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locker_monsterI would have been content to stay in Cardiff for my entire vacation, but I had to visit Portmeirion while I was in Wales. Cardiff is nowhere near Portmeirion, but damn it, I was in the same country, so that was close enough for me. Thankfully, Wales is much smaller than Canada so taking a quick jaunt up North is no big deal.
It is, however, a very long train ride. Five and half hours total, with a transfer in the middle. You have to jut back into England to change trains but once on the second leg, it's a very scenic route along the Welsh coast. Interior Wales, by the way, is all green fields full of sheep.
Portmeirion isn't conveniently located. It's actually on a river estuary, as opposed to the coast. It's also a mile walk from the nearest town. But once you reach it, it looks just as weird as it did on The Prisoner:
I do believe the only new addition is the chessboard. There's a Prisoner convention held pretty much every year in the village and they recreate the chess game from the episode "Checkmate", so the board was probably added so the convention organizers didn't have to set up a temporary board every con.
A look at Portmeirion from the other direction. The colours of the buildings always looked so drab on the show, but that may be due to the quality of the TV images back in the 1960s.
So yeah, that was my main reason to visit; to see where they filmed The Prisoner. I don't know if most visitors stop by for the same reason, but they do cater some things for fans. Like, the main gift shop is the No. 6 shop. The font around Portmeirion is the same font on the show. The tables at the hotel use the penny-farthing logo and a red number to denote which table is which. And, the best one, the house the show used as the exterior of Number Six's house is now a Prisoner themed gift shop.
My only gripe about the gift shop is the lack of the memorabilia. There's only one display case. It does have letters from Patrick McGoohan and candid pictures from filming, but that's it really. Oh, they do have one of Six's jacket in a display case as well, but that's the only costume they have. I guess the show never thought it would be a cult hit so long after its debut so no one really bothered to make sure that props and whatnot survived the test of time. There was a lot of merchandise, though, which was nice to see. I don't know who manages it. Like, does ITV look after merchandising, like the BBC does with Doctor Who? I had the vague notion that Portmeirion kind manages it on its own.
Oh, and they ran out of Number Six pins! I totally wanted to buy one but all they had left were Number Two pins. No cares about Number Two! Re-stock the Number Six pins!
1967 is the 50th anniversary of The Prisoner. There wasn't any signage in the village, but they did have this sign on the road in:
They also had this sign on the way out. If you're not a fan of the show, you might think it's cute. If you are the fan of the show, then it's a very ominous good-bye:
Back in Cardiff, I visited some of the outdoor filming locations. Now, there are a ton of places to check out, but I kept it fairly simple. Visited but not pictured: Roald Dahl Plass (I had pictures in front of the water fountain from last time) and Eddie's Diner, which was full of people eating lunch and I felt weird taking a picture. Eddie's does have screencaps from "The Impossible Astronaut" on the wall over the booth that Eleven, River, Amy, and Rory used, so fans know which one to sit in.
Cardiff Castle has been used by all three shows, but most notably in "Heaven Sent". It's also a castle in the middle of a sizeable city, so that was pretty cool on its own. I mean, you don't get a lot of castles in Canada, let alone castles in a major city.
Much to my annoyance, they were setting up a giant tent as an off-site venue for some big football thing in the middle of the castle green (hence the ugly green fence to the right). Not exactly picturesque when you're trying to get a nice picture of the castle keep.
The castle does run a filming locations tour. Obviously Doctor Who has used it the most, but Sherlock also used the castle as a stand in for the Tower of London since it was too expensive to film at the actual Tower of London. I actually got to enter rooms that you normally can't enter or aren't open to the public, so that was cool.
Twelve ran down the stairwell I'm standing in and then through this room in "Heaven Sent". The corridor is the one he drags himself down after the Veil burns him and leaves him for dead. Oh, and one reason the rooms are labelled with numbers in "Heaven Sent"? It's because those are the existing numbers you key in for the audio tour.
I also swung by Cardiff University, which currently stands in for St. Luke's. I didn't find the Vault entrance, but honestly, I didn't try that hard; it was the end of a very long day.
I did visit the main building. Man, the lawn looks so much smaller. I could have sworn it was this sweeping expanse, but in reality, it's not.
You can just see the corner the Doctor and Nardole disappear around in "The Pilot".
Since I had hit up key filming locations for Doctor Who and Torchwood, it seemed only right to visit the main setting for The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was just a quick train ride out into the suburbs of Cardiff.
21 Clinton Road in Penarth aka 13 Bannerman Road. This one was a little more awkward to take pictures of since it's a private residence. I didn't hang about too long.
The house hasn't changed, but I noticed the owners planted some small trees along the wall so your view of the ground floor windows is obscured. I don't blame the homeowners. If I had a small trickle of fans coming to take pictures of my house, I wouldn't want them to be able to see into my living room or whatever.
I can see why the show picked this street. Along one side, you have these fabulous red brick houses, and along the other, you have more average British homes. The extraordinary and the ordinary. Sums up the universe of Doctor Who rather well. :-) Somewhat accidentally, I also stopped by the store front that stood in for Gita's flower shop, Bloomin' Lovely. It was right next door to the only proper yarn store in the greater Cardiff area. It's now a podiatry shop. I don't know what Gita would say about that. ;-)
And that's that. I wish I had more time to explore more of Wales, but maybe that's a trip for another time.
It is, however, a very long train ride. Five and half hours total, with a transfer in the middle. You have to jut back into England to change trains but once on the second leg, it's a very scenic route along the Welsh coast. Interior Wales, by the way, is all green fields full of sheep.
Portmeirion isn't conveniently located. It's actually on a river estuary, as opposed to the coast. It's also a mile walk from the nearest town. But once you reach it, it looks just as weird as it did on The Prisoner:
I do believe the only new addition is the chessboard. There's a Prisoner convention held pretty much every year in the village and they recreate the chess game from the episode "Checkmate", so the board was probably added so the convention organizers didn't have to set up a temporary board every con.
A look at Portmeirion from the other direction. The colours of the buildings always looked so drab on the show, but that may be due to the quality of the TV images back in the 1960s.
So yeah, that was my main reason to visit; to see where they filmed The Prisoner. I don't know if most visitors stop by for the same reason, but they do cater some things for fans. Like, the main gift shop is the No. 6 shop. The font around Portmeirion is the same font on the show. The tables at the hotel use the penny-farthing logo and a red number to denote which table is which. And, the best one, the house the show used as the exterior of Number Six's house is now a Prisoner themed gift shop.
My only gripe about the gift shop is the lack of the memorabilia. There's only one display case. It does have letters from Patrick McGoohan and candid pictures from filming, but that's it really. Oh, they do have one of Six's jacket in a display case as well, but that's the only costume they have. I guess the show never thought it would be a cult hit so long after its debut so no one really bothered to make sure that props and whatnot survived the test of time. There was a lot of merchandise, though, which was nice to see. I don't know who manages it. Like, does ITV look after merchandising, like the BBC does with Doctor Who? I had the vague notion that Portmeirion kind manages it on its own.
Oh, and they ran out of Number Six pins! I totally wanted to buy one but all they had left were Number Two pins. No cares about Number Two! Re-stock the Number Six pins!
1967 is the 50th anniversary of The Prisoner. There wasn't any signage in the village, but they did have this sign on the road in:
They also had this sign on the way out. If you're not a fan of the show, you might think it's cute. If you are the fan of the show, then it's a very ominous good-bye:
Back in Cardiff, I visited some of the outdoor filming locations. Now, there are a ton of places to check out, but I kept it fairly simple. Visited but not pictured: Roald Dahl Plass (I had pictures in front of the water fountain from last time) and Eddie's Diner, which was full of people eating lunch and I felt weird taking a picture. Eddie's does have screencaps from "The Impossible Astronaut" on the wall over the booth that Eleven, River, Amy, and Rory used, so fans know which one to sit in.
Cardiff Castle has been used by all three shows, but most notably in "Heaven Sent". It's also a castle in the middle of a sizeable city, so that was pretty cool on its own. I mean, you don't get a lot of castles in Canada, let alone castles in a major city.
Much to my annoyance, they were setting up a giant tent as an off-site venue for some big football thing in the middle of the castle green (hence the ugly green fence to the right). Not exactly picturesque when you're trying to get a nice picture of the castle keep.
The castle does run a filming locations tour. Obviously Doctor Who has used it the most, but Sherlock also used the castle as a stand in for the Tower of London since it was too expensive to film at the actual Tower of London. I actually got to enter rooms that you normally can't enter or aren't open to the public, so that was cool.
Twelve ran down the stairwell I'm standing in and then through this room in "Heaven Sent". The corridor is the one he drags himself down after the Veil burns him and leaves him for dead. Oh, and one reason the rooms are labelled with numbers in "Heaven Sent"? It's because those are the existing numbers you key in for the audio tour.
I also swung by Cardiff University, which currently stands in for St. Luke's. I didn't find the Vault entrance, but honestly, I didn't try that hard; it was the end of a very long day.
I did visit the main building. Man, the lawn looks so much smaller. I could have sworn it was this sweeping expanse, but in reality, it's not.
You can just see the corner the Doctor and Nardole disappear around in "The Pilot".
Since I had hit up key filming locations for Doctor Who and Torchwood, it seemed only right to visit the main setting for The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was just a quick train ride out into the suburbs of Cardiff.
21 Clinton Road in Penarth aka 13 Bannerman Road. This one was a little more awkward to take pictures of since it's a private residence. I didn't hang about too long.
The house hasn't changed, but I noticed the owners planted some small trees along the wall so your view of the ground floor windows is obscured. I don't blame the homeowners. If I had a small trickle of fans coming to take pictures of my house, I wouldn't want them to be able to see into my living room or whatever.
I can see why the show picked this street. Along one side, you have these fabulous red brick houses, and along the other, you have more average British homes. The extraordinary and the ordinary. Sums up the universe of Doctor Who rather well. :-) Somewhat accidentally, I also stopped by the store front that stood in for Gita's flower shop, Bloomin' Lovely. It was right next door to the only proper yarn store in the greater Cardiff area. It's now a podiatry shop. I don't know what Gita would say about that. ;-)
And that's that. I wish I had more time to explore more of Wales, but maybe that's a trip for another time.
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