STRIKE A POSE

MAY WE HAVE THIS DANCE? SFX TRAVELS BACK IN TIME FOR THE FILMING OF DOCTOR WHO EPISODE "ROGUE"

- DARREN SCOTT

WE’VE BEEN INVITED TO A BALL! Fancy being our guest?

It’s 17 May 2023 and SFX is in South Wales – Margam Country Park, to be precise, around two miles from Port Talbot. If we turn around we can see the location used for Rattigan Academy in series four’s “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “The Poison Sky”, but today we’re at the Orangery, where they’ve only gone and custom-built a Regency ballroom inside.

What’s particularly exciting is it’s the first time press have been on set for the brand new global relaunch of Doctor Who. SFX is early, arriving in a park filled with trucks and lots of people in period costume outside drinking coffee. It’s a beautiful, sunny day and already there’s plenty of fans being wafted.

The scale is evident – unit base is about a mile away from location, but Margam Park is a hive of activity. The Orangery – a long white building – is split into two halves. The first has all the behind-the-scenes and production going on, while the second has the transformed filming space. There are boxes filled with candles, which members of production are shaving and shaping.

We spy cast members Ncuti Gatwa and Jonathan Groff, in full Regency regalia, outside having a crafty cuppa. They step back inside and Gatwa is slipped back into a well-fitting velvet jacket and taken back to set, a newly constructed balcony overlooking the ballroom.

Groff’s titular character Rogue has an American accent as he and the Doctor exchange stilted greetings when rehearsing a scene. “I think you and I should go outside,” he tells the Time Lord.