’ media-land when it was first announced the Doctor was coming to Wales.

“I know initially that in conventional Welsh acting circles and literary there was resentment,” says cultural historian Peter Stead. “(Some people) were hoping some Welsh thing would come out of BBC Wales’ drama department.

“Initially there was a sense of resentment that this outside thing had come in – what’s Welsh about Doctor Who?

“But it’s been liberating. It’s taken us away from conventional forms, caused us to use imagination, to see that you can create really powerful drama that can be futuristic.

“It doesn’t have to be made in reality. We have been released from the idea everything has to be conventional realism.”

Take a walk around the city and who knows what characters you may bump into – what about William Shakespeare, blood-sucking alien Plasmavores, the Judoon (a clan of galactic storm troopers) and Battle Daleks in 1930s New York.

“When you see Cardiff on film, it looks like LA – it looks amazing,” says John Barrowman, who plays Torchwood’s Captain Jack.

“I think a lot of people are going to want to come here, not just because of Torchwood but because it’s such a great place – it’s buzzing every single day and it’s beautiful.”

The futuristic Wales Millennium Centre, the stylish Altolusso apartment buildings and Cardiff’s lively bar and club scene have all been showcased on Torchwood – can you imagine the fun of having such an exciting show filmed on your doorstep? – and it’s not just Cardiff that’s getting in on the act.

No doubt a Doctor Who expert – though nobody is suggesting the classic has a reputation for attracting so-called geeks – could tell you a Magor brewery and an old paper mill in Cardiff were used to depict the Cyberfactory (where humans are converted into Cybermen) while the factory’s rooftop was shot on a flat bit of tarmac at Veritair, Cardiff’s heliport – the same location used as a zeppelin airstrip in Rise of the Cybermen.

Then there’s that School Reunion episode, when the Tardis arrives back on modern Earth – in reality it’s Belle View Park on Cardiff Road, Newport, while strange goings-on at Deffry High School were filmed at Duffryn High School in Newport as well as at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff’s Canton.

And did you know the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith fixed K9 in Da Vinci’s Coffee Shop in Newport’s High Street?

What, indeed, has Doctor Who done for Wales!

For starters it’s showing that a country and its capital city have hot-footed it into the 21st century, a place that’s proud of their industrial and cultural heritage but not averse to fabulous modern buildings.

It shows we have a vibrant café culture and are minded to show off our own talent, such as Wales-born Torchwood actors Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd.

So as Wales becomes less about How Green Was My Valley and more about the Adventures of Sarah Jane (another Doctor Who spin-off filmed in Wales) or Gavin and Stacey (based in Barry), the cult drama that is also giving Welsh locations an airing, are we grateful for the exposure?

Swansea-based Prof Stead says, “It’s a remarkable story, a wonderful success story.

“It was a very brave decision by the BBC to give Doctor Who to Cardiff and it has brought the BBC drama department to prominence.

“The spin-offs have been tremendous in terms of work for Welsh actors and the whole industry, with Torchwood developed out of it.

“Full marks to Russell T Davies who has attempted to maximise the Welsh benefits.

“It was something we were waiting for. We are fascinated by film and fiction in Wales and for several decades we have been training young actors and directors, all sorts of talent, and we have been waiting for this breakthrough.

“And we thought it would come with Owain Glyndr and poverty and drama in the valleys.

“In a sense, there’s a bit of that, albeit through science fiction which can be used to tell contemporary stories.

“In terms of human emotion it’s a very, very useful vehicle. I welcome the way Doctor Who and Torchwood have taken us out of our rut.

“We developed this tremendous experience in Wales and many thought the breakthrough would be through traditional writing. In a sense, this has released us from that.

“The challenge now is for all our indigenous writers to accept this challenge. Welsh drama doesn’t have to be about heartbreak in the valleys or historic battles against the English. We can use any vehicle to excite a new generation of writers.

“It’s a genuine moment of benefit for Welsh film and writing. We now have to build on this by encouraging our writers to accept this challenge to go on and create.”

What does he see as the show’s appeal?

“In this particular instance, it’s story-telling. The essence of all film is story-telling, and then there’s the special effects, fashion, settings, having the right kind of actors – male and female characters that capture the imagination of a generation.

“It’s a very different young generation and we have to capture their imagination.

“There are many elements to good story-telling and to making people care – that’s the success of the drama.”

Prof Stead has personal experience of the thrill Doctor Who and Torchwood have created for visitors to the Welsh capital.

“Everyone knows this is made in Cardiff and they know if they come to Cardiff, there are things to be seen – especially with Torchwood as well,” he says.

“Towards the end of last summer I was invited to address a national conference in Cardiff. The dinner was on a boat going round the Bay – a two-hour cruise.

“People were staying in a lovely modern hotel, they had me as a speaker and they got off the boat and saw they were filming Torchwood in front of the Millennium Centre.

“The sense of excitement!

“They were running to see the filming and what was going on. I mentioned I did work with BBC and they were saying ‘Can you introduce us to the actors?’

“There was a real sense of thrill.

“In a more limited way, it’s a bit like British visitors going to Los Angeles and hoping to see a Hollywood actor cross the road or a location from a film.”

Why Wales is feeling the Dr Who effect - part 2