A NEW BBC and Netflix blockbuster which was filmed in Meirionnydd will broadcast on Friday.

Requiem, a psychological thriller with supernatural undertones, was part-filmed in Dolgellau last June, with the town awash with TV crews and acclaimed actors.

The show, destined to be broadcast around the world, is set across Wales and features Star Trek Beyond actress Lydia Wilson, playing Matilda, as her life is turned upside down following her mother’s inexplicable suicide. Richard Harrington, famed for his portrayal of DCI Tom Mathias in Y Gwyll/Hinterland, also stars.

In the wake of the tragedy, Matilda begins to question everything she thought she knew about herself, embarking on a quest that leads her to a Welsh village – a place haunted by its own past, where the secrets she uncovers threaten to unravel her very identity.

According to producers, Requiem takes its inspiration from the psychological horror films of the late 1960s and ‘70s – Rosemary’s Baby, Don’t Look Now, and The Innocents – avoiding easy answers, and instead playing on uncertainty and ambiguity.

Creator and writer Kris Mrksa said: “For me, stories often coalesce when several apparently unrelated ideas collide, and I suddenly notice that they might actually be part of the very same story. Requiem grew out of just such a collision.

“The first element was my lifelong passion for scary movies. I don’t mean the kind of in-your-face horror film that seems to be so ubiquitous these days. The second key ingredient was a fascination with the nature of personal identity.

“The final element was not so much a story idea, as a mythological underpinning. I’d been reading about an alchemist and mystic, and I discovered that they had some very intriguing beliefs, based on a world view that was both idiosyncratic, yet surprisingly coherent. Suddenly, everywhere I looked, these philosophies started cropping up, in books and newspaper articles, on TV and in museum exhibits. And it just seemed too good to ignore.

“You can see what I meant when I said that the three elements were apparently unconnected. It’s when I suddenly saw how they might all fit together, in a way that was surprising, yet also satisfyingly neat, that I knew I had a TV series.”

The first episode of Requiem will air on BBC1 at 9pm on Friday (2 February).