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Film & TV Wales

Tardis - Dr Who, Rhossili

Just some of the films with Wales as a backdrop…

  • Resistance (2011)
  • Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
  • Hunky Dory (2011)
  • Patagonia (2011)
  • Ironclad (2011)
  • Clash of the Titans (2010)
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010)
    Part 2 (2011)
  • Robin Hood (2010)
  • Abraham's Point (2008)
  • Half Light (2006)
  • The Libertine (2005)
  • Tomb Raider 2 – Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life (2003)
  • Die Another Day (2002)
  • The World is Not Enough (1999)
  • Twin Town (1997)
  • An American Werewolf in London (1981)
     

Our country is a popular location for filming. Our landscape has provided the setting to Hollywood movies and popular television shows such as Harry Potter and Dr Who.

North Wales was the backdrop to scenes from the second Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie whilst Bollywood films have been shot in locations all across Wales such as Caerphilly Castle and Aberystwyth. Bollywood star Mayur Verma has even relocated here. The Delhi-born actor said of his move: "Everyone is so welcoming and friendly and it's a great place to raise a family."

The film Ironclad, starring Paul Giamatti, was also recently filmed in South Wales at the Dragon International Film Studios (also known as “Valleywood”).

Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas who died in New York in 1953, has been the focus of a number of films. The Edge of Love a film about the poet's life starring
Matthew Rhys, Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller was filmed on location in west Wales.

The longest-running science fiction television show in the world, Doctor Who, was revived by Welsh writer and producer Russell T Davies for BBC Wales
and has won many awards. Filmed in south Wales, if you’re lucky you may see stars from the show around Cardiff. (The Doctor Who Experience will be moving to its permanent home in Cardiff this year). Doctor Who spin off Torchwood has also been filmed in and around South Wales with its former ‘hub’situated in front of Cardiff's Millennium Centre.

The BAFTA Award Winning British sitcom, Gavin and Stacey was also made here in Wales. Written by and starring Welsh writer and actress Ruth Jones, the show also includes Welsh actor and comedian, Rob Brydon.

Our Welsh television producers S4C International have an animation catalogue that is broadcast all over the world, and have had two Oscar nominations for
Famous Fred and The Canterbury Tales.

Other TV shows made here in Wales include; BBC television drama - Sherlock Holmes, Merlin, and the 1960's cult TV series, The Prisoner which was filmed at Portmeirion in north Wales.
 

 

  • Anthony Hopkins was influenced and encouraged to become an actor by Welsh compatriot Richard Burton. He enrolled at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales from which he graduated in 1957.
  • Catherine Zeta Jones won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Velma Kelly in the 2002 film adaptation of Chicago - the first and only Welsh actress to do so in that category. Zeta-Jones is married to Michael Douglas.
  • Ioan Gruffudd came to international attention as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe in the film Titanic. However, he is probably best known for his role in Hornblower, the made-for-TV films based on C.S. Forester's novels.
  • Matthew Rhys was born and raised in Cardiff. His film credits include Fakers, Love and Other Disasters, and The Edge of Love where he plays famed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas alongside Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller. He's probably most well-known for his small screen role as Kevin Walker in the hit US TV show Brothers and Sisters.
  • Julie Christie rose to fame in the 1960s starring in movies such as Doctor Zhivago and Far From the Madding Crowd. But the Oscar-winning actress spent subsequent decades shunning the limelight, often turning down movies for life on her Welsh farm . In recent years Christie has returned to the big screen to appear in Troy, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Neverland and Away from Her which secured an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in the 2008 Oscars.