This morning I called a customer in Cardiff who is a sometime director of two popular TV series filmed, and one set, in Cardiff, Wales. While listening to his voicemail message (he uses one of the four used by nearly everyone in the UK–I prefer the one that sounds like somebody’s grandmum about to offer me a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits) I mused about the debt owed by the Cardiff Tourism Board to the makers of Dctr Wh** and Trchw**d (mysterious, ain’t I?) because, before those shows, all I knew of Cardiff was that The Book of Lists included it at the top of their list of Worst Places on Earth to Take Your Vacation back in the late '70s.
So, it looks not the least bit unpleasant on TV these days, at least when it’s not being bothered by creatures, crap, and stuff that could be either falling through the Rift. What has caused this reversal of fortunes? Has there actually been a reversal of fortunes or is what I see on TV a clever ruse by the Tourism Board and BBC-Cymru? Did the Thatcher government create a Potemkin Village there and subsequent governments have kept it going? Enquiring, and mildly-interested, minds want to know!
It’s been a few years since I went there, but – yeah – it has it’s issues. It’s a bit of a drinking town and those pictures don’t really surprise me. But you could take similar given a few nights at many UK cities and, as the comments point out, it was probably an day when the rugby (or something) was in town. It does tend to feature a lot in shows follow cops/ambulances around and show the depravity of drink culture* Britain – but it’s not the only city and I think they tend to choose it because it’s the small-ish town center makes it easy to capture a lot of footage they can use.
I think there was a picture of Cardiff as a bit of a drab featureless industrial/port city where people just like to get drunk but there’s lots of nice old and new places there.
When I was there I thought they’d gone a bit too far on re-doing the stuff on the waterfront – I found it a touch soulless.
Plus lots of entertainment that doesn’t (necessarily) involve booze.
In short, find for a holiday, avoid the town center on busy nights unless you know what you’re letting yourself in for. I’m sure it’s fine to live in too, although it wouldn’t be my first choice.
*For the record, Britain does clearly have a bit of a problem in it’s attitude to drink and what’s acceptable. But it’s not nearly has bad as you’d think if you just read the Daily Mail and watched late night tv shows. Any many other countries are just as bad in the same or other ways.
To be honest, I think the attitude to drink in parts of Britain is every bit as bad, possibly worse, as what’s made out in the likes of Daily Mail.
For instance, those pictures of Cardiff look exactly like Wigan and Bolton town centres on a Friday and Saturday night (if anything, the Daily Mail pictures err in not showing mass brawls at throwing-out time and police charging down the street, doubly so if it’s a weekend coinciding with a payday).
Weirdly many cities don’t seem afflicted nearly as much as provincial towns; I lived seven years in Edinburgh and never saw anything remotely like what you’d see in Wigan on a random weekend. Even Edinburgh’s so-called “rough” Lothian Road is nothing compared to Wigan town centre.
I think Doctor Who is filmed mainly in Penarth, which is just outside Cardiff. Penarth is very pretty, and generally a sweet, small, villagey place. Not like Cardiff at all, in my experience. I don’t like Cardiff, nasty and bleak place.
I don’t know about that because I was talking about Dct*r Wh**.
If I get through to him, my supervisor, a fan, will not let me yell at him for answering the phone when he’s supposed to be working on the new Dvd Tnnnt and lv** Clmn (I changed my email to one that doesn’t use my name–I’m totally invisible on the intertubes!) series, but she said I may chide him gently. What I’d really like to do is redo his boring and ugly website, but half of it is in Welsh.
Interesting. I lived in Edinburgh for many years and you’re right, it never gets that bad in the city center. Even with the tourists or the rugby or the football. I’m not sure why. I don’t know if the real trouble makers tend to stay on the outskirts, or if it’s just because there’s more space to spread out.
I’m from much smaller towns in the Borders and they were pretty bad. I would guess that it’s boredom as much as anything else. There’s not much to do, there’s too many people in a small place with too much excess energy.
Having said that, when I see people overly drunk in Asia it turns out more often than not they’re from the UK. A few other countries do it but it seems to be ‘the done thing’ for UK people to go out and get slammed as part of their holiday. I have the same feeling sometimes.
I agree it’s a problem, but even in these places there are plenty of people who go out have a few drinks and go home without fighting, puking or collapsing. It’s the minority that we see. Of course they create a problem for the rest of the population but I’m honestly not sure what can be done about that. I suspect there’s a root cause that needs to be addressed by asking why these people do that rather than just trying to make it prohibitively expensive.
That’s probably worth a separate thread, I’d start it but I don’t know when/if I’d be able to follow-up (and this board isn’t that UK-centric).
Two of my brothers live in Cardiff, and it reminds me of some Yorkshire towns I’ve lived in and visited - a post-industrial city given a cheap lick of paint. There are a lot of students and rugby fans who drink in the centre, and a large number of enormous crappy boozers in which to get hammered, which can be fun or hell depending on your outlook.
My brothers also get a fair bit of stick for being English, but then they, like me, are rather well-spoken, curious and punchable.
I’m sure that Mark Gatiss, in the commentary track of the first episode of Sherlock (oh, I’m sorry - Sh**lck*), said that they did a great deal of their filming in Cardiff. Probably when they needed scenes including small back streets and smaller buildings.
I watched the behind the scenes show that they did for Doctor Who. Everyone would be bundled up in these huge parkas. Then the actors would take them off just long enough to film a outdoor scene in costume. Then would bundle back up immediately after. A few times the PA’s would even throw blankets over them.
That made me start looking for cold breath in Doctor Who and Torchwood’s outdoor scenes. They are easy to spot. It’s funny how the characters are standing in the street in regular clothes talking. It doesn’t look like winter at all. But look close and you’ll see the frosty breath as they talk.
Olivia Colman, late of That Mitchell and Webb Nearly Everything, Hot Fuzz, and That Show That Must Not Be Named, which should not be mistaken for That Other Show That Must Not Be Named But Which Is Actually Set In Cardiff Instead Of Nicer Parts Of Time And Space. A very funny lady who is stretching out into drama.
