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She is covered in dirt and soot.

There is a serious looking gash on her head with dried blood covering part of her face.

Yet Teresa Palmer’s son is happily playing at her feet and holding on to her leg.

It is just another day at the office for the Australian actress as she shoots A Discovery of Witches - the first big production at Wolf Studios Wales.

Her co-star Matthew Goode stayed in the city on weekdays, but was able to travel back to his family in London on weekends, Ms Palmer and her family moved lock, stock and barrel to Cardiff for the six-month shoot and - should the series get a second season - she would be delighted to return.

The highlights of her time here seem to have been mainly food. Specifically vegan food (a dish from vegan restaurant Anna Loka in particular - and the garlic bread from The Stables in the city centre).

A Discovery of Witches marks a big step in the development of Wales as a centre for the production of top television programmes - "Step Four", according to the show's executive producer and Bad Wolf co-founder, Jane Tranter.

In the beginning

The epicentre of film production in Wales wasn’t meant to be Cardiff.

At the turn of the century the late Sir Richard Attenborough stood on a building site near the M4 between Bridgend and Cardiff and called action on a project dubbed Valleywood.

It was to have 12 studios and create 2,000 jobs. There was talk of a theme park, a hotel and even a rainforest complex. Yet, it took almost a decade for cameras to start rolling there for the first time.

There is no Hollywood studio lot.

In the end it was a Time Lord, not a knight of the realm, who changed television production in Wales. The revitalisation of Doctor Who was a bellwether moment for the industry in this country.

It was in the late 1990s when lifelong Doctor Who fan, the Swansea-born Russell T Davies, who had built his reputation with Queer as Folk, began campaigning to revive the series.

A few years later the BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey, and Ms Tranter, then controller of drama commissioning, wanted to revive the show to air during primetime on Saturday nights.

Julie Gardner had just been appointed the head of drama for BBC Wales and a firm decision was made to locate a major drama in the country, as opposed to London or Manchester. Ms Gardner had previously worked on the TV show Casanova with Mr Davies.

And this Step Two in the development of Wales's film industry (if Step One is the industry before Doctor Who's revival).

The four steps of Wales's developing film industry Step One: The small, local based TV dramas and shows, such as Belonging. Step Two: Doctor Who's decision to revive the show and make it in Wales led to the building of the Roath Lock Studio Step Three: Da Vinci's Demons led the way for US production companies coming to Wales. Will, The Bastard Executioner, and The Collection all followed. Step Four: Bad Wolf opening a permanent site in Wales. Wolf Studios Wales has been used for the production company's TV series based on the book series A Discovery of Witches. It will also be home to the much anticipated adaption of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

At that time, the industry was small. A number of shows were being filmed in the country, particularly Welsh language productions, but Wales failed to attract and keep big productions.

Filming was sporadic and Wales was no match for other areas outside of London, such as the north west or Scotland.

“Wales always felt like it was the problem child,” said Ms Tranter.

“Actually, I think problem children are the best children to have - but I also think that if you have a problem child you need to love it more than the others. You have to make it the apple of your eye.”

It was for that reason she believed the Welsh production and creative community needed an opportunity to fly.

“You treat people like swans and they behave like swans, you treat them like geese and they behave like geese,” she added.

“There was no reason why the Welsh production community couldn't be swans and, my God, they really were. They showed the world, not just the UK, what they could do.”

(Image: ECH) (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Edward Thomas, a production designer who worked on Doctor Who, Torchwood and Da Vinci’s Demons, says: "There had always been great drama made in Wales but Jane Tranter's decision to work with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner on Doctor Who and to film it in Wales was the catalyst for the success of drama in Wales as we know it today.”

Such was the impact of Doctor Who - and its spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures - that construction began on a new BBC studio in Cardiff Bay.

Roath Lock, a purpose-built 175,000 square foot facility, the equivalent in size to three football pitches, is home to nine studios.

Work began in mid-2010 and by the following summer Casualty had shifted its production to Cardiff, following 25 years in Bristol.

In 2012 the Welsh-language soap opera Pobol y Cwm made the move across the city to the new facility.

Dr Caitriona Noonan, a lecturer at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, was part of a team from the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations that wrote a report called Television Drama Production in Wales: BBC Wales, Roath Lock Studios.

The study found the monopoly of the three shows - Pobol y Cwm, Doctor Who and Casualty – at the studio led to a feeling there is not enough drama made at the studio which is explicitly Welsh in its setting, dialogue, casting or themes.

The point was also made by Dr Nina Jones, lecturer in contemporary media at Cardiff Metropolitan University, in a recent article for The Conversation . She wrote: "But apart from the occasional Welsh accent in Casualty or mention of Wales in a small number of Doctor Who episodes, by and large, these dramas are set 'elsewhere'. They do not directly represent a Welsh way of life. Even if Wales’s beauty is seen as an asset by BBC producers, Welsh issues have not been deemed worthy to commission shows for national audiences."

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Pre-Doctor Who, viewers of BBC Wales could tune in to shows set in Wales like Belonging. But, as Dr Jones points out, such programmes would have to prove their worth on regional scheduling first and "regionally broadcast shows such as these have been in decline in more recent years in favour of networked programming".

Dr Jones added: "Perhaps the most promising of the BBC’s (and S4C’s) commitment to Wales and Welsh drama in recent years has come from Hinterland/Y Gwyll and Keeping Faith/Un Bore Mercher. Both dramas are set in contemporary Wales, have been produced independently in collaboration with the BBC/S4C, and were broadcast in both English and Welsh.

"Dramas such as these may not be fervently waving the Welsh flag, but their tackling of universal themes such as love and betrayal from a Welsh lens or through a Welsh mode of address is incredibly important. Rather than relying on comic stereotypes or bit parts, these programmes represent a modern Wales."

Dr Noonan also said that, with Roath Lock predominately occupied by BBC productions, the industry needs to be attracting more independent TV production companies to the country to film.

A BBC Wales production that benefited greatly from the success of Doctor Who, utilising many cast and crew from the sci-fi show and its spin-offs was the regional drama Baker Boys.

The series, written by Helen Raynor and Gary Owen, had Russell T Davies involved as a consultant and executive producer. Baker Boys was set in the South Wales valleys, telling the story of a small community coping with the sudden closure of a local factory. It was partly inspired by the Tower colliery buy out.

"It was a key opportunity for some crew members who had started in very junior roles on those shows [Doctor Who and Torchwood] to step up to more senior roles," said Ms Raynor.

"As a writer who had contributed four episodes of Doctor Who and two episodes of Torchwood to BBC Wales, it was a chance for me to create my own original drama.

"We were thrilled to put welsh life and characters on screen, for a welsh audience."

Iestyn Garlick, the chair of TAC (Teledwyr Annibynnol Cymru), which has represented the Welsh independent TV production sector, is concerned for the future of local productions and says that too much money had been wasted in the past on projects such as Valleywood.

"There is a Welsh saying that you should start at your feet if you want to clear a field," he said.

"I never get the impression the Assembly - or whatever we are calling it nowadays - wants to do that, they always want to look over and be with the big boys. I just feel - how many millions have they spent and gone and not come back?"

Mr Garlick sees Welsh language TV production as a continual, uphill battle.

"What I would like, in an ideal world, is that I am not continually having to justify the fact I want to make a television programme in my own first language. I find it weird that I have to do that all the time," he says.

There are now a number of TV shows filmed in Wales, but shot back-to-back in English and Welsh. Mr Garlick believes this method can leave viewers a little short-changed.

"A lot of ‘thinking’ goes on in these back-to-back things," he said.

"That's for the simple reason that you don't have to do them twice. You can look as if you're thinking in Welsh and English at the same time. A car chase is a car chase, so there will always be long complicated chases in all these things."

Mr Garlick sees the economic argument in working this way, and is grateful for the money and jobs it brings, but he would like to see more multilingual shows.

"If you want to reflect a true picture of how Wales actually is you have to do that," he says. But then, as he acknowledges, if you do that on S4C, you might have a problem with the amount of English.

Bad Wolf was set up by Ms Tranter and Ms Gardner in 2015. Before that, they had moved to Los Angeles to set up and run a production company for BBC Worldwide, creating BBC Worldwide Productions and Adjacent Productions for the Corporation. In 2009 they were tasked with finding a suitable location to film the series Da Vinci’s Demons.

Ms Tranter convinced Starz, the network producing the historical fantasy drama series, to film the show in Wales, despite there being no tax breaks in the UK at the time.

For the show, the former Ford and Visteon factory on Fabian Way just outside Swansea was converted into 15th-century Florence. Bay Studios became home to the production, which was the first collaboration between Starz and BBC Worldwide.

It was the highest rated premiere weekend ever for a Starz Original series. Such was its immediate success a second series was ordered straight away. The show ran for three series, between 2013 and 2015.

(Image: Publicity Handout) (Image: South Wales Evening Post) (Image: Western Mail Archive)

The production was a boost for local businesses, with construction firms, local hotels and taxi firms getting in on the action. And crew who had gained experience on the BBC shows, such as Doctor Who, were also there to work on the production.

Ms Gardner, who is originally from nearby Neath, said in an interview with The Guardian in 2013: “It was very peculiar: Da Vinci's Demons in Swansea? All the actors, when they got phoned up by their agents, thought, 'Hooray! We're going to Florence!' and then found they were in fact going to Swansea.”

Although Da Vinci’s Demons never became a truly huge show, it showed in terms of production values what Wales could do. It was the start of Step Three.

Then, the UK introduced tax breaks and the Welsh Government opened up grants, making the country a very attractive proposition for US productions. TV production in Wales was being taken to another level.

Dragon International Film Studios - as Valleywood had become known - starting hosting productions. In 2015, Pinewood Studios opened an outpost in Wales.

Big-scale US TV shows were now commonplace in Wales. Shows such as The Bastard Executioner, Will, The Collection, and Britannia were all made in Wales.

Having these big productions hosted in Wales was great for bringing jobs, directly and indirectly, to the industry. But they were sporadic. To build the production industry in Wales there needed to be guaranteed, continuous production. This would take the industry to Step Four.

“It is brilliant to have that American money coming in with those productions,” said Ms Tranter.

“But unless you are making it your base, unless you're making a commitment 52 weeks a year of being and making stuff in Wales you can't guarantee growth of the industry.”

So that is what Ms Tranter and Ms Gardner have done.

Their TV production company, Bad Wolf - named after the story arc in the first Doctor Who series - is co-located in Wales and West Hollywood.

(Image: Wales Online)

At Bad Wolf’s studio, Wolf Studios Wales, Ms Tranter talks through the first series of His Dark Materials, the next big production on the slate for the studio following A Discovery of Witches.

The project is ambitious and, fair to say, unlike anything that has been filmed in Wales before. It is big. Maybe even Game of Thrones big.

The Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper, of The King’s Speech, is understood to be close to signing on to direct the eight-part series. And the toast of Broadway, the man behind the hit show Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is close to signing a deal to portray balloonist and adventurer Lee Scoresby, while the upcoming Hollywood star of Logan, Dafne Keen, is believed to be cast in the main role of Lyra.

Bad Wolf is also rumoured to be partnering with HBO, Sky and Emma Thompson on Harrow Alley. The 17th century-set series is, according to Deadline, in the early stages of development. The US producer Lindsay Doran has purchased the rights to the script and asked for Bad Wolf to be involved.

As big budget international dramas Bad Wolf have also made a Welsh Language short for S4C Beddgelert, which won best short at the 2017 Kino Film Festival.

The process for Ms Tranter and Ms Gardner has been a long one - from first embracing the “problem child” of Wales to setting up a permanent home in the country.

But for the TV production industry to benefit to the country’s economy it needs stability. In the past, people wanting to work in TV knew they would have to leave to find work.

“If you are going to turn round and say come and train with us, or work with us, you need to be pretty damn sure you are going to have jobs for people at the end of the day,” she says.

“If you are going to say to people 'OK, don't go outside of Wales to find this work, stay here', you need to be pretty sure you will be able to offer work 52 weeks of the year.”

That is their ambition.

(Image: Bad Wolf /SKY)

Speaking on St David’s Day, Wales’ Economy Secretary Ken Skates said latest figures indicated that productions filmed in Wales with Welsh Government assistance will result in around an estimated additional £55m being injected into Wales’s economy in 2017/18, continuing an upward trajectory for the sector. He said the Welsh Government had taken “a conscious decision to grow our creative sector” and was “working hard to attract high-end TV and film productions to Wales”.

He said that for every £1 the Welsh Government invests into TV and film production, an average of £8 ends up being spent within the Welsh economy.

The Welsh Government’s Media Investment Budget provides commercial funding for TV and film productions on the condition that productions shoot at least 50% of their production in Wales and that 35%- 40% of their below the line production budget is spent in Wales.

In addition, the Welsh Government’s Wales Screen Fund provides funding to support audio-visual projects in Wales by providing crew, locations and facilities support.

The trickle down could benefit other businesses. When Wolf Studios was converted from the former Nippon Glass factory in Cardiff Bay, nearly all the companies that worked on the build were from Wales.

While on a tour of the studios Natasha Hale, Bad Wolf chief operating officer, pointed out the vans and lorries with the company names and contact details all local.

The trailer where Teresa Palmer was looking after her son between takes came from Facilities by ADF up the road in Bridgend. The catering is by Cardiff-based company Scene Cuisine, who have worked on a number of the big shows filmed in Wales.

(Image: Publicity Picture)

Such has been the growth of the industry in Wales the lighting rental equipment firm Panalux opened an office here. And the set construction company 4Wood TV and Film was founded in 2005 and has grown along with the industry in Wales.

The idea that you could work in the production industry and stay in Wales once seemed fanciful. James North, a production designer, could almost be a poster boy for training and working in Wales.

As a student at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama he went to Doctor Who for work experience and has since worked on Da Vinci’s Demons, A Discovery of Witches and is preparing for His Dark Materials. He has not only worked on these projects but has grown his career.

He is now interviewing for crew for the upcoming project and is amazed at the talent that is in Wales - talent that until now went away to work.

“I am meeting people who have been travelling around the world the last 20 years of their career working all over the shop on amazing big TV shows and films and turns out they live in Llandaff or Penylan; they’ve never worked in Wales in their lives,” he says.

And the new projects are not only keeping people in Wales to work but have also encouraged some to move across the bridge.

Rebecca Duncan, who is currently working on the third season of the Sky One drama Lucky Man, first made a working trip across the Severn for Doctor Who.

That job was just a few weeks for Ms Duncan. But a much longer stint working on the shoot of the second series of Ordinary Lies for Red Production made her seriously contemplate relocating.

"The idea to move to Cardiff entered my head as I was working on Ordinary Lies," she explains

"I enjoyed the city - it was cleaner, cheaper and easier to get around in comparison with London. And my father was also born here."

Ms Duncan says it is perhaps too early to determine the impact on moving to Wales has had on her career, but says she would not have moved if the prospects of work had been fewer.

"I was aware of the many studios, from Swansea to Bristol, being in full use and the building and opening of new studios," she says.

"There are fewer costume designers in the region than in London and that may mean we might be approached first for locally based projects, rather than having to accommodate someone from out of town.

"I think it is brilliant that the abundance of studio spaces means that more productions are able to be based across the region. I also think the local crew make the industry what it is here, plentiful and skilled. They are the other main reason that new productions are drawn to the area."

Ms Duncan first came to Wales through Penarth-based Gems Agency, which represents film crew staff and heads of department. Gems acquired Creative Casting last year to offer production companies people in front of the camera as well as behind.

"Over last few years it has become apparent that you don't have to move to London to be in the industry," says the company’s David Sterl.

"Wales is attracting attention from all over the world."

And what of the future? There is a worry, for some, that the big US productions could price out smaller Welsh productions.

Ms Tranter says the aim of the Wolf Studios project is to help the industry in Wales grow and that people who work at the studio will also have the opportunity to go and work on other productions.

The studio has introduced training schemes to bring people into the industry and has an education centre to introduce children to the possibility of working in the industry.

Ms Hale recalls one nine-year-old who wants to be a carpenter when he grows up after a visit to the studios. The hope is that these children or people on the training programmes will have more than just Wolf Studios to work at.

Although Ms Tranter does not say what the next steps are, she has said in the past that she believes Wales could be a world leader within a decade.

Alex Ritman, UK correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, envisions further growth in Wales.

"With London’s studio space - even with ongoing expansions - continuing to burst at the seams, south Wales has all the potential to capitalise, especially in the world of high-end TV. And it seems to have been doing so rather well.

"In fact, the manner in which the industry soon sprung up after Doctor Who moved to the area in 2005 is a model others are looking to replicate – Ireland is hoping the same will happen around Limerick’s Troy Studios on the west coast thanks to George RR Martin’s upcoming supernatural thriller Nightflyers, which recently got a full series order from Netflix.

"With Hollywood studios looking to shift much of their productions to the UK thanks to favourable tax credits and the falling value of the pound, the next obvious step for south Wales is to create the space for major feature films."