bradyblue

22 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Stayed at the wonderful and sadly missed 'shabby chic' Druidstone Hotel back in the day, and have in fact walked around the headland between the Havesn at low tide, and seen the geology, including a near perfect fold that was photographed in my high school geology text book!  And had a fine lunch in the Swan.  This was years after the Dixon murders and there was some talk about a witness, or possible suspect, riding along the path on a mountain bike IIRC.  It was, with the other murders, a cloud over the area for many years, and it seemed to be generally thought that the killer was a local man responsible for both crimes, the path murders and the Thomas siblings killings, which I thought was significant as in a close community such as that there is a tendency to blame the outsiders.  There must have been a palable sense of closure and relief in the area in general as well as among those whose lives he directly affected when he was finally send down, and of course there may be other deeds that we are not party to

 

West Pembrokeshire is beautiful and it's people welcoming and friendly (which, as a Cardiffian, is not something I can claim is a given in all parts of Wales), but there is a 'rough' element and some violent criminal presence, areas I wouldn't like to be walking in alone in daylight never mind at night.  Many rural communities have these characters, and there are plenty of shotguns to saw off, blokes who go lamping, or hare coursing, badger baiting, or arrange dog fights, and there is always a level of drug and possibly people trafficking at coastal spots where dingies can be landed from ships.  Dog fights have become an urban thing in more recent times as well, the Asion community being blamed but plenty of others join in.

 

John Cooper was, and no doubt sitll is, a murderous thug, a bully, and manipulative and domineering violent sexual predator a horrible man with no redeeming characteristics.  The Ottowa team are to be praised for a superb piece of detective work, doggedly carried out with patience and precision.  Sadly his release from prison for his robbery undoubtedly led to the death of his wife.  He is where he needs to be, and I cannot imagine anyone is unhappy with that!

 

There is another railway scene, a night scene in which Cooper's son collapeses in a goods yard and a daylight scene where he is found unconcious, which I imagine is probably somewhere in the Margam/Port Talbot complex since filiming took place there anyway; the rolling stock does not reflect Pembrokeshire's almost completely oil based freight traffic.  I thought the series was entirely believable and the Port Talbot locations did not detract from it's credibility at all, and neither did the use of Trecwn as the police archive location.  As has been said, there are those directly affected by Cooper's activities, possibly more than we are aware of, still living in the area and their sensitivites had to be taking into account by the production team.  I don't often have much to say about 'meeja' folk, especially tv folk, which is particularly positive, but in this case I do; a job well, intelligently, and thoughfully done, kudos to all concerned on the production team.

That was filmed at the Barry tourist railway-Coopers son collapse in a goods yard. 

Grounded van body residing in the beer garden of The Three Horse Shoes pub near Barry, South Wales.

24/09/17

Great looking layout, i have been following with intrest. i used to work near to the steel works and your layout has captured the look and feel really well. The sub sector period was great for my childhood spotting down at the back of TGI fridays on a Sat morning and the occasional ahem naughty wander around tidal sidings on a Sunday afternoon.......