So, where were we? A couple of weeks previously I’d seen a night shoot AND been filmed so that should have been that. Right? Nah, there was something niggling at my brain, something a crew member had said about filming “an accident” in Barry and there were a couple of other clues too. Dorina and myself put our ‘facts’ together through twitter and decided to risk it. We went to Barry in the hope that there was location filming. I’d never met Dorina before but I knew I was in the company of an expert BH stalker. Stalker? I meant.. fan. We got off the train at Barry and we met Kath there. She didn’t seem hopeful that anything was going on at the location for Honolulu Heights so we waited awkwardly at the bottom of the hill trying to see if anything was going on. Soon enough Pete the runner came down to say we were in the way as they were doing shots of the road (that day they filmed all the daytime shots of HH for the fifth series). Pete remembered me from Tredegar and was polite as ever so we decided to take the long route, up behind the house. Sure enough, once we got to the side there stood Kate Bracken, Michael Socha and Damien Molony. We’d hit the jackpot!! Michael waved over at us because he knows Kath and once they started shooting we stood in front of the house to get out the way.
Today was basically all about ‘pick ups’ The first ‘scene’ they shot was Hal and Tom walking up the road.
Tom: Now there’s two to of us out of a job
Hal: I think you mean, thank you.
To us, this was them getting sacked from the series 4 cafe as we knew they wouldn’t be there. It turned out to be the hotel and in episode 2 they actually used those lines but they were walking out of the hotel instead of this shot. The strange thing about seeing filming is it makes you speculate way too much because you’re only getting snippets.
Damien and Michael came over to us and said hello. When Damien offered his hand and said “Hello, I’m Damien” I wanted to say “Yes, I know!! I’M WATCHING BEING HUMAN FILMING OUTSIDE HONOLULU!!” but I didn’t thankfully. They asked where we came from and when I said Devon one reaction was “Really?” and the other was “FOR THIS?!”. Dorina kept quiet about how far she had travelled for obvious reasons. We had a chat for a bit and had photos taken. Michael showed us the werewolf scars on the back of his head and they were called away for some more shots. Kate then chatted to us for a bit but was called over soon after just as I was about to ask for a photo. Anyone would think she had work to do or something.. Kath also had work to doooooo so it was just myself and Dorina left. The next bit they shot was used in episode two. Hal saying to Tom “welcome to Democracy” and Alex shouting “We’re having a paaarty!”
Between takes Michael and Damien were having a good time. Throughout the day Socha was ‘directing’ through traffic cones, lying in the middle of the road, and having lots of fags supplied by the security man (who at one stage actually invited myself and Dorina to be in a porno. I’m not making that up).
They hadn’t closed off the road and I was surprised at the amount of traffic that passed through during the day. Early on a big truck with ‘Mitchell Potatoes’ in big bold letters stuttered past. Molony, watched it roll by, shrugged his shoulders and with perfect timing shouted “HE’S DEAD! For God’s sake people, GET OVER IT!”” much to everyone’s delight. It wasn’t easy shooting with all the traffic and not to mention pedestrians going about their normal day, glancing over and interested because there’s a film crew but walking on when they realised it wasn’t for James Corden. During one take of a ‘pick up’, someone got out of their car further up the hill and cracked a whip a few times loudly (yes, a whip) and laughed “sorry”. The crew just glared at him.
And then they went to lunch and Lloyd Elis, the director for the day said they’d be shooting an online scene after. We asked security where they were going for lunch, not for stalker reasons but so we didn’t end up in the same place – HOW WEIRD WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN?! On returning, we asked Pete where he wanted us so we were out of the way and we sat on the wall and saw the best bit of filming of the day. What we later would know to be ‘Hex Club 7’
Due to the traffic from the nearby main road we couldn’t make out every word. We got Tom coming out the house saying “she’s tricked us” and Hal asking Alex what was on the list and we clearly heard Kate’s fake crying though this took a while as it was mostly real laughter. We couldn’t make out what Hal was holding at the start though. Between takes Michael and Damien were passionately singing ‘Reach’ by S Club 7. It was very funny but we had no idea it was connected to what they were shooting. there was a moment when Damien looked over to us waving from the garden and he had a little laugh to himself, probably thinking “they are total mentalists”. This scene took nearly three hours to film (only some of which was Kate’s laughing) and filmed from a few angles. At one stage we had to move to the side of the house and it was weird when the cast popped out and stood with us between takes. I made a joke to them, it got a slight laugh and then I thought it best to shut up. Wisely.
Lot’s of non talking shots followed. Walking into the house, walking or storming out of the house, that kind of thing (one of which was used for a whole THREE seconds in episode one!). Dorina totally spotted that the paperwork Alex was holding related to the Men In Grey. Good work. The last shots were Hal moodily walking up the hill and slamming the door. It was interesting to see Damien warming up for it, getting into that frame of mind.
So that was that, Michael and Kate waved their goodbyes, Damien came over for a farewell chat and then we had a brilliant and interesting 15 minute chat with Lloyd Elis who has been an assistant director on the show since series 2. A great end to an awesome day and I can’t finish this post without a thank you to Dorina – thank you Dorina!
I had to get home for the next day at work so missed out on Barry seafront and funfair filming but I’d be back on Thursday in the hope of some more outside stuff – maybe even this ‘accident’. So yes, I went home to Exeter (HOW FAR?!) and the cast went onto Cardiff Bay to have drinkies with a certain Toby Whithouse. We really should have got a lift with them.
DIGITAL OBSERVATIONS 
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