Film Locations in North Wales

Movie and TV Programme Locations in Spectacular North Wales

Sep 8, 2008

Some of the best and most memorable TV and movie locations have been shot in the spectacular countryside and coastline of North Wales, making a star of the country too.

North Wales is a spectacular region of the United Kingdom, its rugged and craggy mountains, windswept plains and plateaus and its miles of isolated and atmospheric beaches where the only sounds to be heard are the wind gently whispering in your ears and the thoughts that ruminate in your mind. All of this makes North Wales perfect for TV and film locations.

The Prisoner

The Prisoner starred Patrick McGoohan as a mysterious man trapped in a boundless prison being pursued by a giant balloon. Tthis is perhaps the most iconic and some say the most strange and esoteric TV series ever.

Shown on the UK ITV network in the late 1960s and shot in the Port Meirion the Italianate confection created by architect Sir Clough Williams Ellis. Both the Prisoner and Port Meirion have burned themselves into the consciousness of the swinging sixties generation. Other TV shows that have used this location are Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Cold Feet.

Inn of the Sixth Happiness

This true story of Gladys Aylward, a British maid turned missionary in the tumultuous post-World War II China. Leading a group of 100 Chinese orphans from the advancing Japanese invaders Aylward reaches safety across some treacherous territory to the sound of the children singing the nursery rhyme “This Old Man”.

Filmed in Beddgelert, famous for the grave of Gelert, Prince Llewellyn’s brave dog, the producers even built a full scale mock Chinese town in the nearby village of Nantmor.

Tomb Raider 2

Staring Angelina Jolie this is a tale of the mythical “Dagger of Xian” and its eventual recovery by Lara Croft the heroine after a fantastic world-wide chase that stopped off at The Great Wall, Hong Kong, Tanzania, the Aegean and the north Welsh slate quarries in the Snowdonia National Park.

Carry on up the Khyber

The Carry On series of films are a peculiarly British phenomena employing typical British humour to parody more serious films like Burton and Taylor’s Cleopatra or Beau Geste The films ridiculed the mores, traditions and institutions of Britain, in Carry on Sergeant, and of Empire in Carry on Up The Khyber perhaps the best of the Carry On series, Up the Khyber substituted the Watkin Path beneath Snowdonia for the notorious Khyber Pass. A great substitution it makes too.

Wales Vs Ireland 1906

This football international was played in Wrexham it is preserved as the oldest and perhaps the first, known film of an international football match in existence. The match was a 4-4 draw.

Dot’s Story

Dot Cotton is a mortal of some misfortune and happenstance and is a stalwart of Albert Square and the Queen Vic pub in BBC TV’s popular soap opera EastEnders. In Dot’s Story, Dot (played by talented actress June Brown) returns to a time when she was evacuated to a remote Welsh village during the London’s World War II Blitzkrieg. Here finally Dot laid her long-standing guilt over the deathbed of her “Aunty Gwen”. Touching tale blindingly played by June Brown.

Partly shot in historic Dolgellau site of Welsh rebel Prince Owain Glyndwr’s last Welsh Parliament in 1404 the town plays an important part Welsh political history and culture.

Other films and TV programmes have found locations in the spectacular countryside and coastline of North Wales including the Midsomer Murders, Coronation Street, Inspector Morse and many more.

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