“Dear Sir/Madam, we
are working on a detective series called Hinterland/Y Gwyll and are looking for
a location.”
Who would have thought
that a local boy like myself would have the opportunity of working on such an
amazing series?
In over 20 years of
working as a location manager I never thought that I would be looking for
locations in Ceredigion - the county I grew up in.
In my teens I used to
cycle miles through the lanes of Ceredigion, not really appreciating the
landscape and its hidden magic. The outside of the Tal y Groes farm location in
episode two was found because I cycling through the fantastic
landscape.
Finding locations is all
about communication - it’s all word of mouth. Like Mathias, you need to dig
deep and find out what makes the area tick. My brother works for an
agricultural supply firm and if it wasn’t for the fact that one of their
drivers mentioned the farm in Llandre, Bow Street, which we used as the
interior of Tal y Groes, it would have been like looking for a needle in a
haystack.
When I started scouting
for the series locations it took nearly three to four weeks to familiarise
myself with this vast county. This process makes a huge difference when
deciding on the other three stories. It then took four weeks to narrow down
exactly which location suited each scene. In the beginning there was talk of
shooting some locations in Cardiff, including possibly the interior of the
police station, but once Eryl Ellis the designer and I started to unearth these
hidden gems it was plain to see that Hinterland/Y Gwyll would be staying put in
Ceredigion. The police station location, thanks to Aberystwyth University and
Ceredigion Council, also meant that it was going to be very difficult to find
anywhere that would offer us the same kind of service.
We did actually carry out
a small experiment and list all the locations found in episode one, and see if
we could compare them with any in Cardiff and the Vale. The experiment only
lasted two minutes!
Having worked with Marc
Evans (the director for the first episode of Hinterland) on “Patagonia”, I knew
he liked huge vistas and background action like trains, railway tracks and
water. Hence we found Byron’s workshop near the railway crossing in Borth and
most of the locations for episode four.
The most difficult
location to decide on was Mathias’s caravan. It took many days to find the
perfect spot, that edge-of-the-world feel. Again, by chance, we saw the
location near the Blaenplwyf mast from afar, while looking elsewhere. It was a
very difficult location to access and service!
It was a pleasure working
on the series, mainly due to the response I received from directors, editors
and producers, but more importantly from the viewers and location owners. Never
before have I had so many messages and calls asking where the locations are and
how much they have enjoyed the episodes.
Paul ‘Bach’ Davies
was the location manager for the Hinterland series.
Hinterland is next on
Monday 20 January at 21:00, BBC One Wales. You can catch up with the series so
far on iPlayer.
