Dr Who Filming Locations Cardiff Tour, Cardiff Bay, Wales - David Tennant, Matt Smith, Billie Piper

Dr Who Filming Locations Cardiff
Dr Who, the cult tv series has frequently used Cardiff Bay as a filming location, since it was rebooted in 2005. Episodes featuring David Tennant, Matt Smith, Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper have all been filmed in Cardiff Bay in Wales. My film takes you on a tour around this part of Cardiff and shows you the episodes filmed and where the locations are.
Dr Who, the popular cult BBC tv series is the longest running sci-fi tv series in the world, the series celebrates it's 60th anniversary in 2023. In 2005 writer and producer Russell T Davies rebooted the series with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. The series was relocated to Wales and frequently used Cardiff as a location. Mid-way through season 7 the show also moved it’s base to studios in Cardiff Docks.
My tour takes you on a short walk around Cardiff Bay, where there are plenty of opportunities for coffee and lunch breaks. All of these locations are close together so allow 1-2 hours. If you want to explore further there is loads to see in Cardiff or you can walk south along the Cardiff Bay trail, where there are places to stop for refreshments.
Locations visited include:
Roald Dahl Plass
Millennium Centre
Mermaid Quay
Pierhead Building
Senedd
Episodes filmed in Cardiff Bay (in order filmed):
Christopher Eccleston
Season One
Boom Town (Ep11)
David Tennant
Season Two
New Earth (Ep 2)
Season Three
The Runaway Bride (Ep 1)
The Lazarus Experiment (Ep 7)
Utopia (Ep 12)
Sound of the Drums (Ep 13)
Season Four
Voyage of the Damned (Ep1)
Matt Smith
Season Five
Vincent and the Doctor (Ep 10)
Season Six
The Impossible Astronaut (Ep 2)
Also tne spin-off tv series Torchwood filmed extensively in Cardiff. The Torchwood hub was located beneath Roald Dahl Plass and I show you where the hub entrances were filmed in “Everything Changes” and “Cyberwoman”.
Dr Who continues to be linked to Wales and the 2023 series is being filmed in Cardiff.
Russell T Davies returned to Dr Who as showrunner in 2023 and filming moved to Wolf Studios in Cardiff Bay.
Visiting Cardiff Bay
Cardiff Bay is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. Cardiff has been named one of the top 10 cities in Europe. A number of boat tours operate from Mermaid Quay. Cardiff Bay is home to a number of attractions The Welsh Assembly at the Pierhead, Butetown History and Arts Centre, the Norwegian Church Arts Centre and the Wales Millennium Centre, a stunning international arts centre. The Red Dragon Centre provides further options for family entertainment.
Roath Lock located in Porth Teigr, Cardiff Bay, the 170,000 square foot facility, including nine studios and equivalent in length to three football pitches was where Casualty, Pobol y Cwm, and Doctor Who were filmed.
For more information about what to see and do at Cardiff Bay:
www.cardiffbay.co.uk/
Most of the restaurants where filming took place have changed hands over time or closed unfortunately.
Music Credits Thank you to all artists whose music I have used in this film.
The following courtesy of Epidemic Sound:
Hordes by Jo Wandrini
Among the Clouds by Helmut Schenker
Kite in the Sky by Magnus Ludvigsson
Bring Them Home by Hampus Naeselius
Clockmaker’s Daydream by 369
End of an Era by Christopher Moe Ditlevsen
Sound Effects
Whoosh to Hit 11 by Epidemic Sound
knocking on wood door(1) courtesy of Flemo257 via freesounds creative commons license.
Google maps courtesy of Google.Airbus, bluesky, Infoterra Ltd, COWI A/S, CNES/Airbus, Getmapping plc, Maxar Technologies, Geoinformation group.
Thank you for watching my film, if you enjoyed it then please like it and leave a comment, I enjoy receiving your feedback and why don’t you have a look at some of my other films on the channel. The rights for all trademarks and copyrighted material remains with the owners, no infringement of copyright is intended. Any content used here is with the intention of fair use. Clips courtesy of BBC. Film© MrFord4210