Sherlock: A Study in Locationing (8) St Woolos Cemetery, Newport pt 1

[quarryquest]

As you know, from the posts I put up earlier in the week, I spent a long weekend in South Wales location hunting around Cardiff and its environs. I will cover that later, today it is the turn of Newport, which is next door to Cardiff and has the second most important Sherlock location after Bart's hospital; the cemetery where our hero is (not)

Comments

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Very cool! It looks like an interesting cemetery to visit in and of itself. (I like to walk through cemeteries, but I feel a bit odd doing it; I'm always afraid I'll be intruding. I now live fairly new one that I haven't walked around yet.)

The chapel looks really interesting, too, and we could only see a little bit on the screen. I like your pictures of it.

Maybe someday I'll get back to Wales. I was there once, for a couple of days, half a lifetime ago.

[vjezkova]

Great work! Really, you must have a special instinct for these things. It is so delicate...and very precise. And HIGHLY INTERESTING! Wow, I wish I could do the locationing with you!
So many interesting/lovely places! So many information I would never be able to get anywhere!!!

Nice work!

[themadblonde]

& really good pictures. Looks like a most interesting place to visit.

[swissmarg]

Very interesting. I especially like how you found out how they made the grave look like it was recently dug.

The Angel

[ext_1642030]

Hi Ruth,
have you seen the angel at the cemetery? It´s good to be seen here on your forelast photograph, that one, where Mrs. Hudson leaves John alone for a while. It´s behind John, right of him, and during the last Reichenbach-scenes it´s very often very obviously placed in the film pictures. I always thought this was purposely done - Sherlock on "the side of the angels". Do you know who or better what the angel statue is/shows in real?
I really envy your tours, they must have been exciting! Thanks for sharing....

Re: The Angel

[quarryquest]

There has been a lot of discussion about that prop angel. I realised it was put there on purpose fairly early on (doesn't look like a real one at all). They must have been used (those black small marble things too that would hold flowers if they were on real graves as well) to fill in a rather large area of open grassy lawn. The tree under which Sherlock was 'buried' would prevent any graves nearby because of its root system. That was the first thing I thought when I saw it there.

That line about the angels has made me scratch my head too(there was a lot of odd wording in the roof scene conversation both in English and French) but I was wondering if putting it there was possibly a side comment about the other Weeping Angels Steven Moffat wrote about.

Re: The Angel

[ext_1642030]

Oh, I didn´t realize that it´s not in your fotos.... so the angel is not there in real cemetery life!? As usual I see, but don´t observe.
Then it´s clearly purposely positioned there. I don´t know Steven Moffat´s Weeping Angels - but there could be a nod, too -, but I am defenitely convinced now, that the angel shows the development in Sherlock´s character. As Moffat once said (and there are a lot of quotes in "Sherlock", too): We should see Sherlock developing into a human, caring person. With his sacrifice on St. Bart´s rooftop he went definetely on the side of the angels, through Moriarty he found his destination. Something like that, no matter, how high the percentage of genuine sacrifice was (I know there is a big discussion in the net - tears were genuine or not, why did he jump and so on). But sometimes things don´t exclude the other.

Re: The Angel

[quarryquest]

I'm a cynic and remain so even with the old 'suspension of disbelief' thing going when I am watching TV drama. I knew exactly what the writers were up to in this series when I realised what the final episode was going to be.

They worked on the human side so it would hurt more. I often quote Steven Moffat to the Media Studies students when I lecture on drama etc ''It's just a TV show; only the emotional damage is real'. He is a master it this, knows exactly how to make things painful, and I hate him for it ;-P.

I just wish the writers weren't do blatantly obviously using the Christ in Holy Week storyline. Having Ben fall off that roof with his arms out in a crucifix was a bit too much!