A BRITISH TV star descended on a Towy Valley town this past week to film a new ITV drama.
Locals spotted Martin Clunes and camera crews in Llandovery during the last week, where it was revealed that he was filming his latest ITV drama.
In a post on Facebook, resident Mark Revitt wrote ‘the sheriff is back in town. Martin Clunes filming again in Llandovery.’
He told the South Wales Guardian: “He was filming here around a month, six weeks ago and has been back this week to wrap up filming, finishing today (Friday).
“It will be great for the town and people will be able to spot places they recognise.
“The series sounds interesting too.”
Filming this week took place on Market Square with the former Natwest bank featuring as a bank during filming, with the label Welsh Marches Bank seen on the building front.
The series is called Out There and is a six-part drama that follows Martin Clunes as a widowed farmer called Nathan Williams who tries to save his teenage son Johnny (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) from his situation involved in county lines.
The drama will depict the stealthy, surreptitious invasion of the land that Clunes’ character cherishes, with devastating consequences as his livelihood, homestead and family life are threatened by county lines drug dealers using the British countryside as a field of operations, moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas.
The series was written by screenwriter Ed Whitmore (Steeltown Murders, Grace, Manhunt, Silent Witness, Safe House) and director Marc Evans (Steeltown Murders, Manhunt, The Pembrokeshire Murders, Grav) and is produced by Buffalo Pictures who also produced Manhunt and Doc Martin, which also starred Martin Clunes.
Martin Clunes said: “I’m very happy to be working with Marc Evans and Ed Whitmore again after the success of Manhunt. Out There couldn’t be more different from Doc Martin. It’s pretty dark, but definitely a story worth telling.”
Ed Whitmore said: “County lines is a particularly vicious and ruthless wave of drug dealing that uses fear and violence to coerce, often vulnerable, young people into working as runners and dealers. It has become a serious and rapidly increasing problem across the whole of the UK, so it felt like an important and timely story to tell.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of things being hidden in plain sight and the way in which different social worlds can co-exist cheek-by-jowl until, one day, they collide. The fundamental premise of Out There – a widowed farmer who discovers that his son has fallen foul of county lines – immediately spoke to me as a story I wanted to tell.”
Marc Evans said: “We are thrilled to have the support of Creative Wales to produce Out There in my home country. We are able to explore beautiful and rarely seen areas around the Black Mountains and to use local talent for our cast and crew.”
The series will be premiered on ITV1 in 2024 and will be available to stream on ITVX.
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