The Green Death

Doctor Who came to Ogilvie Colliery in March 1973 to film a story about a South Wales pit where miners die glowing green of chemical waste piped underground. The National Coal Board let the crew work the surface and ride the men's own cages down the shaft, two years before the colliery closed.

The mining history in this record

The Green Death was the last serial of Doctor Who's tenth season, six episodes broadcast on BBC1 between 19 May and 23 June 1973, written by Robert Sloman with Barry Letts uncredited and directed by Michael E. Briant. The Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and the soldiers of UNIT investigate the death of a miner in the pit at the fictional Llanfairfach in South Wales: he is found dead and glowing bright green. What they find underground is a lake of luminous slime full of giant maggots, fed by a pipe running from the Global Chemicals plant above.

The location work was done at Ogilvie Colliery near Deri on 12 and 13 March 1973 — the arrival of the Doctor and the Brigadier at the colliery on the first day, the Metebelis 3 sequences on the second. Global Chemicals was the RCA International factory at Brynmawr. The National Coal Board allowed the BBC to film around the surface of the working mine and to take characters down in the cages the miners used.

The story's mining is not set dressing. Its dead are colliers — Dai Evans, Bert, Hughes — played by Welsh actors including Mostyn Evans, Roy Evans and Talfryn Thomas; the descent of the shaft, the emergency shaft out, and the slag heaps the Doctor scatters fungus over are all working parts of the plot. What kills the men is what an industrial neighbour has put into their pit.

People

Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant, in her last regular appearance. Directed by Michael E. Briant, written by Robert Sloman with Barry Letts uncredited, produced by Barry Letts. The miners are played by Welsh actors: Mostyn Evans as Dai Evans, Roy Evans as Bert and John Scott Martin as Hughes, with Talfryn Thomas as Dave.

Legacy today

The serial is among the best remembered of the Pertwee years and is the story in which Katy Manning's Jo Grant leaves. Ogilvie closed in April 1975, two years after the filming, and Darran Valley Country Park now covers the spoil heaps and workings. The colliery's powder store still stands in the park, restored — one of the few left in Wales — and the Doctor Who location guides are among the few published accounts that note it.

For this archive the serial is a dated record of a working South Wales colliery's surface in March 1973, made by a film crew with the Coal Board's permission and the run of the place.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The colliery used for filming was Ogilvie Colliery near Deri in Caerphilly; the Global Chemicals plant of the story was the RCA International factory at Brynmawr. (documented fact) ¹
• The Doctor Who Locations Guide dates the colliery filming to two days: 12 March 1973 for the Brigadier and the Doctor arriving at the colliery, and 13 March 1973 for the Metebelis 3 sequences, including the Doctor being attacked by a large flying creature. (documented fact) ²
• Broadcast in six parts on BBC1 from 19 May to 23 June 1973, the serial has the Third Doctor and UNIT investigate a South Wales mine where waste from an oil plant has killed miners and made maggots grow to giant size. A miner is found dead and glowing bright green; deeper in, a lake of slime is fed by a pipe from the chemical works above. (documented fact) ¹
• Accounts of the production say the National Coal Board allowed the BBC to film around the surface of the mine and to take several characters down using the working cages the miners used. This reaches the record through a summary of the Locations Guide's material rather than from a page stating it directly. (contemporary account, uncertain) ²
• Much of Darran Valley Country Park is built on the spoil heaps and workings of Ogilvie Colliery, and the colliery's powder store still stands there, restored — the Locations Guide calls it one of the few remaining in Wales. (documented fact) ²

Mines

• Ogilvie Colliery — Caerphilly
  The colliery is the location: the arrival at the pit was filmed here on 12 March 1973 and the Metebelis 3 sequences the following day, with the National Coal Board's permission to work the surface of a mine still two years from closing.

Regions

Caerphilly

Related Culture records

• Above Us the Earth
  The two founding records of this category were made at the same colliery two years apart: Doctor Who borrowed Ogilvie as a location in March 1973, and Karl Francis filmed its closure in 1975.

Sources

1. (secondary) The Green Death — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Darran Valley Country Park (formerly Ogilvie Colliery) — The Locations Guide to Doctor Who

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026