WARNING: This post contains literally no events of any worth.
After a break of four weeks brought on by decreasing funds and a contract at work that meant I actually had to spend some hours there, myself and Su decided to try for more filming. The end of block 1 and some of the start of block 2 were mostly studio bound meaning that real life had returned. I was actually being human and without the supernatural nonsense. Su had already visited the hotel and when I say visited I mean hung around outside but she had been lucky enough to see the series 5 promo shots being taken when she went.
For those who don’t want the their illusion of TV to be broken then look away… now! The Barry Grand Hotel isn’t in Barry, it isn’t very grand but it did used to be a hotel. The Maerdy hotel to be precise. It also isn’t near the sea. It’s next to a main road that runs through Pencoed near Bridgend. Once we arrived things were looking promising. Straight away we saw Stephen Robertson outside who was chatting to a member of the crew but we didn’t say hello and made ourselves ‘comfortable’ on the wall. Not long after we caught a glimpse of the Devil himself Phil Davis go in with his rotten old cardigan. Ryan the 3rd AD came out and was friendly as ever. Su asked if Damien was about. He wasn’t but Su was actually very chilled with this information. I was so proud of her(!). He said that everything was inside today so she handed him a card from the Damien Molony Forum to pass on (to clarify, I am not a member!) and we shrugged off the potential of a wasted day and lived in blind optimism.
< My stump o’plenty
After a while Michael came out dressed in his posh hotel gear. We chatted as he had a fag, in his hands he had the script. He was talking about being a dad any time soon and that he’d bugger off if she went into labour. We read his ‘ASS MAN’ badge but Su said it again, this time with a more intense look on her face, staring and pointing at him and saying ‘ASS MAN!!!” quite loudly. It wasn’t until he went back in that she twigged. I was in hysterics. That was pretty much it for the day. Exciting huh? We did get hopeful of outside filming when they started playing with lights but it turned out they were just facing them inside. The scene that was being filmed was the Tom/Alex/Natasha scene in episode 5 where Tom has “feelings”. Kate appeared outside but there was only time for a hello and the basics, she was too busy for more
< A certain blood stained top. Look!
We severely misjudged the lunch situation. Yes, you can sense the drama about to kick off now can’t you? A lot of the crew were gathering where Hatch’s bedroom was so we thought they were about to break and we didn’t want to hang around while they were eating because that’d be a bit odd.. Even by our standards. Off we went to a shop (you gotta keep things exciting) but when we got back.. guess what? They started having their lunch on the tables outside and we were like ‘AWKWARD’. Michael left, presumably because he’d finished for the day and not because his partner had gone into labour. We went for a walk around the wonderful sights of Pencoed. There are no wonderful sights of Pencoed so the time was made up of laughing at road names.
Once back, a few passers by enquired as to what was being filmed in the hope that ‘Barry Grand Hotel’ meant the return of Gavin & Stacey. As I grew accustomed to on these filming trips, when you tell people it’s for Being Human you generally get a blank look and a ‘never heard of it’. There was an old man in a scooter who had clearly become a favourite with the crew as he scuttled past on the road waving to them and they gleefully waved back as he went further into the middle of the road and closer to death. On his return he engaged us in a deep and meaningful conversation. About shoes. Much as I love talking about shoes, the Bracken had appeared again but I was too polite to say “sod off old man, Kate’s here”. I nearly wasn’t. Next they may also have been filming Alex confronting Hatch at the end of episode 5 when Kate was at a window upstairs and waved down to us but I’m not sure about that one. Not that I’m a geek and would like to know or anything.
Not long after the Bracken said her goodbyes while looking frickin’ gorgeous out of ghost uniform (not OUT OUT of uniform in that way) but we did have a great chat with the brilliant driver Issy who I first met at Tredegar. To be honest he may not be a brilliant driver, I’ve never been in a car with him but he is a brilliant bloke, funny and always happy. We tried to get some future filming information from him without success. Jerry, head of a casting agency was amazed at us for travelling so far and gave us his card mainly because he obviously thought we were beautiful enough for telly.
The afternoon was spent filming the episode four Rook/Hatch card game. It was all VERY indoors as Ryan warned. By 5PM it was getting really cold and we decided to call it a day. There was only so times we could put ‘innit’ at the end of sentences, develop feelings for a tree and sway to the music of Richard Wells before you go a little mad. That was that. We essentially stared at a fictional hotel for about six hours. Jealous aren’t you?
DIGITAL OBSERVATIONS 
Your writing is a joy to read – a woven story of humor and wit even for a not-so-monumental day. These are fun – thanks for posting!