Western Mail

The Doctor holds up an issue of the Western Mail featuring Margaret Blaine. (TV: Boom Town)

The Western Mail was a Welsh newspaper which had a feature photo of Margaret Blaine, the new mayor of Cardiff, on its front page in 2006. The Ninth Doctor saw it whilst in a café in Cardiff, revealing to him that Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, who was using Margaret Blaine as a disguise, had survived the destruction of 10 Downing Street in her family's previous plot. (TV: Boom Town) A cutout of this article was displayed on the door to the tourist information entrance to the Torchwood Hub, in Roald Dahl Plass. (TV: Cyberwoman, Reset)

When John Ellis was taken by the Cardiff Rift from 1953 to more than fifty years into the future, he and his companions were taken to a supermarket, where he was surprised to find how much the media had changed. The Western Mail was also among the magazines and newspapers found there. (TV: Out of Time)

Behind the scenes

Illegible articles

New Mayor, New Cardiff

Front page graphic used in the episodes Boom Town, Cyberwoman and Reset.

Although the newspaper is mostly unreadable in Boom Town, Cyberwoman and Reset, the front page was uploaded as a graphic to the Series 4 version of the Doctor Who website.

The main story is quoted below:

Cardiff's new Lord Mayor, Margaret Blaine, marked the start of her tenure by announcing an unprecedented new development at the heart of the city. In a move which could see the creation of up to 5,000 new jobs, Lord Mayor Blaine, 45, revealed plans to demolish Cardiff Castle, replacing it with a state of the art nuclear power station.

Ms Blaine was keen to stress that fears over the safety of the 'Blaidd Drwg' Project were groundless. She also assured environmentalists that ecological considerations were at the top of the agenda, and demonstrated her commitment to green issues by sponsoring a dolphin.

Goronwy Sieneyn of the Pan-Wales Culture, History, Sport, Industry and Heritage Institute later issued a supporting statement. He stressed that, while the castle was a notable landmark, it was, nonetheless, a symbol of English oppression.

"A lovely brand spanking new power station puts industry - very literally - at the heart of this fine city. Next to all the shops."

The outcry that first greeted rumours of the 'Blaidd Drwg' nuclear power project has become considerably more muted in recent weeks.

This may reflect the success of a 'softly softly' approach from the new mayor towards local activists and the environmental lobby.

However, as reported this week, the 'Summit on the Summit' - a picnic meeting on Snowdonia, where protestors were encouraged to air their views - ended in tragedy when the train carrying the delegates was derailed by an aggressive sheep. Ms Blaine expressed her deepest sympathies.

The new Lord Mayor described the project as a 'real coup' for the people of Cardiff. Joking that she had no desire to re-open the notorious divide between North and South Wales, she did want to point out that although Trawsfynydd had been mothballed, North Wales still had Wylfa. A power station in the heart of Cardiff 'made the score one-all!' quipped the new Lord Mayor.

She also revealed that at one point, Wales had nearly lost the project to the newly established Independent Republic of Cornwall, which would have been 'unthinkable.'