Derek Ritchie, producer for Wizards vs Aliens, on why south Wales is the best place to shoot magical realms and alien spaceships for the third series.
The night air is filled with flame and smoke, a scene of devastation all around as the discarded shields and broken lances of warriors lie strewn in an ancient abbey’s courtyard. An abandoned trebuchet, its load unflung, frames the two figures that appear cautiously through this fog of war. The first has the manner of a hero – cloaked, confident and determined. The second, as the smoke shifts on the breeze to reveal, is his loyal squire – armed with short sword, and with huge ears and long pointy nose… hang on… that’s a hobgoblin!
And so the long tradition of top quality children’s drama produced by BBC Cymru Wales continues with the third series of Wizards vs Aliens. That sequence opens the finale to the current series, now broadcasting on Monday and Tuesday evenings on CBBC. In many ways this sums up exactly why Wales is the perfect place to make the most ambitious children’s drama in the UK.
Catch Wizards vs Aliens on Mondays and Tuesdays at 5pm on CBBC and CBBCHD
For our third series, we wanted to move our storytelling and our characters on, and in many respects expand the universe of our show. In terms of our narratives, this led to more location work than ever before, and an impressive breadth of locations at that, all over south Wales:
- An alien spaceship and drilling platform (Uskmouth Power Station)
- A radio telescope (Hirwaun)
- A spooky wood and cave (Fforest Fawr)
- A haunted theatre (Ton Pentre, Monmouth and Cardiff)
- A mystical castle in another realm (Caerphilly and Cardiff)
- An ancient abbey (St. Donat’s and a set build in Cardiff)
In addition to the above list of ‘guest’ sets, we also revisited our school location in Cowbridge, and spent much time on our hero sets in Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay, and at Broadcasting House in Llandaff.
Being based in south Wales gave us incredible scope to be ambitious with our location work, as we knew that we could find anything we needed here. And more than that, we would be able to use locations which were well-accustomed to filming. That experience and knowledge was incredibly useful in ensuring that each location was comfortable with our presence and whatever plans we might have for their historical monument. It brought great logistical ease, and allowed us to very efficiently make the most of those locations on a very tight schedule – that wealth and scale of nearby options was vital!
But it’s the people who make all of this happen. It is the incredible talent and experience of our local crew members across every department that allowed us to achieve the great ambition of our scripts. After years of producing world-class drama, there is a passion and knowledge which I found creatively invigorating. And it’s because of those people that we have a series which looks and sounds as accomplished as it does on a children’s drama budget and schedule.
South Wales is a great place to send a hobgoblin and his master 500 years back in time to battle the most evil wizard who ever stalked the earth. And it’s a great place to make some of the most highly-regarded drama in the world.
Wizards vs Aliens is on Mondays and Tuesdays at 5pm on CBBC and CBBCHD or catch episodes first on CBBC iPlayer.