Senedd to feature as NATO command center in new War of the Worlds series
The Senedd building in Cardiff will feature as a NATO command center in a new adaptation of the War of the Worlds to be broadcast in the UK next month.
The scenes set in the The National Assembly for Wales’ debating chamber were filmed in April of last year. The debating chamber appears as a command centre for the fightback against the alien force.
The ceremonial mace has been hidden by the flags of NATO nations and the ‘Heart of Wales’ artwork in the middle of the Siambr has been covered by the NATO logo.
The series has already been broadcast in France in November of last year and the first episode was broadcast in the United States on Sunday. It will begin broadcast in the UK on 5 March.
It is the first fictional programme to use the Siambr for filming. S4C programme Byw Celwydd has filmed in and near the Senedd in the past, and news programmes are regularly broadcast from the Senedd.
In 2015 the Assembly refused the James Bond film Spectre access to shoot in the Senedd chamber. The Assembly said the chamber was “not a drama studio”.
‘Intrigue’
“Our epic reimagining of War of The Worlds will have viewers gripped. Cinematic, full of mystery and intrigue, at its core our story is about humanity,” commented Howard Overman, Executive Producer and Writer.
“If aliens attacked tomorrow and life as we know it was destroyed, how would we cope? What would it tell us about each other, and more importantly, about ourselves?”
The cast includes Gabriel Byrne, Elizabeth McGovern, and Daisy Edgar Jones.
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So the Senedd Chamber was not a drama studio in 2015 but within 5 years it has become one? What changed?
I hope the financial details are transparent.
What changed almost certainly is the scale of the shoot. This is an 8 episode TV series and Spectre was a $245M budget blockbuster. That and the last Welsh Government Events Strategy ends this year and a new programme is due.
If they can reduce the cost to the taxpayer without interfering with the business of government then they should do more of it. Wales has to move from heavy industry toward a digital economy. Brexit makes that more important and much more urgent.
And the Llywydd (presiding officer) has changed from Rosemary Butler to Elin Jones who maybe has a different opinion on these matters.
call me old and stuffy but I don’t think it’s appropriate. And yet another poorly made stab at H.G.Wells (watched every version not one gets close to the book). Shame it wasn’t filmed at the huge and successful film studios in Pencoed (yes I’m being sarcastic).