Locations Children of Earth: Day Four

 

Children of Earth: Day Four was broadcast 9 Jul 2009 

Due to the current pandemic, it would be unwise to travel out to any of these places. Best wait until everything has returned to relative normality…. whenever that is. 

West Bute Street, Cardiff 

Jack and Ianto are on their way to Thames House when they hit traffic and walk.

 

Heading out from the Millennium Centre again, this is a 4-minute walk. Heading west towards Bute Place/A4119 turn left onto Bute Place and turn right onto Bute Street. Take a left where you'll pass Bumpybox Animation Studio. At the end of the road, turn right and you have reached your destination. There's a coffee and wine bar along this road, might be needed after your stroll - all of 4 minutes!!! Unsure in these times, if it will be open though.

Ship Lane, Cardiff 

The narrow alleyway that takes Jack and Ianto onto Thames House, to face down the 456.

 

It's interesting when you look at online maps, that lead you a right merry dance to the location, especially as this one is one click less than West Bute Street, and doesn't take you round the houses, literally. 

This is on the same route as you take for West Bute Street, so follow those instructions above but instead of heading up Bute Street, travel a little further along the A4119 and turn right onto Ship Lane, which will take you along the road, near the Bute Docks Post Office. Ship Lane appears to hold one large building with a car parking facility and some little shop fronts, including a little church. 

It could be, that this is a one way system and so that’s why you can’t reach this any quicker by car. 

Abingdon Street, London 

Frobisher makes his journey back to MI5. 

By car it will take 3 hours and 9 mins and there are tolls. By train it will take 2 hours 45 mins and there may be delays due to maintenance. 

By Car

Take the usual route out of the City by following the Cardiff Bay Link Road/Eastern Bay Link Road/ A4232, Rover Way, A4232 and Eastern Avenue/A48 to A48 (M). Follow the M4 to Great West Road/A4 in London for 2 hours and 20 minutes. 

Keeping right to continue on the A48(M), follow the signs for M4/Newport/Casnewydd. Keep to the left and stay on A48(M) before merging onto M4 after 0.4 miles. 

Continue on A4. Drive to the A3212 for 28 minutes. Continue onto Great West Road/A4, continue to follow the A4. Take a slight right towards Earls Court Road/A3220. Use any lane to turn right onto Earls Court Road/A2330, continue following the A3220 for 1.5 miles.

Continue onto Cheyne Walk/A3212. You are entering the toll zone area in 2 miles at Bessborough Gardens/Peckham - Camberwell - Vauxhall - Westminster Hwy/A202 in 2.8 miles. 

Abington Street is in Westminster, London. Lots to see and do for sure. Although, perhaps wait till after this pandemic has calmed down to a regular zero.

By train

You would need to check the Schedule Explorer to be exact on your train times, as these may vary at the moment.

On a typical normal day, take the C8 Nantgarw bus from Millennium Centre bus stop which will take 7 minutes, and 8 stops before reaching Central Station JN. It's a 4-minute walk to the train station and you need the GWR London Paddington train which will take 1 hour and 54 minutes, with 5 stops from Platform 2. 

When you reach Paddington Station, you've a 4-minute walk to reach Paddington Underground and get on the Bakerloo Elephant & Castle train which takes 4 minutes with 3 stops. There are some delays on this route due to improvements on the Tube Station at Paddington. Who knows, by the time we're all free to travel, these delays might have been reduced. 

While riding this train, you'll pass Edgware Road and Marylebone. 

Get off at Baker Street Station and walk 4 minutes till reaching the Underground level of Baker Street Station. You'll need the Jubilee line and Stratford which will take 6 minutes, and 3 stops before arriving at Westminster. A five-minute walk will get you to Abingdon Street. 

Chelsea Bridge, London 

This scene was also Johnson and her convoy on their journey towards the location of Torchwood. 

By Car 

Follow the same instructions for getting into London using the Cardiff Bay Link Road route, then after Continuing on A4. Take the A3220 to Chelsea Bridge/A3216 

To do this - Continue onto the Great West Road/A4. At the Hogarth Roundabout and take the 1st exit onto Great West Road Chiswick/A4. Keep following the A4. Take a slight right towards Earls Court Road/A3220. Use any lane to turn right onto Earl's Court Road/A3220, continuing to follow the A3220. Continue onto Cheyne Walk/A3212 while continuing to follow the A3212. Turn right onto Chelsea Bridge/A3216. Chelsea Bridge is on your right. 

By Train 

Taking the C8 Nantgarw bus to the Central Station JN from the Millennium Centre, Take the GWR London Paddington train on Platform 1, which will take 1 hour and 50 mins with 5 stops, which will get you to Paddington Station. You'll need to walk to Paddington Underground which will take about 3 minutes. You'll need the Circle Line via Victoria train which has 6 stops and takes 11 minutes. 

When you reach Sloane Square, you'll need to walk to Lower Sloane Street (Stop M) for the 452 Vauxhall train. This will take about a 2 minute walk. The train itself will take 3 minutes with 2 stops. 

Be aware that there are currently disruptions in place at the underground stations due to improvements on the line, so these may delay your journey. 

Next stop, Lister Hospital (Stop CB). From here, walk for about 0.1 mile, or 3 minutes and you will reach your destination. Chelsea Bridge Road, Battersea, London. 

Queens Circus, Battersea, London

This was used for the scene where Johnson and her convoy of troops head towards the location of Torchwood. 

This route will take you 3 hours and 6 minutes and is 151 miles from Cardiff. 

By car 

Follow the same route as before to London but after turning right onto Chelsea Bridge/A3216, enter the roundabout. The Queen's Circus is the Roundabout. So, you may need to plan where you're going to go from there because I doubt you can circle there for the whole day, without seeing blue flashing lights behind you!!! 

By train 

Depending on what time you set out, take number 6 Cardiff Bus to the Central Station JN which will take 7 mins and 5 stops. I think the C8 is before 10am, after then it's the Number 6. You'll need the GWR London Paddington train which will take 1 hour and 51 minutes with 5 stops along the way, and will be on Platform 1. 

When you reach Paddington Station, walk to Paddington Underground station and take the Circle Line via Victoria, which will take 11 mins and has 6 stops. It will take you to Sloane Square. From there, walk to Lower Sloane Street (Stop M) and catch the 137 Streatham Hill train which takes 10 mins and has 5 stops. 

This takes you to Battersea Park Station (Stop C). From there walk towards Queen's Circus which takes a matter of a minute or two. 

Western Leisure Centre, Caerau Lane, Ely, Cardiff, CF5 5HJ 

Back in Cardiff again. There are two scenes used in this Centre. The bodies of the dead in Thames House, laid beneath red blankets. .

And the cafeteria scene where Gwen sat away from Jack, Spears and Frobisher after Ianto’s death.

Head South-west on Cardiff Bay Link Road/Queens Gate Tunnel/A4232. Use the left lane to take the A48/A4050 slip road onto Cardiff West/Gorllewin Caerdydd/Barry/Barri. At the roundabout, take the 4th Exit onto Cowbridge Road W/A48. Soon after this, turn right onto Heol Trelai, then turn left onto Caerau Lane. Turn right after 56 ft and then turn left and after 184 feet, you'll have reached the Western Leisure Centre. 

Stay safe, and see you back here for the final COE Locations guide in February 2021

Articles Where Are They Now - Day Four Cast?

When Lois interrupted the meeting in Downing Street, she expected Torchwood to send the 456 packing. but sometimes when you go into things like Flynn, you wind up making the biggest mistake of your life. Not every alien creature is going to run and hide because you utter the word TORCHWOOD. Perhaps if the 456 had heard of the name The Doctor, it might have considered the consequences of its actions. Except, the Doctor never turns up in Torchwood, does he?  

When Jack and Ianto reached the 'penthouse suite' in Thames House, harbouring the 456 in its gas chamber, they weren't expecting the tables to suddenly turn and for them to face death along with the office staff currently clamouring at the exits, desperate to escape.

So, how many children are we giving up to this alien threat?

Deborah Findlay

‘Denise Riley’

'Now look, on the one hand you've got the good schools. And I don't just mean those producing graduates, I mean the pupils who will go on to staff our hospitals, our offices, our factories. The workforce of the future. We need them. Accepted, yes? So, set against that you've got the failing schools, full of the less able, the less socially useful. Those destined to spend a lifetime on benefits, occupying places on the dole queue and, frankly, the prisons. Now look, should we treat them equally? God knows, we've tried, and we've failed. And now the time has come to choose. And if we can't identify the lowest achieving ten percent of this country's children, then what are the school league tables for?'

A member of the government, Denise was quite vocal regarding the 456 and Prime Minister Green's approach to it. She came into herself more in the 5th episode, and surprised us all with her clear insight into the way Green had handled the situation, putting Frobisher into the firing line and thus ending his own life and that of his family. But nevertheless, as a politician, she sat at that table and discussed, with all of them, which children they could afford to give up to an alien race.

Since Torchwood, Findlay has played Miss Tomkinson in Cranford from 2007 - 2009, Mary Carter and Gemma King in Silent Witness from 2003 - 2010, Rowena Drake in Poirot in 2010. Was the voice of Sophia Tolstoy in The Trouble with Tolstoy in 2011. Played Philippa Pawlowski in Holby City a year later. Played Vanessa in Leaving in the same year. In Coriolanus for National Theatre Live played Volumnia in 2014.

Played Lorna Soane and Hilary Richards in Midsomer Murders from 2000 - 2015. Was Pauline in Lady in the Van in 2015. More recently played Eleanor Shaw in Collateral in 2018, and is currently in The Split as Ruth from 2018 - 2020.

Nicholas Briggs

‘Rick Yates’

'I'm just saying, if we need to spin this to the public, and God knows, at the moment, spin is all we can do, then in an age when we're terrified by the planet's dwindling resources, a reduction in the population could possibly, just possibly, if presented in the right way, be seen as good. Sir.'

Yates is another member of the current government. No family. No kids and no worries about sending a bunch of children off to their fate. 

It would be exceptionally difficult to list all of Briggs' credits, given that they are mostly if not all, connected in some way to Doctor Who and Torchwood, through the BBC and Big Finish. As you already know, Briggs is the voice behind the Daleks, Cybermen and Judoon. He has lent his voice to video games from Doctor Who to Lego Dimensions as the characters he vocally portrays on the telly.

If we were to list every single role and character that Briggs has played and voiced since he took up the reins of Dalek voice etc, it would be like listing Captain Jack's back catalogue of relationships. We'd be here till the sun explodes!!!

So instead, we can categorically say that Briggs has been involved in the Whoniverse from acting, directing, producing and composing since 1998 and is still going strong now, with Big Finish and the new series of Doctor Who, voicing Dalek's, Judoon and Cybermen for the 13th Doctor seasons.

We had the opportunity of interviewing Nicholas Briggs a couple of years ago and you can find it in our Interview section.

Patrice Naiambana

‘Defence Secretary’

'If the criteria we use is demonstrably fair and entirely random, then at least we could defend ourselves.'

He rallied the 'troops' around the political table to secure the figures for how many children would be sacrificed to the 456.

Since Torchwood, Patrice has voiced characters for Tinga Tinga Tales for 37 episodes from 2011 - 2012, played George Maynard and Tony in Casualty from 2005 - 2010. Been the voice of Luke the Sight Neuron for Nina and the Neurons in 2013 - 2015. Was the voice of King Pancake in 101 Dalmation Street in 2019.

Sophie Hunter

‘Venessa’

'According to our alien friends, in four months time, the virus will mutate. It's a brand new strain of Indonesian Flu. They claim it could kill up to twenty five million people. All our research seems to back up their figures. In 1918, the Spanish Flu outbreak killed something like five percent of the human race.'

One of the 1965 military who was assassinated by the government many years later, to hide the details pertaining to the 456. Venessa gave Jack Harkness the job of finding and offering up 12 children to the 456 for an antidote for the Indonesian Flu.

Hunter’s acting credits appear to fizzle out on IMDB after 2010, leaving a huge gap in her acting career. Yet after much research and some interesting discoveries, Sophie is not just an actress, but an English avant-garde theatre, opera director and playwright. After 2010, it seems her acting career took a step behind the camera.

Hunter began her acting credits in the two episodes of Children of Earth in 2009. Since then she went on to play roles in Short Films, from Woman in the Meadow in 2010, a Witch in the Great Performances play Macbeth and Maria in another short again in 2010.

Hunter co-founded the Lacuna Theatre Company and was associate director for the Royal Court Theatre in the West End of London and the Broadhurst Theatre in Broadway for the play Enron in 2010. Hunter has directed and performed in theatres across Europe, the Middle East and North America. She has directed experimental plays such as 69 degrees South in 2013, a New York City play called Lucretia in 2011 and the 2010 revival of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts.

As well as directing, Hunter has also been involved in music, recording a French language music album called The Isis Project with Guy Chambers in 2005, releasing an English Language EP called Songs for a Boy, again with Chambers, six years later. In 2010, Hunter worked with Armin van Buuren for the song 'Virtual Friend' which was added to Buuren's 2010 Mirage album.

Was artistic director for Tesla in New York, a concert performance in 2013.

The most interesting piece of research was to discover that Sophie Hunter married Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch on 14th February, 2015 at St Peter and St Paul Church on the Isle of Wight. They have two children, Christopher Carlton born June 2015 and Hal Auden born March 2017.

In that same year, Hunter was producer of Megan Hunter's dystopian novel 'The End We Start From' with her husband and Adam Ackland's production company Sunnymarch, along with Liza Marshall's Hera Productions.

Alan Bond

(Uncredited) ‘UNIT Soldier’

Bond’s acting credits also begin with Torchwood COE episodes for Days 4 & 5. Since then he has played various uncredited and credited roles including 5 episodes of The Bill from 1996 - 2010, George in Paco's Men from 2008 - 2010, for 10 episodes. Was a plain clothed policeman in Law & Order: UK from 2009 - 2013. Was a parent at the Swimming Gala in Bad Education in 2013. Played several different characters for Casualty from 2008 - 2013.

Played another parent in Outnumbered in 2014. In 2015 played a Defendant's Solicitor uncredited in Broadchurch. Played Yann's solicitor in Marcella in 2016. Played a Presenter for Bond's Millions from 2012 - 2017 for 10 episodes. In 2018, played a Golf Course Manager for Rosamunde Pilcher television series.

For films was an uncredited German Officer for The Monuments Men in 2014.