Pembrokeshire’s stunning landscapes and waterways once again proved irresistible to filmmakers in 2025, with major productions choosing the county as their backdrop.
Our cinema screens showed Pembrokeshire at its best in The Ballad of Wallis Island, a comedy-drama feature starring Carey Mulligan, Tom Basden, and Tim Key.
Scenes were shot at a private beach and nearby farm on the Pembrokeshire coastline, doubling for a fictional island setting.
Despite the idyllic views, filming conditions were far from tropical, with cast and crew battling freezing temperatures and relying on on-set medics to keep warm.
Carey Mulligan, pictured, at the gala screening of The Ballad of Wallis Island (Image: Yui Mok/PA)
In June there was mystery filming at Porthclais Harbour. Filming took place in the area for two weeks and a set was built.
Visitors to the area reported security ‘everywhere’ including the coast path overlooking the harbour.
Photos taken by walkers, who managed to get close to the set, show what looked like a 17th or 18th century harbour with long, skin-covered boats with carpeted coverings as well as wooden crates and boxes and large hessian bundles.
Some speculated the filming was for the third season of Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.
Porthclais was transformed into a 17th or 18th century harbour. (Image: Vicky Lindsay)
Others wondered if the filming was for Netflix’s medieval fantasy drama, The Witcher, which is confirmed to have a fourth season this year.
Some even guessed that Harry Potter has returned to Pembrokeshire. The first season of the new HBO Harry Potter television series is in production this summer and is expected to air next year.
July saw the start of principal photography for Near and Distant Things, a feature film from Pembrokeshire Productions.
The project was the fulfilment of a dream for writer and director, Saundersfoot local Emily Batty, 21, who had just completed a geography degree at the University of Oxford.
Near and Distant Things – the story of a troubled fisherman and his family. It also showcases local locations including beaches, woods, Saundersfoot Harbour, local boats, properties and the Royal Oak pub.
Near and Distant Things writer and director, Emily Batty, with cast and crew on Saundersfoot Harbour. (Image: Rachel Lambert)
Emily is now working hard on editing the film, and following a festival run, there will be local screenings in Saundersfoot before it goes onto streaming platform Amazon Prime.
In November Solva Woollen Mill featured on ITV’s Coast & Country.
Presenter Ruth Dodsworth OBE, visited Pembrokeshire’s oldest working woollen mill to learn more about the mill, its owners and its workings.
She spoke to owner Tom Grime and loom operator Telio Colley.
Presenter Ruth Dodsworth during filming at Solva Woollen Mill. (Image: Solva Woollen Mill)
Tom said that the whole experience had been a positive one.
“They had sunshine to film,” he said. “It was good. They were interested in what we were doing which was nice.”
Also in November This Country co-creators, actors, writers and comedians Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s visit to Pembrokeshire’s Carew Castle was aired on BBC Two’s NightWatch.
The siblings ended their experience on the beach at Saundersfoot. (Image: Saundersfoot Harbour)
The siblings spent the night at Carew Castle, searching for the ghost of a barbary ape, two wolfhounds and staying near the site of an ancient murder.
As winter approached, the Milford Haven Waterway became the scene of staged police activity for the second season of Cleddau / The One That Got Away.
Filming took place in December near Neyland and Burton, with divers and a riverside “crime scene” adding intrigue to the picturesque setting.
The second series of the popular Crymru noir crime thriller involves a body found in the River Cleddau, and a killer suspected of luring women to their deaths through a dating app.
When a body is discovered in Cleddau River the team suspect a killer is stealing identities and luring women to their deaths through a dating website.
The second series is described as a complex, twisted and nail-biting case.
A north Pembrokeshire drug ring was the subject of BBC’s Cannabis Cove: Operation Seal Bay.
This docu-drama released in December takes viewers back to 1983 when the peace of a quiet Welsh coastal community was shattered by one of the most extraordinary police investigations in the country’s history.
That summer Newport, Pembrokeshire, found itself at the centre of an international smuggling ring.
Cannabis Cove: Operation Seal Bay will have an exclusive pre-broadcast screening in Newport next (Image: S4C)
The two-part BBC documentary, consisting of two, one hour episodes, returns to the mystery with rare interviews and dramatic re-enactments and for the first time ever the testimony of a local man, once caught up in the smuggling plot, his words spoken by an actor to protect his identity.
December also saw actor Gavin & Stacey actress Melanie Walters visiting Saundersfoot in S4C’s Iaith ar Daith learns.
Melanie stayed with at Saundersfoot Bay Leisure Park, the site of her childhood holidays and where her uncle Geoff and aunt Mary still have a holiday home.
The programme saw Malanie explore the area and learn Welsh with the help of friend and actor Donna Edwards.
Read more on Western Telegraph
