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| Sylvester McCoy as Doctor Who outside some chalets |
Barry Island has, naturally, been in the media many times. Most of the TV appearances were during the Majestic period.
Bloody New Year
The first recorded TV apperance was in the 1986 film 'Bloody New Year', a horror film with many scenes filmed around
the island. The opening 10 minutes are filmed in the Pleasure Park, and there's lots of the Regency and Gaiety Butildings
in the background. On the closing credits, the camp is in the 'With thanks to..' section. For more on Bloody New Year, visit
http://www.eofftv.com/b/blo/bloody_new_year_main.htm
Delta and the Bannermen
Inbetween Butlins and Majestic, a Doctor Who episode, Delta and the Bannermen, was filmed on the island in June/July
1987. There is extensive footage around the camp, as a 1950's holiday camp was one of the settings. Some exclusive footage
of silent chalet lines, and other general footage.
The Doctor and his assistant Mel had one a holiday to 1959 Disneyland, but their Space shuttle hit a satalite and crash
landed in Barry. Luckily, the Shangri-La Holiday Camp can give them somewhere to stay. But can it shelter them from the Bannermen?...
That's Life
A That's Life report about the camp was aired in January 1989. The previous
summer That's Life recieved a number of complaints about the camp so they went to investigate. Doc Cox went on to the camp
and saw some litter and a few black bags, he then said to a camper "Hi-De-Hi" and the camper replied "Ho-De-Bloody-Ho". With
all this evidence Thats Life ripped Barry Island to bits, singing a great song about the camp to the tune of "I do Like To
Be Beside The Seaside" entitled "It's Barry Awful, Its Barry Hell". At the end of the report Esther said "If your off
to Barry Island this summer, send us a postcard".
Rick Wright
(owner of Majestic) was a clever businessman and had thousands of postage paid postcards printed up for the summer of 1989,
so everybody could send Esther a postcard saying what they thought of the camp. In the autumn of 89 the That's Life team
did an on air apology as they had around 40 complaints but around 8000 postcards
saying the camp was great. Rick Wright sued and it is believed got an out of court settlement.
Rancid Aluminuim
After the camp closed, scenes for the (rather poor) British film Rancid Aluminium, staring
Rhys Ifans, were filmed at the camp. Interestingly, we believe this is the only filming at the camp that took place that isn't
of holiday camp. Part of the Regency Building Offices were transformed into a dodgy Russian Cafe with Mafia running around.
You can however, if you know what you're looking for, tell it is an old Butlins building. The tiled floor is clearly Butlins,
and two of the chairs appear to be recovered Playhouse Theatre seats.
Also an interesting note is that on the DVD extras, some of the cast and crew are interviewed
outside by semi-demolished chalets.
| Rancid Aluminium |
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| Doesn't look very Butlins... |
| ...but those ex-Butlins chairs? |
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