Century Falls - Production

Scripting:

Early drafts of the script also included a stone circle, which was being investigated by a Professor and his assistant with the aid of a local woman (who turns out to be the main villain) [1]. The stone circle was later dropped in favour of the waterfall.

Shooting:

The series was shot entirely on location, by a BBC Outside Broadcast unit. The main location was the village of Langthwaite in the Yorkshire Dales, which had also been used in All Creatures Great and Small [1].

Simon Fenton (Ben Naismith) recalls that bad winter weather delayed production: 'One day we had three inches of snow, this was the middle of November! And the story is supposed to be set in the middle of Summer, so snow didn't help. It put us about four days behind at one point' [2].

Editing:

The footage shot for Century Falls over-ran the allocated time-slot for the programme, to the extent that a possible 7 part edit was prepared. Russell T Davies recalls however that this version proved not to be a viable option as it ruined the intended cliffhangers [3].

Archive:

The completed serial exists in the BBC archive on its original transmission tapes [4]. It is not known whether any copies of the excised footage still survive. To date, the serial has yet to be released on video or DVD.

Acknowledged sources:

[1] 'Russell T Davies and the Village of the Dammed' by David Richardson, TV Zone issue 68
[2] 'Century Falls The Powers of Simon Fenton' by Graeme Wood, TV Zone issue 40
[3] Email communication
[4] Response to question posed on the Doctor Who Restoration Team forum

Images: On location shot © C. Sanderson (reproduced in 1), others © BBC.