:00:10. > :00:16.The 21st century brought a massive change to Cardiff Bay. A change
:00:16. > :00:20.which continues with the opening of the BBC's new Drama Village,
:00:20. > :00:25.situated in the historic Roath Basin. Covered in nearly 2000
:00:25. > :00:31.square feet of studio space, it is a state-of-the-art home to Casualty,
:00:32. > :00:35.Dr Who, Pobol y Cwm And Upstairs, downstairs.
:00:36. > :00:38.Tonight, we are going to go behind the scenes of this exciting new
:00:38. > :00:48.development and delve into their history of this iconic Welsh
:00:48. > :00:57.
:00:57. > :01:03.Cardiff Bay is steeped in history. What began as a salt marsh became a
:01:03. > :01:10.half butt used for the shipping Bob Bryan. -- a harbour. It wasn't
:01:10. > :01:16.until the late 1,700s that one man recognised the bay's potential. The
:01:16. > :01:21.second Marquess of Bute transformed it into the largest coal exporting
:01:21. > :01:31.dock in the world. The bustling dock attracted other merchants and
:01:31. > :01:31.
:01:31. > :01:35.exporters and Cardiff's entered into a golden age of prospecting.
:01:35. > :01:39.Cardiff did start as an Iron exporting report but it is as a
:01:39. > :01:43.coal exporting port that it becomes one of the largest and well known
:01:43. > :01:49.in the world. That is largely due to the activities of the second
:01:49. > :01:55.Marquess of Bute. He encouraged his lands to be used for call
:01:55. > :01:58.exploitation but he also took it a stage further, he developed an
:01:58. > :02:04.active role in developing an active -- and infrastructure to help
:02:04. > :02:09.export the call. He died and his son became the third Marquess of
:02:10. > :02:15.Bute as a very young child. Third Marquis of Bute developed his
:02:15. > :02:18.father's legacy, undertaking unambitious redesign of Cardiff
:02:18. > :02:27.Castle and the landscaping of Rowarth Park. All of this was made
:02:27. > :02:32.possible by the vast fortune that came from Cardiff Bay's coal trade.
:02:32. > :02:37.It is estimated that the third Marquess of Bute became the richest
:02:37. > :02:41.man in the world because of this. It is estimated that Cardiff would
:02:41. > :02:51.have been the largest coal exporting port in the world and
:02:51. > :02:59.
:02:59. > :03:04.definitely one of the busiest in If you have Docs and you have
:03:04. > :03:08.railways, it is also going to need Labour as well and so there is an
:03:08. > :03:13.increasing workforce as more Boxx are built and more and more coal is
:03:13. > :03:17.exported. The bay was changed by more than wealth and send its
:03:17. > :03:22.population underwent a dramatic change. Two people who have spent
:03:22. > :03:29.their lives in the area tell us more. Cardiff around about 1,900
:03:29. > :03:33.was the place where people emigrated to. Not Canada, Australia,
:03:33. > :03:39.Cardiff, in their hundreds from all over the country and all over the
:03:39. > :03:43.world. The good thing about this, with all of the merchandise, all we
:03:43. > :03:50.ever saw were faces. That there you got to know each other, by their
:03:50. > :03:53.faces. -- that is how. These dock workers and sailors from all over
:03:53. > :04:03.the world settled close to the harbour in an area known as Tiger
:04:03. > :04:08.Bay. It emerged as a place for Merchant Navy seaman and dock
:04:08. > :04:14.workers and captains and so on, people who worked at sea and at the
:04:14. > :04:19.docks. And quite with -- quickly it became a multi-ethnic community.
:04:19. > :04:23.Traces of the wealth that coal generated can be detected in the
:04:23. > :04:27.buildings that surround Cardiff Bay. The very size of the buildings give
:04:27. > :04:33.you some idea of the wealth that was being created, at least in
:04:33. > :04:36.terms of the capital being produced by the buying and selling of call.
:04:36. > :04:41.If I was going to choose one building that said the most about
:04:41. > :04:47.how important the coal industry was to the rise of Cardiff and how
:04:47. > :04:52.Cardiff was in the world in the late 19th and early 20th century,
:04:52. > :04:58.it is this building, the Exchange building, built in 1886, then
:04:58. > :05:02.extended in 1911-12 and lavishly redecorated and redesigned inside.
:05:02. > :05:09.Someone who has great admiration for the architecture of this
:05:09. > :05:14.building is the Cardiff born star of Casualty Suzanne Packer. I think
:05:14. > :05:19.Mount Stuart Square is probably one of the most interesting places in
:05:19. > :05:29.this area. It is further along than the Roath Basin but those buildings,
:05:29. > :05:32.they really show how wealthy Cardiff was and that is a lovely
:05:32. > :05:37.reminder of how incredible, when it was ready thriving, this area must
:05:37. > :05:40.have looked, because the buildings are so incredible -- really
:05:40. > :05:46.thriving. What is great coming back is seeing how they have been
:05:46. > :05:52.redeveloped. Tiger Bay and Yuta and became a melting pot as different
:05:52. > :06:02.cultures, cuisines, and of course music, existed side-by-side -- Bute
:06:02. > :06:04.
:06:04. > :06:12.My parents, when they arrived in the late 1950s, they came here for
:06:12. > :06:17.dances, two clubs. Music has a long history in Butetown, and it created
:06:17. > :06:25.a number of singers and musicians. The most famous of whom the Shirley
:06:25. > :06:35.Bassey. -- is. You look back and you think about what started it all
:06:35. > :06:36.
:06:36. > :06:43.off. We were proud. It was a good background. A good background for
:06:44. > :06:48.my... Way up the ladder to success. In Butetown, many years ago, it
:06:48. > :06:54.would have been possible to eat French food and Maltese food,
:06:54. > :06:59.Chinese food, Arab food, Indian food. Just walking up and down the
:06:59. > :07:05.streets. People who came into Tiger Bay would go back with a memory of
:07:05. > :07:11.having a lovely meal in a crowded restaurant, a Chinese restaurant.
:07:11. > :07:16.The Cairo cafe was a mixture of things. It wasn't a cafe where you
:07:16. > :07:26.popped in for as back or a cup of tea. It was a meeting place for
:07:26. > :07:41.
:07:41. > :07:46.The Cairo cafe also had a prayer room. That was there before the
:07:46. > :07:52.first mosque opened in Butetown, before the first mosque opened
:07:52. > :08:02.which was in 1947, 1948. This was also the second oldest mosque in
:08:02. > :08:04.
:08:04. > :08:09.The streets were full of what I realise now were foreign to other
:08:09. > :08:13.people, foreigners to other people. To me, they were just the normal
:08:13. > :08:18.denizens, you would hear different languages, you would hear Arabic,
:08:18. > :08:21.this that and the other. We accepted it as normal. It takes a
:08:21. > :08:29.long time to realise that other people don't see this as quite
:08:29. > :08:34.normal. Inner-city like Cardiff... -- In a.
:08:34. > :08:40.Someone with family links in the area is Mark. One of the people in
:08:40. > :08:46.charge of the building project. is great to hear how many people
:08:46. > :08:51.have a family link with the site, and within my own family, my mother,
:08:51. > :08:56.who was very young in the late 1950s and worked for the Dock
:08:56. > :09:02.Labour Board in the city centre, and every Friday she used to come
:09:02. > :09:12.down to Roath Basin with an armed guard and hundreds of thousands of
:09:12. > :09:15.
:09:15. > :09:18.pounds in cash to pay out the dockers. She said although it was a
:09:18. > :09:22.very rough and ready environment that the dockers were true
:09:22. > :09:26.gentleman and there was more bad language back at the office in the
:09:26. > :09:31.city centre that she experienced in the docks. That might be because
:09:31. > :09:37.she refused to pay them if they caused any trouble, but she still
:09:37. > :09:40.looks back fondly on memories like that.
:09:40. > :09:46.Although Tiger Bay held fonder memories for some, others viewed
:09:46. > :09:52.the area very differently. would find out as you sort of
:09:52. > :10:00.stepped out beyond your environment that people you do in a slightly
:10:00. > :10:05.different way. Most of that time, people making the comments had no
:10:05. > :10:09.idea what Tiger Bay was like. she were down under the railway
:10:09. > :10:14.bridge, you were home. -- once you were. That was your front door and
:10:14. > :10:20.you were back home again, back in that cosy atmosphere. It couldn't
:10:20. > :10:24.find a finer place to live in than Tiger Bay -- you couldn't. But a
:10:24. > :10:28.change came to this close-knit community. By the 1960s, the coal
:10:28. > :10:38.trade was declining us feel we should Kevin and the dock became
:10:38. > :10:40.
:10:40. > :10:46.run-down and abandoned -- as fewer ships came in. The rise of Bude
:10:46. > :10:50.attack is connected to the rise in the cold trade -- the rise of Bude
:10:50. > :10:56.Karen is connected to be rise of the coal trade and the decline is
:10:56. > :11:00.also connected to that, like many towns in the Valleys, to the
:11:00. > :11:04.decline of the industry. The once thriving community sat -- suffered
:11:04. > :11:08.from a lack of investment. People moved elsewhere and streets and
:11:08. > :11:14.parks were demolished to make way for new housing and high-rises. A
:11:14. > :11:18.lot of the community spirit was also swept away. That old fashioned
:11:18. > :11:23.idea of standing on your doorstep and talking to the woman down the
:11:23. > :11:27.road or across the square or across the street was gone. The old ladies
:11:27. > :11:37.used to fetch their kitchen chairs out on the street and sit there and
:11:37. > :11:37.
:11:37. > :11:42.chat. It took the heart out of Butetown as local people knew it
:11:42. > :11:47.was largely knocked down and replaced by maisonettes and power
:11:47. > :11:52.blocs. When they built these flats and new houses, they were wonderful,
:11:52. > :12:02.indoor toilets, nice, clean rooms, several if you could afford it.
:12:02. > :12:08.
:12:08. > :12:12.They were wonderful. But it killed Some but it decided that the ideal
:12:12. > :12:18.place for the tower blocks was whether Park had been before --
:12:18. > :12:22.some body. Somebody decided to build a tower in the village green
:12:22. > :12:29.so this kind of Utopian ideal turned out not to be such a good
:12:29. > :12:36.idea. It wasn't just the decline of the coal industry but also
:12:36. > :12:41.literally than knocking over of a community that led to the decline.
:12:41. > :12:46.But you can't keep a tiger down. After years of neglect, Cardiff Bay
:12:46. > :12:50.became the focus of a massive regeneration project. In the 1980s,
:12:51. > :12:57.acres of wasteland were cleared to make way for brandy are houses and
:12:57. > :13:05.apartments. That brand new houses. All of this was made possible by
:13:05. > :13:10.the construction of the Cardiff Bay barrage, an ambitious engineering
:13:10. > :13:17.process turning mud flats into a man-made lake. For some residents,
:13:17. > :13:21.it was a controversial change, but it attracted big business. Hotels,
:13:21. > :13:29.bars and restaurants sprang up and visitors flock to the once Enti
:13:29. > :13:35.area. -- flocked to the once empty area. It became a home for the arts
:13:35. > :13:43.with the Wales Millennium Centre. And the seed for government with
:13:43. > :13:49.the Welsh Assembly. -- seat. In the 21st century, television drama
:13:49. > :13:54.arrived in the bay. In 2005, Russell T Davies brought Dr Who
:13:54. > :14:04.back as a flagship drama made in Wales by BBC Wales. One of its
:14:04. > :14:21.
:14:21. > :14:29.Let's go and explore. What's the plan the? I don't know. The BBC in
:14:29. > :14:32.London had a policy. I have worked in Manchester, Wales, and I have
:14:32. > :14:38.never lived in London so I have always loved staff being made in
:14:38. > :14:43.the regions. Here was the BBC, seemingly taking a bigger risk. The
:14:43. > :14:49.biggest drama show the BBC has ever had, and we're going to make it in
:14:49. > :14:51.Wales. We didn't have much of their track record in network drama, and
:14:52. > :14:58.we delivered on an epic scale. There were many people who thought
:14:58. > :15:07.that doctor who had had its time, it couldn't come back and be rude -
:15:07. > :15:15.- reborn, and look at what happened. It was almost like they were
:15:15. > :15:20.bringing a new... And I don't mean this in a bad way, it brought a
:15:20. > :15:25.huge resurgence back to Wales. All of sudden, BBC World was put back
:15:25. > :15:34.on the map, as was filming and production in Wales. The television
:15:34. > :15:44.industry in Wales grew rapidly. In 2006, Torchwood made the day it
:15:44. > :15:45.
:15:45. > :15:55.home. One of the things I wanted to do it was a show-off Cardiff. When
:15:55. > :15:57.
:15:57. > :16:02.Torchwood came along, I wanted to set it on my door step. They are
:16:02. > :16:12.looking at the people, the sea, the Tower, the Millennium Hall, I think
:16:12. > :16:14.
:16:14. > :16:21.that's brilliant. Torchwood was another huge thing for Cardiff. As
:16:21. > :16:26.Dr Who was just for Onto, Torchwood was about Cardiff. Torchwood
:16:26. > :16:30.originated in Cardiff, and a share of showed the world what Cardiff
:16:30. > :16:34.look like. When I travel around the world now and I go to different
:16:34. > :16:40.places, they always say, Cardiff looks fantastic. I always say to go
:16:40. > :16:47.and visit it. It's funny because Torchwood moved on after a while,
:16:47. > :16:51.but there's a lot of people here who remember it. One of the
:16:51. > :16:58.characters in Torchwood, the faithful -- faithful coffee boy who
:16:58. > :17:03.sadly died, I'm told he has a shrine in the bay. There is a place
:17:03. > :17:08.where people go and leave flowers and poems. It is kind of the
:17:09. > :17:12.strange thing, but I'm glad it has made a mark on the landscape.
:17:12. > :17:17.the television industry went from strength to strength, the landscape
:17:17. > :17:21.of the bay was set to change again. With so much going on, a permanent
:17:21. > :17:31.home for drama was needed, and Roath Basin was selected. Just
:17:31. > :17:35.
:17:35. > :17:42.across the harbour from Butetown, it will become the drama village.
:17:42. > :17:52.It became this thing, we needed more space. Every time we moved we
:17:52. > :17:54.
:17:54. > :17:59.needed a bigger space. It is just ambition. Armies of local builders,
:17:59. > :18:02.designers and engineers worked to realise that ambition. It took over
:18:02. > :18:09.100 kilometres of cabling and enough concrete to cover four
:18:09. > :18:17.football pitches to complete the four-acre site. The logistical
:18:17. > :18:22.exercise to realise a major 10 studio site was an extraordinary
:18:22. > :18:27.piece of project management. We had a fixed end date to meet Casualty's
:18:27. > :18:32.filming, and it was great to see the team pulling together and
:18:32. > :18:37.working collaboratively and meeting that end date. It was amazing
:18:37. > :18:47.watching it grow from a waste land when I first came to visit to the
:18:47. > :18:49.
:18:49. > :18:57.shell of studios, and then these fantastic facts springing up. --
:18:57. > :19:00.sets. Being the first production to move into the studios was very
:19:00. > :19:05.exciting and a great honour. I spent three months from the
:19:05. > :19:15.production in Bristol before we picked up the whole production, 20
:19:15. > :19:20.
:19:20. > :19:24.years' worth of it, and moved it Although not everyone was happy
:19:24. > :19:30.about the relocation. The change meant a lot to this local Bell,
:19:30. > :19:35.Suzanne. I live in Cardiff and I was commuting back and forward from
:19:35. > :19:45.Cardiff to Bristol. When I heard that this was a possibility, it was
:19:45. > :19:45.
:19:45. > :19:51.like a dream come true. Casualty being here as part of the Drama
:19:51. > :19:56.Village, I think it will put Cardiff on the map even more. He
:19:56. > :20:00.will have such a great reputation, because usually, when people think
:20:00. > :20:06.of Britain, they always think of London, and Cardiff doesn't figure.
:20:06. > :20:15.I think now it will have such a great impact. People will know
:20:15. > :20:25.Cardiff and nothing that is amazing. Casual to regular, 10 be born
:20:25. > :20:30.
:20:30. > :20:34.Charles Beare has seen the benefits of the new set. -- Tenby-born.
:20:34. > :20:37.There was very little room to act, so it made it much more difficult.
:20:37. > :20:43.Now there has issued amount of space. We have never built anything
:20:43. > :20:46.on this scale before. The main studio, as far as I know, is the
:20:46. > :20:51.two level studio in Europe, so we have got the hospital on the ground
:20:51. > :20:55.floor and the first floor. We can drive ambulances and the canopy and
:20:56. > :21:05.shoot direct action right from somebody arriving and going into
:21:06. > :21:10.
:21:10. > :21:20.the hospital set. But as a whole area inside it -- that is. Home-
:21:20. > :21:20.
:21:20. > :21:27.grown drama has also moved around the bay. This drama it is the BBC's
:21:27. > :21:37.longest running soap opera. Pobol y Cwm has been filmed for 30 years,
:21:37. > :21:40.
:21:40. > :21:46.and ours the soap has grown, more space was needed. When we first
:21:46. > :21:50.heard about the move, we got really excited as a production. We have
:21:50. > :21:53.been based in studio one in Cardiff for over 30 years, and we got
:21:54. > :22:00.really excited about the fact that we could have our own space, we
:22:00. > :22:10.could have purpose-built studios and a purpose-built blocks. It is
:22:10. > :22:13.
:22:13. > :22:19.important frost have that kind of space. -- For us to have that kind
:22:19. > :22:28.of space. Increased space has made field -- coming easier, and there
:22:29. > :22:33.have even added a new street. biggest difference is where we were
:22:33. > :22:39.filming up in London, it was a very closed set built in between various
:22:39. > :22:45.office buildings of London. Here, there have the -- the production
:22:45. > :22:51.will be able to be filmed 360. There are farming areas in each
:22:51. > :22:55.corner that are part of the village, and now cars can drive all the way
:22:56. > :23:01.round. In the past, we have had to drive very slowly because you would
:23:01. > :23:08.have come into a glass corridor if you had carried on. The biggest
:23:08. > :23:14.change for the viewers and the viewing public is now you can shoot
:23:15. > :23:18.back from the pub entrance down and you will see the chapel, which has
:23:18. > :23:22.always been a big part of the series. There has been so many
:23:22. > :23:26.years of planning for this lot. The day we see a car drive down for the
:23:26. > :23:32.first time and disappear around the corner will be a big moment for the
:23:32. > :23:42.series. And a nice thing for the audience to see. From Pobol y Cwm
:23:42. > :23:48.
:23:48. > :23:52.to London. Last year, we but outside of Cardiff. -- we were
:23:52. > :23:57.outside. This year, we have come back a we are in the bay, and we
:23:57. > :24:01.have these fantastic new studios. This is the main set. This is the
:24:01. > :24:05.entrance hall, the grand entrance hall. At the moment, it is in the
:24:05. > :24:15.very early stages of construction as you will see. If you come
:24:15. > :24:24.through here, this is the main entrance hall. All this for will
:24:24. > :24:32.eventually be covered in tiles and then a grand staircase starts here
:24:32. > :24:42.and makes its way up that wall where. The inside of the set is
:24:42. > :24:51.
:24:51. > :24:54.twice as high as matters at the moment -- as bat is -- as that is.
:24:54. > :25:01.Once the art department start dressing the set, it looks as if it
:25:01. > :25:05.could be real. For the actor, you feel as if you're in the zone.
:25:05. > :25:10.Hopefully, we will have done well this year and we will get asked to
:25:10. > :25:16.come back and doctor who will move out and we will move back in this
:25:16. > :25:20.could go on three years. I hope it does! However, moving a production
:25:20. > :25:30.the size of Dr Who down to the day comes with its own set of
:25:30. > :25:32.
:25:32. > :25:37.challenges. I think moving doctor who will be a big undertaking. The
:25:37. > :25:42.prop stores have started to move out already. We cleared some of the
:25:42. > :25:49.stages there, the offices have now closed and have been prepared ready
:25:49. > :25:56.for everybody to arrive in January. It will not only be a home to
:25:56. > :26:00.existing dramas, but a hotbed for new ideas and programmes. One of
:26:00. > :26:07.the reason Roath Basin is such an exciting place to be is the number
:26:07. > :26:10.of people here who were working on your ideas and projects. Bad as any
:26:10. > :26:19.big bash that has only come about because we now have this great
:26:19. > :26:27.drama centre -- this has only come about because. This brand new show
:26:27. > :26:37.that will come in and be shot is a new children's show. It is about a
:26:37. > :26:42.
:26:42. > :26:47.boy a wizard to -- who discovers aliens are coming. It is going to
:26:47. > :26:51.come from these studios and it is going to be magnificent. But starts
:26:51. > :26:55.filming very shortly. We have will be the first of many new
:26:55. > :26:59.developments that we will see her. It is an ever changing story, as
:26:59. > :27:09.once again, historic Cardiff Bay takes his place in the future of
:27:09. > :27:10.
:27:10. > :27:14.Wales. The Cardiff dockland area is back into the forefront of Cardiff,
:27:14. > :27:22.and possibly international status, given the quality of the buildings
:27:22. > :27:28.and the activity that goes on. The commodity is now the people.
:27:28. > :27:38.you're a wander around that Cardiff Bay area, you have still got that
:27:38. > :27:44.
:27:44. > :27:50.flavour, that traditional Labour -- There it is, all new, and you go
:27:50. > :27:55.down there on a summer afternoon and you see all different kinds of
:27:55. > :28:03.people walking about, happy and enjoying themselves. That is a kind
:28:03. > :28:10.of magic. To be there with them. Cardiff has always been known for
:28:10. > :28:14.sport, but now it will be known for drama as well. This is a city. It