THE DWM INTERVIEW
THE LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY
The owners of West Usk Lighthouse in south Wales achieved a life-long ambition when their family home featured in Fugitive of the Judoon.FRANK SHEAHAN tells EMILY COOK about a top-secret location shoot.
Frank Sheahan
Jodie Whittaker with the Sheahan family - Frank, Danielle, Jed and Brodie - outside the West Usk Lighthouse.
The lighthouse belongs to the Sheahans.
Photos © Danielle Sheahan.
Arguably the most memorable moment of Series 12 was Fugitive of the Judoon’s revelation that Ruth Clayton was not a tour guide from Gloucester but, in fact, the Doctor. This reveal sequence was set at a lighthouse, the place Ruth believed to be her family home.
In reality, this is the West Usk Lighthouse - an unusual bed and breakfast situated near Newport, Gwent - and it’s the real-life family home of dedicated Doctor Who fan Frank Sheahan, his wife Danielle and their grown-up sons, Jed and Brodie.
“I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since the very first broadcast in 1963,” says Frank. “Our sons are great fans too - we brought them up with the series. Obviously, Doctor Who filming is based in Cardiff, which isn’t too far away from us, so we actually approached them with the idea of maybe at some stage in the future using us as a location. This was a number of years ago now.
“They did a couple of recces and at one point they were going to use us on an earlier episode where the ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain retired to the countryside but the Daleks unfortunately exterminated her - do you remember that one?” That must have been Harriet Jones in the 2008 episode The Stolen Earth. “Yes, Harriet Jones! That was her name. We were going to use our dining room for that scene but unfortunately it was too small, and they wanted this Dalek to fly out of French windows, which we didn’t have. I did say to them, ‘I’m quite happy to knock a hole in the wall so that can happen.’ But they said, ‘Well, it’s a listed building so I don’t think we can get away with that.’” Frank laughs at the memory. “I was just so keen to have Doctor Who come and film here!”