Roath Lock
BBC Roath Lock Studios (Welsh: Stiwdios BBC Porth y Rhath) is a television production studio that houses BBC drama productions including Doctor Who, Casualty, and Pobol y Cwm.[1] The centre topped out on 20 February 2011 and filming for such productions commenced in autumn of the same year.[2]
BBC Roath Lock Studios
The facility is located on a development site known as Porth Teigr, which included a proposed 3,700-square-metre (40,000 sq ft) digital media centre, and between 2012 and 2017 hosted an interactive Doctor Who exhibition titled the Doctor Who Experience.[3] The facility has 500 to 600 people working on site.[4]
The development has brought under one roof the production of shows formerly filmed in Cardiff's Broadcasting House, at Upper Boat Studios near Pontypridd, and in Bristol.[5]
Programmes confirmed to be filmed and produced at the studios include:
Other productions produced by Roath Lock, but not necessarily filmed at the studios include: Merlin, Atlantis, Being Human, The Living and the Dead, Sherlock, War & Peace, The Game, The Passing Bells, The Green Hollow, A Poet in New York, and To Walk Invisible.[1]
After the studios, offices and external filming lots were fully fitted out, filming for Pobol y Cwm and Casualty began in autumn 2011. Doctor Who moved into the 170,000 sq ft (15,800 sq m) site in 2012. The Sarah Jane Adventures was also scheduled to move to the facility in 2012, but future production of the series was cancelled in April 2011 due to the death of lead actress Elisabeth Sladen.[13] The village is part of the BBC's commitment to double television network production from Cardiff by 2016.[10]
Transport links[edit]
The Roath Lock Drama Village was served by the Baycar (Cardiff Bus number 6) service operated by Cardiff Bus, that ran every 10 minutes to Cardiff Bay and the City Centre.
