Page 40 - The Local Eye - Issue 128 - June 2016

40

Project Indigo
One boy’s adventure through time and space!

Hi, I’m Tom, a local Doctor Who blogger & I write about my adventures online at
anadventurethroughtimeandspace.com
Welcome to Fifteenth Century Italy - otherwise known as
Portmeirion. We are travelling back in time to visit North
Wales for the fi lming location of the Tom Baker Doctor Who
episode The Masque of Mandragora (1976).
In this classic episode, The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane
materialise the TARDIS in an orange grove on Earth in the
15th Century, which the Doctor describes as ‘not a pleasant
time’. This story is a historical drama which was rare for
Doctor Who at that time.
Portmeirion is located in area of Wales called Gwynedd and
is near Porthmadog. It was designed and built by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in
the style of an Italian village, and it is now a tourist village. Work started in 1925 and it
took 50 years for him to build this village but it was fi nished just before he died. He built it
to show how you can develop a naturally beautiful site without ruining it.
Apart from Doctor Who, Portmeirion has served as the location for many fi lms and
television shows, and is very well known as the fi lming location for the 1960s television
show The Prisoner.

A lot of time and money was spent travelling back and forth between London and North
Wales. With travelling the shoot would take 5 or 6 days and there were no motorways. It
was hard to get horses, props, costumes and make-up vans there.
To keep Portmeirion looking like 15th Century Italy the Director, Rodney Bennett, did
very selective shooting and not many panoramic movements. He used the Italianate
backgrounds and covered up bits that didn’t look right for the period. A fake catacomb
entrance was made to link the studio scenes with Portmeirion. Clough Williams-
Ellis liked the look of the ruins Temple of Demnos and asked the BBC to leave them.
Sadly they were made of polystyrene!
Jim Sangster, a TV Historian, said ‘…..we know
its Portmeirion, but actually when you are
watching it I don’t think that distracts, I don’t
think it gets in the way at all. I’m absolutely
convinced they went to Italy as far as I’m
concerned’ which proves that Portmeirion was
the most convincing place to fi lm The Masque of
Mandragora!
Portmeirion is a calm, tranquil and cool place to
visit and is worth the travel. My favourite part
was paddling in the pool in the Piazza - I was
lucky that it was sunny that day!

Thank you for reading and I hope you will join me again for my next
Doctor Who adventure.

Tom Project Indigo anadventurethroughtimeandspace.com

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