The real threat facing Under Salt Marsh's seaside locations

A TV crime drama was inspired by the "tragic reality" of its real-life filming locations, according to actor Sir Jonathan Pryce.

Under Salt Marsh follows detectives as they race to solve the mystery of a local schoolboy's death before a once-in-a-generation storm threatens to destroy evidence and the future of the fictional town of Morfa Halen.

Some of the show's filming locations in Gwynedd and on Anglesey in north Wales are also facing an uncertain future due to severe weather.

The Crown actor Sir Jonathan, who plays farmer Solomon Bevan in the series which also stars Yellowstone's Kelly Reilly, said: "It's a thriller with an important message behind it.

"There are real towns on the west coast of Wales under threat from the sea.

"The show reflects that kind of looming ecological crisis and the community's fight to survive and be heard."

With most of the filming taking place in north-west Wales, Under Salt Marsh actress Reilly said the environment was "a character in itself".

As the impending storm adds to the urgency to solve the mystery of young schoolboy Cefin's death, it becomes an even more difficult task for ex-detective Jackie Ellis played by Reilly and her former partner DC Eric Bull.

"I was interested in how it might feel to live somewhere where your home could get destroyed by the next big storm and how that might effect things and we started to develop this idea of a police investigation that would help us dig into these landscapes.

"They had to do this under this huge pressure of an encroaching red level storm that had the potential to completely derail the investigation and wash all of the evidence away."

Barmouth in Gwynedd stands in as the main setting of Morfa Halen on the north-west coast.

With a population of almost 2,500, the seaside town is located on the Mawddach Estuary.

The show's fictional community lives on the end of a tidal causeway, with high tides cutting them off from the rest of the world.

Scenes were also filmed at a popular camping site in nearby Llanbedr.

"I've been going to [Barmouth] for 10 years and I fell in love with this small place called Shell Island," said Oakley.

"That inspired a lot of the thinking of where we could set this and how we could make this place feel so isolated."

Some of the seafront scenes were filmed in Fairbourne, which has its own battle with the elements.

Its location and rising sea levels means that the town faces regular severe flooding, with Gwynedd council deciding it will stop maintaining flood defences by the 2050s.

The town could be decommissioned before then to allow over 800 local residents to be re-located elsewhere, making them the country's first climate refugees.