.png)
4 days ago
3
The Welsh capital is often used as a setting for film and television drama, as are the country’s mountains, forests and coastlines, but a city sometimes seen as Cardiff’s poorer relative is starring in a new Welsh-language Celtic noir drama.
Newport, with its muddy river and post-industrial landscape, is the backdrop for Ar y Ffin (meaning on the edge or on the border), a twisty tale of a magistrate who uncovers a web of criminality, putting her and her family at risk.
Hannah Thomas, the series producer, said Newport, perhaps best known for its transporter bridge, was always seen as central to the show. “I think we’re showing Newport in a really unexpected light. Visually we’ve gone after the harsh lines of the architecture. Tonally, we’ve leant into the mudflats and we’ve tried to make a show that feels urban and authentic.
“Visually, it’s a gorgeous city. It’s my shame I’ve not spent that much time there, even though I’m 10 or 15 minutes away in Cardiff. You tend to go through it on the train, but it’s really beautiful and lovely. The people are unfailingly friendly and have enjoyed having us around, and I think it’s great to put a lens on somewhere that hasn’t been photographed before.”
Cardiff is often used for TV dramas, including Doctor Who, while Eyri (Snowdonia) in north, Pembrokeshire in the west and another industrial town, Port Talbot, have proved irresistible backdrops for a series of Celtic crime dramas such as Steeltown Murders.
As well as the river and transporter bridge, Newport’s art deco civic centre with its frescoes by the artists Hans Feibusch and Phyllis Bray, telling the story of the city, is a star location.
Thomas said the position of Newport, perched near the border with England, was important. “All border towns have a sense of lawlessness, don’t they? Westerns are always border towns. There’s something about being on the edge that just invites interesting characters and strange dynamics. Many locations in Wales have been seen to death and it’s just lovely to kind of find something new.”
The writers, Georgia Lee, a magistrate in south London, and Hannah Daniel, were keen to use Newport because of its cityscape and they have tried to hook into the sensibility of the people.
They saw the city of Newport as a central character in the drama, especially the muddy river. Lee said: “The expanse of the mudflats, it’s just such an amazing image. And our main character, Claire, is this striving person who’s got a kind of muddy history, and she’s trying to climb out of that. We have this image of this woman, this striving, heroic woman, standing between the mudflats and the courthouse and that was a kind of jumping-up point.”
They spent hours sitting in the public gallery of Newport magistrates court for their research. Lee said: “It’s got an amazing atmosphere because you’ll be incredibly moved or sad, and then suddenly there’s moments of levity and humour.”
While the courtroom drama is a tried and tested format, the focus is not usually not magistrates courts. Lee said: “I love the genre stories, but I’ve never seen one in the retiring room with magistrates, even though it’s this ancient thing that we’ve had for hundreds of years.”
Daniel said: “What we write has that South Walian sensibility and that dark, gallows humour. We laugh at ourselves a lot and we wanted to reflect that. I’m from Cardiff and Georgia’s from Bristol, so Newport [sitting between the two cities] is our meeting point.
“Newport has forever been Cardiff’s poorer relative, this kind of forgotten city, but I think it’s got so much. My friends are from Newport, and they have very specific humour and resilience.”
Erin Richards, who has appeared in the Batman origins show Gotham and The Crown, plays the lead, magistrate and mother Claire Lewis Jones. She said: “I have spent a lot of my acting career in America, which is also brilliant, but there was something really nice about coming home to Wales.”
-
Ar y Ffin will be aired on 29 December on the Welsh language channel S4C. A box set will also be available on S4C Clic and BBCiPlayer from then. It will air as Mudtown on UKTV’s crime drama channel U&alibi next year.
