THE REASON a film crew was in Newport city centre last month has finally been revealed.

As previously reported, Bridge Street was closed off for a “police incident” to be filmed as part of an ITV television programme.

At the time it was confirmed they were filming “something for ITV” but the production team were being tight-lipped about exactly what was being filmed in Newport.

It has now been revealed that the filming in Newport was for a new six-part ITV and ITVX thriller Out There in which Martin Clunes stars as a farmer confronted with dark forces seeping into his rural community.

The programme focuses on county lines drug dealing and an insidious crime wave sweeping the British countryside (although urban areas – including Newport city centre – are evidently featured).

The drama – which is written by Ed Whitmore and Marc Evans and produced by Buffalo Pictures in association with Creative Wales – will depict the stealthy, surreptitious invasion of the land our farmer cherishes.

There will be devastating consequences, as his livelihood, homestead and family life are threatened by local county lines drugs dealers, essentially urban gangs using the British countryside as a field of operations, moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas.

Star, Martin Clunes, said: “I’m very happy to be working with Marc Evans and Ed Whitmore again after the success of Manhunt.

“Out There couldn’t be more different from Doc Martin. It’s pretty dark, but definitely a story worth telling.”

His character, Nathan Williams, runs a farm which has been in his family for generations and is a single parent to teenager Johnny following the death of his wife Sabine.

He embarks on a personal journey that will take him ever further out of his comfort zone into a dark alternative world as he fights to protect his family, his homestead and his legacy. He’s missed all the clues that the country idyll around him has been fatally compromised, contaminated by waves of criminality spreading and mutating virus-like from the city.

Now Nathan must accept that the rustic atmosphere of his childhood is long gone, replaced by something altogether more edgy and perilous. And the only way for Nathan, our hero, to survive in this brave new world is to learn the rules and fight back.