Excitement in town!
Apr. 16th, 2026 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heleninwalesA film company was filming in town yesterday and today. It's not a TV company. It appears to be a feature film starring Anthony Hopkins. Apparently it is based on a story by Dylan Thomas and will be called "A Visit to Grandpa's".
We knew that some streets in town would be closed during the filming, but what we hadn't been aware of was that the cafe where we meet every Wednesday to chat in Welsh would also be closed. Late night emails flew around informing everyone and we decided to move to a different cafe, Y Sospan (The Saucepan).
I drove to the Eurospar supermarket and parked then walked down into town where I found that people were blocking the road and some giant lights had been erected.
Another view, this time showing an old cart. As you can see, curious locals were standing around the edge of the square.
The shop fronts had had old-fashioned signs erected over their normal shop fronts. All except for one. I actually laughed out loud when I zoomed in on the photo and saw that Siop Hughes was completely unaltered, apart from the items in window display, which were slightly more old-fashioned than usual.
I could have done with this a few weeks ago when the weekly alphabet theme was "Jalopy"!
I made my way round the back streets to the entrance to Y Sospan and looked inside. None of our group were seated at any of the tables on the ground floor, though by then it was past 10 a.m., our nominal start time. I climbed the steep and rather uneven stairs (it's a very old building) to the upper floor and found myself surrounded by extras in costume!
I made my way back outside and, after hanging around for a few minutes, met a group member who said that she couldn't join us but that M was now in the cafe. We ordered our pots of tea and took them upstairs where, ignoring the extras, we bagged a table at the far end. So it was rather a surreal meeting. There were six of us sitting around a table chatting in Welsh while extras came and went, summoned by youths with walkie-talkies and taken off somewhere, only to return to help themselves to a drink and snack later.
Then when it came time to leave, a youth wouldn't let us out through the door until we heard the word, "Cut!" issuing from his walkie-talkie.
Today the local Facebook groups were full of photos of Anthony Hopkins who was shaking hands and having his photo taken with people. But as I said, we were walking in the forest, so missed all that.
We knew that some streets in town would be closed during the filming, but what we hadn't been aware of was that the cafe where we meet every Wednesday to chat in Welsh would also be closed. Late night emails flew around informing everyone and we decided to move to a different cafe, Y Sospan (The Saucepan).
I drove to the Eurospar supermarket and parked then walked down into town where I found that people were blocking the road and some giant lights had been erected.
Another view, this time showing an old cart. As you can see, curious locals were standing around the edge of the square.
The shop fronts had had old-fashioned signs erected over their normal shop fronts. All except for one. I actually laughed out loud when I zoomed in on the photo and saw that Siop Hughes was completely unaltered, apart from the items in window display, which were slightly more old-fashioned than usual.
I could have done with this a few weeks ago when the weekly alphabet theme was "Jalopy"!
I made my way round the back streets to the entrance to Y Sospan and looked inside. None of our group were seated at any of the tables on the ground floor, though by then it was past 10 a.m., our nominal start time. I climbed the steep and rather uneven stairs (it's a very old building) to the upper floor and found myself surrounded by extras in costume!
I made my way back outside and, after hanging around for a few minutes, met a group member who said that she couldn't join us but that M was now in the cafe. We ordered our pots of tea and took them upstairs where, ignoring the extras, we bagged a table at the far end. So it was rather a surreal meeting. There were six of us sitting around a table chatting in Welsh while extras came and went, summoned by youths with walkie-talkies and taken off somewhere, only to return to help themselves to a drink and snack later.
Then when it came time to leave, a youth wouldn't let us out through the door until we heard the word, "Cut!" issuing from his walkie-talkie.
Today the local Facebook groups were full of photos of Anthony Hopkins who was shaking hands and having his photo taken with people. But as I said, we were walking in the forest, so missed all that.
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Date: 2026-04-16 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-16 05:38 pm (UTC)Roedd profiad diddorol. Rwy'n dwlu am Ddolgellau - mae'n hynafol a phert.
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Date: 2026-04-16 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-16 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-16 10:05 pm (UTC)