Albert Embankment (filming location)
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The Albert Embankment was a filming location used on multiple occasions for Doctor Who, beginning with the season 2 story The Dalek Invasion of Earth [+]Loading...["The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)"].
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Dalek Invasion of Earth[[edit] | [edit source]]
Location filming at the Albert Embankment for the third episode "Day of Reckoning" occurred on the first day of filming for the serial on 23 August 1964.[1][2][3] Taking part in the day's filming were Jacqueline Hill playing Barbara, Ann Davies playing Jenny, Alan Judd playing Dortmun and Dalek operators Robert Jewell, Gerald Taylor, Nick Evans and Ken Tyllsen.[1] The Embankment was one of several locations at which filming took place that morning, with director Richard Martin arranging the schedule in order to get as many shots as possible of the deserted, Dalek-invaded London. The south side of the Embankment was visited for the shoot immediately after filming and a press photocall was completed on Westminster Bridge.[3]
The sequences shot at this location depicted Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun spotting Daleks on Westminster Bridge.[2] The Houses of Parliament, across the River Thames, were used as a backdrop.[3] A point-of-view shot of a Dalek examining the Embankment steps was also filmed[2][3] by Martin with the help of a circular camera mask. After work at the Embankment had been finished, the production team left for further filming at other London landmarks. By 10am, they had arrived at the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park.[3]
The Chase[[edit] | [edit source]]
Doctor Who returned to the Albert Embankment[2][4] on 6 May 1965 as part of a photo montage for the sixth and final episode of The Chase [+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)"], "The Planet of Decision".[1][2][5] By late April, it had been decided that the episode would include two brief live-action film sequences and a photo-montage sequence which showed Ian and Barbara back on Earth after parting ways with the Doctor. As a late addition to the script, filming for this section of the episode was not handled by the director of the rest of the The Chase, Richard Martin,[1] but by Douglas Camfield, director the following serial The Time Meddler [+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (TV story)"][1][5] as part of pre-filming for that story.[5]
On 28 April, Camfield's assistant Cordelia Crawshaw sent a memo to Pauline Mansfield-Clark requesting that she book William Russell and Jacqueline Hill for a photocall on 6 May to take the stills for the montage. Around the same time, Crawshaw confirmed to Joan Jefferies of the Photographic Department a request made by Camfield for her to do the rostrum camera work for this sequence.[1]
After completing rehearsals for the serial's second episode "The Death of Time" earlier that day,[2] Hill and Russell met with Camfield and the session's photographer at BBC Television Centre at 2pm on 6 May.[1][2] According to the itinerary prepared in advance, their first stop by car was the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge area, where stills were to be taken of Big Ben as well as the pair on the bridge, eating fruit from a stall, and drinking Coca-Cola. They next travelled by taxi to Trafalgar Square, then to Piccadilly Circus/Regent Street before ending at the Queensway station end of Hyde Park on Bayswater Road. Expenses incurred during the session included a £0-5-0 tip to a stallholder, £0-2-6 for fruit, £0-2-0 for peanuts, £0-3-0 for hot dogs,[1][2] a £1-0-0 tip to the hired driver, and £0-10-0 for two Serpentine boat tickets.
However, it is unlikely that this itinerary was followed exactly and not all of the planned shots featured in the montage included in the recorded episode.[1] Pictures at the Albert Embankment included in the twenty-three second sequence as broadcast depicted Ian and a fish statue, Barbara on the Embankment, and Ian looking shocked.[2]
