Huge "The Idiot's Lantern" Set/Photo Report

Emma Sandrey

Because of lecture times I arrived significantly later today to the set. When I arrived Piper and Sam were there, looking very excited. And no wonder. David Tennant was filming a scene right that very minute. It involved the Doctor talking to a man while a couple of kids ran up and down the street. I should mention the road had tables lined down it, obviously set up for a street party. They suddenly stopped and the Doctor looked forward [in our direction] and shouted "Run!" while bolting down the street, right at us. I don't know how many times this was done.

Several other scenes were rehearsed/filmed during the day. The next featured a man sat at one of the tables in the road while the same couple of kids played in the background. They were then called inside by who I assume was their parents. This scene was repeated about 4 times, during which a black Rolls Royce drove past ominously in the background.

Nothing much happened for a few hours after this. David and Billie were sat on a wall outside one of the houses that was dressed, chatting away. They looked over to where the crowd was huddled a few times and Billie was laughing an awful lot. There was a lot of looking over at them and then bashfully looking away when they appeared to be looking in our direction. It would be really interesting to know what they were talking about. Probably something along the lines of "I don't like the look of that one over there."

Anyway, they appeared to be waiting for it to get dark because once it did they started rehearsing once more. The scene involved the Doctor and Rose knocking on the door of a house and saying "hi!" [in a very camp sort of way] to the man who answered the door. The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper and said something about needing to check something. They then barged in, leaving the houseowner flabergastered, though he soon followed in after them. This was done about 5 times.

At which point David and Billie left. Billie thanked the crew so we assumed they were done for the day. However one more scene was filmed involving a Rolls Royce pulling up to the same house. Four men got out of the car, two standing on the pavement facing one of the upstairs windows rather threateningly [or so it looked]. After about 3 takes of that shot all the lights came down and the crew wrapped up.



Paul Robinson

Managed to catch half hour of filming on my lunch break today. The scene was a street party with Rose & The Doctor walking up the table, the Doctor grabbing cakes and easting them along the way. A boy of about 12 stood between them for a couple of lines before Billie patted him on the shoulder and he went off to join the dancing. The Doctor picked up two glasses of orangeade, gave one to Rose, they clinked them in a toast and that was it! Couldn't hear anything...

Ian Golden

I was on set for four hours today in Florentia Street in Cathays, Cardiff, posing as a Florenza Street, Muswell Hill, where “The Idiot’s Lantern” was being filmed. I saw five scenes being filmed, all of which were set around a street party to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. No real spoilers at all, it was all part goings-on and conversations between the Doctor and Rose and other cast members, all of which were too far away to hear. Oh and the Doctor dances… again!

John Campbell Rees

Today the crew was busy filming a Coronation Day street party in Florentia Street, for Mark Gatiss' episode "The Idiot's Lantern". It was a beautifully bright day today, which might have been a problem as I have told the Coronation Day was dull and overcast 52 years ago. As it turned out, the tressel tables that had been erected along the centre of the road were deep in shadow all afternoon and large lights were needed for filming. I suppose this will help give the appearance of a greyer day.

The sunshine was deceptive, as it was bitterly cold all afternoon. The extras were all dressed for a summers day in the 1950's, so were visibly shivering between takes, and they would quickly don thick padded coats to keep warm. The fact that the door of 44, Florentia Street has a modern white uPVC plastic door. In later scenes on this was covered by a more authentic looking fake red wooden door. On the road is a coating of gravel to hide the contemporary road markings. This was regularly damped down to prevent it slipping and to help it blend in with the existing tarmac surface of the road. One photograph show the Block 4 director, Euros Lyn watching a shot being recorded on a bank of monitors. The fourth photograph shows Billie Piper relaxing and chatting to one of the guest actors, (I didn't catch his name, but he had been present at the scenes I saw being recorded on Tuesday). It shows how sedentary modern children have become by the fact that the young extras did not know how to play hopscoth on the grid drawn on the road. It also shows how busy our roads have become in the intervening six decades that children could play such games on a road and not have to worry about being run over.

To help the actors get into the party mood, Lonnie Donegan's hit "Rock Island Line" was played over the loudspeakers during takes. However, I hope that in post production, this anachronistic 1955 single will be replaced with something more contemporary. Once again Billie Piper and David Tennant appear to be enjoying filming. At one point they spontaniously broke into a jive along the middle of Florentia Street. The final thing to be recorded at the end of the week's filming at this location was what appeared to be a night-time establishing shot, showing what is meant to be Florizel Street in Muswell Hill, North London on a dark rainy night. This involved a camera on a crane, and a curious rig with six sprinklers on an arm suspended fifty feet above street level pumping out gallons and gallons of water to the ground below. Only in showbussiness is it neccessary to fake rain in a City that receives between 75 to 80 inches of the stuff naturarly throughout the year.

Emma Sandrey

I arrived at Florentia Street around 10am when it was all relatively quiet. Things seemed a lot more relaxed in the morning in comparison to the afternoon, by which time there were many more people plus paparazzi. The first scene I saw was simply the Doctor and Rose riding the blue scooter up the road - with the Doctor sporting some very fetching shades.

Then we were told they were to film further down by the TARDIS. We managed to get pretty close while the next scene was being rehearsed - the Doctor ran out of the TARDIS [with his coat on] with a cable/wire around his neck. A boy walked/ran with him carrying equipment [though I couldn't tell exactly what it was]. The Doctor shouted something like "I've got it. Let's get started!". However we were moved backward when the scene was actually being filmed [though being so close before meant being able to get great shots of the TARDIS and David!]. The scene was repeated about 3 times.

The biggest scene was the one they spent the longest on - another street party sequence with music and food and drink. Lots of extras were milling around talking and dancing while the Doctor and Rose walked up the road. A few takes were done prior to lunch - we were allowed pretty close when watching at this point though later, after lunch, when further takes were done we were kept much further away. The scene ended with the Doctor and Rose chinking glasses which made some of us feel like perhaps this was the last sequence of the episode. They also filmed lots of stuff with extras walking in and the Doctor and Rose exiting while dancing. This was done variably about 7 times. I left soon after it started getting dark. We were told that David and Billie had left. The only scene left to do had something to do with water.