Unmissable South Wales Film & TV Locations

With its mountains, coastlines and castles all within easy reach of the city streets, South Wales is a popular backdrop for slick TV dramas and blockbuster movies. From long-running shows like Doctor Who and Casualty, to big-budget flicks, South Wales has doubled up for destinations across the world, as well as some places far beyond this realm. Add the purpose-built studios and homegrown production companies based in and around the Welsh capital, and it's easy to see the screen appeal of South Wales.

Cardiff filming locations

Since its regeneration in 2005, Doctor Who and its Torchwood spinoff have used countless filming locations in Cardiff and South Wales. The futuristic facade of the Wales Millennium Centre, the grand interiors of the National Museum of Wales, and the historic buildings within Cardiff Castle have all featured. And the vast Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay and its towering, mirrored water feature will be instantly recognisable to Torchwood fans as the entrance to the Hub. 

In the BBC's Sherlock, Cardiff stood in for London. The city’s National Museum became the Antiquities Museum, and Bute Street’s grand buildings were an easy dupe for the big smoke. The Packet pub on Bute Street in Cardiff Bay also featured in Sherlock, with its pretty stained glass windows and cosy, traditional interior. And the city’s students can walk inside Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ - the interior of Cardiff University’s main building on the Cathays Campus. 

Meanwhile, the leafy Cardiff neighbourhood of Pontcanna was a double for Oxford in the HBO/ BBC series His Dark Materials. The TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s trilogy of books puts a portal to another world in Plasturton Gardens. It also features external shots of Cardiff University, as well as the city’s Temple of Peace, which was enhanced with CGI to become Mrs. Coulter’s apartment and the Royal Arctic Institute. The Temple of Peace was also used in Doctor Who and Sherlock, and you can book a Temple tour or look out for open-door days.

Coast and seaside filming locations in South Wales

Try walking along Barry’s seafront promenade without asking ‘what’s occurring’? This seaside town was made famous by Ruth Jones and James Corden’s heartwarming comedy, Gavin and Stacey. Most of it was shot in Barry and the surrounding area - even Pam & Mick’s Essex pad is in South Wales. Walk up Trinity Street, home to Stacey, her mam, and Uncle Bryn, pop into Marco’s on the prom, and try your luck at Nessa’s Slots - or Island Leisure Amusement Arcade. The Vale has a Gavin and Stacey trail you can follow, or you can hop on a tour with Dave’s Coaches. 

Dramatic Dunraven Bay on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, with its high cliffs and sandy beach, has provided a regular backdrop for Doctor Who drama. Known in the TV show as Bad Wolf Bay (a nod to its Cardiff-based production company, Bad Wolf), it’s where Rose Tyler and the tenth Doctor say goodbye. The coastline here also features in Sherlock and His Dark Materials. 

Further along the coast, the wide sandy beach of Rhossili Bay on the Gower is another small-screen regular. As well as episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood, it featured in the BBC drama series The Guest, starring Eve Myles and Gabrielle Creevy. Also on the glorious Gower Peninsula, Three Cliffs Bay features in season two of The Night Manager. 

Countryside and castle filming location in South Wales

Produced in Cardiff for Sky and filmed around South Wales, A Discovery of Witches was a three-season production based on the best-selling novels by Deborah Harkness. A tale of witches and vampires, South Wales’s brooding scenery and stunning castles helped set the scene. Tretower Court, a fortified manor house in the Usk Valley, stood in for Elizabethan London, while Caerphilly Castle’s moat doubled for the Thames. 

The lunar-like landscape of the disused Llangynidr Quarry in the Brecon Beacons was transformed into the imaginary town of Trollesund for His Dark Materials. This blockbuster-scale series also featured Llyn y Fan Fach in the Brecon Beacons, and Wentwood Forest and the Usk Reservoir in Monmouthshire. 

More Monmouthshire scenery can be seen in the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education, much of which was filmed in the Wye Valley. Look out for the town of Monmouth and the pretty villages of Tintern and Llandogo. The high school scenes are shot at the disused University of Wales campus in Caerleon. For the school hall, however, you’ll need to head to Penarth, and the Grade II listed Paget Rooms, a performance venue and community center in the heart of the town. 

More South Wales Film Locations

• The BBC’s long-running medical drama Casualty has been filmed in Cardiff since 2011. 
• The entrance to the Batcave in The Dark Knight Rises is behind the picturesque Henrhyd Waterfall in the Brecon Beacons. 
• Guy Richie’s Young Sherlock for Amazon Prime filmed around Monmouthshire and in the studio in Cardiff. 
• Cardiff’s Pontcanna neighbourhood stood in for Cambridge in the BAFTA-nominated film H is for Hawk, starring Claire Foy. 
• BBC series The Other Bennet Sister was filmed across South Wales, despite being set in London and the Lake District. 
• Doctor Who spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea was filmed in and around Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea.
• Tredegar House near Newport is a favourite Doctor Who location and has featured in more than a dozen episodes since 2005. 

A top destination for film & TV fans

The list of TV and film locations in South Wales is growing year by year. With studio space and production companies based in Cardiff and beyond, and the glorious backdrops available - from country estates and crumbling castles to epic cliffs and mountain peaks - it’s no surprise that we’re seeing more of this beautiful corner of the country on screen. South Wales’s appeal lies in its wide range of landscapes in a relatively small, easy-to-get-around area. And the warm Welsh welcome, of course.