Streets step back in time for Doctor Who

SNOW machines, horses and carts were used to transform Corn Street and surrounding city centre streets into 1890s London for the filming of the Doctor Who Christmas Special.

The bustling shopping area around St Nicholas Market was transformed into a winter wonderland last night as the hit BBC sci-fi drama's actors and crew filmed the show, which is due to be screened on Christmas Day.

The special episode will be preceded by a new five-part series set to air at the end of this month.

Filming began around 9pm yesterday and was due to finish at 5am today.

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The arts, props and lighting departments were in the area early yesterday to begin setting up for the night sequence.

Access to all the shops, restaurants and other outlets in Corn Street was kept clear during trading hours, according to a memo sent to local traders by BBC Wales, which produces the show.

The scenes were due to be shot outside the market building, and in front of Lloyds TSB and Bristol Register Office opposite.

A number of smaller scenes were going to be staged down an alleyway towards The Rummer pub.

Yellow LSW, or Location Solution Wales, signs were spotted around the city centre yesterday.

These had previously gone up in Cardiff the week before, when scenes for the show were filmed at various locations, including a graveyard.

According to the memo traders received, St Stephen's Street and St Nicholas Street would be out of bounds from 7pm last night until 6am today.

It is not the first time Bristol has been the backdrop for Doctor Who scenes.

According to fan-based website Doctor Who: The Locations Guide, some of the series seven action was shot at Bristol University's School of Physics and the Institute for Advanced Studies.

Filming is also understood to have taken place in Tyntesfield in Wraxall, and Portland Square.

Doctor Who crews also shot a number of scenes in the city last year. Then, current doctor Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were spotted huddled in coats between filming night scenes around Waring House in Commercial Road, Redcliff Hill.

A Doctor Who Christmas Special has been shown every year since 2005 and it was the third most-watched programme on Christmas Day last year, after EastEnders and Coronation Street.

Another TV drama starring former 'Doctor' David Tennant is also currently filming in Clevedon.

Yesterday film crews were set up near Lavington Close and Marshalls Field.

Kudos Film and Television are producing an eight-part drama, entitled Broadchurch, which centres around a murder investigation in a fictitious Dorset town of the same name, for ITV1.