Belatedly Remembering Mrs Mac (Pobol Y Cwm)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I've mentioned in the past in this blog (though not recently) that when the wife and I started courting in the nineteen nineties we had a long distance relationship. I would go up to Cardiff one weekend and she would come down to where I used to live in Essex the next.

If it was my turn to visit then our Sundays would slowly end by watching the omnibus edition of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm.

Regular readers will know I'm a fan. But I have to admit that work and other commitments meant that whilst the omnibus editions have been recorded there is a backlog, and when I say a backlog, I mean that the one I'd just got round to watching today was originally broadcast just before Christmas.

The episode I want to chat about is the first. Where a group of characters walk up to a mountain so that the ashes of a former landlady of the local pub the Deri Arms (Jean McGurk aka Mrs Mac) could be scattered near Cwmderi. It reminded me and was a tribute to the untimely death of the actress who played her Iola Gregory.

Now Iola Gregory had a long and distinguished acting career in English and Welsh. But because I only first knew her in the nineteen nineties I can't really do her justice without sounding false so I'll just focus on the lady as Mrs Mac.

I have before also mentioned in this blog that my favourite saying about Wales is that it's Italy with rain. I presume that whoever made that saying (which I keep forgetting to go online and find out) was also referring to it's people. For like in Italy I've rarely met a shy Welsh woman. Taken as whole they've never been afraid to express an opinion on anything....and loudly. Mrs Mac armed with cigarettes ( this was before the smoking ban on pubs ) and gin and tonics is a good example of this. However unless hurt there is an underlying heart of gold through the cig smoke and the drink. Pobol Y Cwm does show this side of Welsh women well indeed other examples were the other female characters which walked up the mountain for that episode Cassie (Sue Roderick) Diane (Victoria Plucknett) and Kath (Siw Hughes).

Mrs Mac may have been the dominant personality in her marriage but she loved her husband and as he was dying of an incurable disease looked after him. Iola Gregory was able to show these differing emotions battling within the character and made it appear not like soap opera land but all too real. That ladies and gentlemen is what real acting is like.

I only knew Iola Gregory for a relatively brief period and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But whatever she was in she was quality. When I showed the wife this episode she was saddened as well. For we liked her. And it made us remember our early courting years as well.

Until the next time.

Why Does The Wales On Sunday Newspaper Hate Welsh Printers And S4C?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling today.

The Wales On Sunday, for those who don't know is the only Welsh national newspaper that goes out (obviously) on a Sunday. I remember coming across it in the late nineties. I liked it. It wouldn't set the world on fire but who wants the world on fire on a Sunday. What you want is a good read and that it gave you.

Last Sunday I came across it for the first time in a long while and was stunned. It was much thinner than when I read it decades ago. Obviously newspapers have been affected by the rise of online but other than going tabloid I cannot recall one that cut the number of pages. If it was a person it would have been treated for anorexia.

As a consequence the product suffered. There were seventeen "news" pages. Of  those in a very unscientific count there only appeared to be four that occurred the day before. Yes four. Some of those were just small reports as well. Sunday newspapers are of course part news part magazine. But even allowing for that it was shocking.

No analysis for example of the news from Bridgend Ford as discussed in my previous post. A proper newspaper would have done that.

After that comes the Sport section. Here is where effort has truly been made. The best bit of the entire paper. Focuses on Wales without losing sight of sport outside it's borders. If only all of the paper was like that.

And then comes Seven Days. The lifestyle section. Full of bland puff pieces on cooking etc. But let's focus on the TV bit. There's a section called Soapdish where the weekly plots for TV soaps are explained. Is Pobol Y Cwm amongst them? No.

There is a section on TV highlights for the week. Is an S4C programme there? No. Is a programme specifically made by BBC Wales in English to be broadcast locally there? No.

You would not know S4C or specific local English language Welsh programmes exist other than the TV guide section.

Of course we know why. Presumably this is a one size fits all tenplate for Scotland On Sunday, Bristol On Sunday, Aberdeen Angus on Sunday. Trouble with tenplates though is that sometimes one size does not fit all. Whilst S4C should not demand special treatment it's entitled to expect that a Welsh paper gives a Welsh TV Channel some attention.

It's byline by the way is PRIDE OF THE NATION. If you look carefully though you will see that it's actually printed in Birmingham.

Perhaps the byline should read: PRIDE OF THE NATION (Printing not included)

Whether Wales needs a Sunday newspaper in this internet world with the likes of BBC Wales and Nation Cymru is a debate. Whether it needs the Wales On Sunday is far more questionable.

Until the next time.

Belatedly On A Saturday Morning Over A Pizza, I Discover Who Murdered Sheryl

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Doing this extra work has meant the downside of having less time with wife and daughter (which hopefully the extra money will alleviate come Christmas time) and that the normal family life patterns are thrown away as I start work in the afternoons and finish late in the evenings for a considerable length of time.

So in terms of television viewing things we watched together as a family are at this moment being watched by wife/daughter first and then eventually I get around to viewing it. And when I say "things" I actually mean the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm.

I was, measured by the Sunday omnibus programmes, almost three weeks out of date. The day before however wife told me that she and daughter had watched the programme and had found out at last the question which had been intriguing us since the summer.

"Who killed Sheryl Hughes?"

In the morning daughter also mentioned this to me....in a manner of speaking.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Who did you think killed Sheryl?"

"Hywel Llywelyn" (Estranged husband of Sheryl - Angered that she had a fling with Gethin the mechanic). My choice from the day we visited the Pobol Y Cwm studios instead of welcoming back Geraint Thomas to Wales

My daughter laughed.

The Pobol Y Cwm publicity department had suggested that there was going to be six suspects for the murder. But it soon became clear after the subsequent episodes that there were just four. And, unless the writers were playing a game of bluff and double bluff, my choice of Hywel Llywelyn was out of the question because he was in jail as the police's chief suspect when the weapon used to kill Sheryl was found in his garden.

So it boiled down to three (spoiler alert to come. You have been warned):

1) The aforementioned Gethin, who was angered when he realised Sheryl was not going away with him and the baby to Ireland

2) Garry Monk. Gethin's boss. Ex partner of Sheryl. Husband of Dani Monk....Gethin's sister (This is a soap after all) who went a bit off the rails since her death.

3) Rhiannon. Partner of Gethin until he left her after the fling (which Sheryl regretted later) came out in the open. She too hated Sheryl. She is also an ex alcoholic.

I have my Saturday lunch at had at 11:30am on a Saturday morning. A few portions of pizza. Cooked because the due date was coming soon (wife/daughter scoffed the rest later). it's a Margarita pizza. It's alright. But I'm beginning to loathing the way pizzas make your throat dry. I now need dollops of [insert sauce here] to keep my neck happy.

Yes I'm stretching it.

It was....

Gethin the mechanic.

Now the one thing I really didn't like about this was the reveal. After all Gethin had been calm enough to have been able to convince his sister that her husband could have been the killer. He'd also been so close to Sheryl's mother that I was wondering whether he was going to have a fling with her as well (hey it's a soap. Nothing is impossible).

And yet he cannot contain himself during the funeral service which he runs away from and subsequently confesses all to his sister. Is that possible? I have my doubts.

One other point. If I wasn't (in Sunday omnibus terms) two episodes behind I'd have immediately set up a petition to have Rhiannon living with a good and decent man. Gethin being the second man she's lived with to have turned out to be a killer. The first incidentally....a priest.

I finish my pizza. Time to brush my teeth and get ready for work. One mystery of life solved. The ultimate mystery of reality is still ongoing.

Until the next time.

The Insomniac Manderings Post: Late Summer Nearly Bank Holiday Edition

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

At time of writing it's 3:26am in this Saturday morning. It's dark. And it won't be light for a while. The weather has turned. Autumn is coming and unofficially seems to be already here.

It is weird this year. Seemingly that having spent the first two months of it looking after my mother in Essex when she was unwell that my timeclock feels that it's June not August. As if time in a way stood still for two months. I get it now how carers of loved ones for a much longer period must feel. As if time has passed them by.

A quick further word about my time in Essex exile. One of the small comforts I had there was the discovery of the TV series Bones on the Your TV channel where along with Castle it seemed to be on perpetual loop for months. Well not anymore. Not only has it finished but it's being replaced by The Mentalist. A show I remember from years back....and hated.

So another programme then to add to my "download or buy the DVD list". Actually I've two DVDs already. Series two and twelve....as you do.

And as we're talking TV it's not looking good for my pick of husband Hywel in the "who killed Sheryl?" storyline in Pobol Y Cwm as we as a family caught up with the Sunday omnibus yesterday. I say this given that the police arrested and charged him with the murder weapon ( a doorstop!) being found in his garden. Since he's the one whose focus is being put on now you know that it's likely to be one of the other suspects.

Unless the writers are playing a double bluff of course. Then I can start to gloat.

And since this has turned out to be the TV post let me put a word for The Big Bang Theory whose next season will be it's last. Unlike most TV shows nowadays (eg Bones) this is a programme that I've watched and been a fan of since the beginning. I'll be sad to see it's passing. Mind you I suspect it'll be shown on [insert channel here] until the end of time.

What do people do having woken up too early in the morning? Some have an hangover . Some turn and regret the person they've just had sex with. Well me I've just joined Myspace on a whim. Why did I do it and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with it (which is probably one of the reasons other than being owned - since sold - by Rupert Murdoch- why it lost the battle with Facebook)? I blame the liqueur of the internet. Mind you perhaps I sobered up after I had a look at Reddit and I definitely didn't want to bother to join that!

5:17am. Still dark out there. Yes summer has nearly gone. Indeed yesterday there were torrential downpours. It was good to see the return of Welsh weather.

Today I'm going to have my hair cut. At long last after fifty four years on this planet I know exactly what to ask with confidence.

1 I want a trim
2 I want the sideburns and the hairs on my neck cut.
3 I definitely don't want US Marine.

Simple, straightforward and I wish it didn't take me this long to have worked it out.

Anyway sun's bright now at 6:35am. Going to have a quick nap and then time to move properly.

Until the next time.

The Dangers Of Emigration From Wales : Pobol Y Cwm Edition

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Before I start I'm not talking about last week's episodes of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm. We will as a family be watching it hopefully today. No I'm chatting about the previous two week's (with a break for the Eisteddford) editions.

It is amazing to me writing a blog how sometimes a post can be prompted by something initially innocuous. It was an article that appeared on my timeline on Twitter by Niamh Towey about emigration from the Irish Republic from the perspective of someone who stayed in Ireland. It is worth a read (https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/i-m-sad-that-so-many-of-my-clever-talented-friends-had-to-leave-ireland-1.3592182)

Now as regular readers of the blog will know. My mind sometimes works in tangents. I've written on a purely anecdotal basis on the dangers of emigration from Wales post the EU referendum result before. But this time my mind wandered back to the previous episodes of Pobol.

In the previous two weeks editions Characters contemplated or actually left the village of Cwmderi five times. 

They were:

Sheryl: who was contemplating running away to Canada or Ireland.

Vicky: who moved to London to be with her father following his offer of a new job and accommodation.

Elfion: who wants to move to New Zealand. Partly for a new life following the loss of their farm and partly to run away from the past after a male lover reappears.

Cadno: Elfion's female partner who will move with her children to her brother's house on discovering Elfion is gay. And when I say discovering, I mean her partner and his male lover in bed together.

(And as a quick aside one of the most annoying scenes in film and TV is when a couple are in a bed after having sex. One of them gets out of the bed and they're wearing boxers/knickers! This happened here. Just get out wrapping yourself in a sheet. Equally unrealistic but less laughable)

Anyway...

If you take out the unfortunate Sheryl from that list who was going to kidnap her adoptive child and assume that Cadno's brother lives in Wales that will mean of the remaining three two of them did not consider staying in the village or even the country as an option. Two of them considered that their life would be better away from Wales.

Now of course I could be over analysing things, perhaps being overly dramatic about a soap opera. But perhaps this is a sense of things to come. People having the opportunity to leave Wales and deciding to live overseas. Of course this is not original (How Green Was My Valley) but perhaps post Brexit life gives it a push

So what can stop this? Well I don't know for certain. But I'd argue that independence could help. For whilst as in Ireland it will not stop emigration there would be that sense of purpose in building a nation which as part of the United Kingdom it currently lacks.

It is an issue anyway that Wales needs to be aware of.

Until the next time.

On Returning/New Fans For Pobol Y Cwm And A New Fan For Irish Sport

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now before I start properly just so everyone's aware what I'm going to chat about re the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm refers to the last two week's Sunday Omnibus versions and not this week's episodes already broadcast.

So having visited the studio set last week it was time to complete daughter's education and wife's reeducation into Pobol. Two omnibus editions to go through. The big connecting story was the death and subsequent murder of Sheryl as I've mentioned previously. I'm still of the belief that her estranged husband Hywel Llewelyn did it. But I would be lying if I said I was certain. Anita, the wife's choice, is starting to look a good each way bet.

There was no question that the best episode of the two omnibuses we watched was the first episode of the second omnibus. It went back to Sheryl's last day alive. What it did which was different was not only to set the scene for the suspects but also how her life emotionally (as well as physically) collapsed in that twenty four hours. It's probably the best individual soap opera episode I've seen in a long while (and, as an aside written by Sian Naomi, who if memory serves acted in Pobol).

Wife/daughter finished the session as confirmed fans (my work was done). They now can't wait for the next omnibus to find out who killed Sheryl.Daughter's favourite character is Dani Monk, wife of Gary Monk (who my wife remembered when he arrived in the soap over sixteen years ago with his sister Britt and brother Brandon - the Sunday omnibus episode where the wife first suspected she was pregnant).

Mind you, Daughter did query what was going to happen next in the square.

I put her right.

You know one of the best things about Twitter is it's ability to lead you into routes that you would not have not normally taken. Last Sunday evening whilst wife and daughter were out I had nothing to do and Twitter mentioned that a Ladies Gaelic Football match was on between Galway and Mayo on the Irish Gaelic language channel TG4. Out of curiosity I went and found that it could be viewed online.

So there was I, watching a sport I barely knew in a language I didn't understand....and it was fun.Not for one second implying that if I could've watched a football game in that time I wouldn't have turned over immediately. But as something interesting to watch it did work for me. The novelty of the new I suppose.

Galway won. Despite (because?) of having a cemetery next to the ground and having one member of the opposing team being called Grace Kelly (I bet she gets film references being hurled at her at least once a week - eg when she's in trouble "It's High Noon for you Grace" - Bet she hates that too. Almost as much as when she does something well someone is bound to remark "Well that was Amazing Grace" ).

With Galway's win I immediately decided that when it came to Irish sport I would support Mayo. No glory seeker me.

I'd time to spare yesterday so with curiosity went to TG4's catch -up service and watched the other "Irish" sport hurling. It was an under 21 final game between Kerry and Derry. Again it was an interesting, enjoyable and different watch. I learnt that there was a skill in grabbing the ball one moment and hitting it with the stick the next. Also as I watched players running with the ball on the stick I realised that they must be brilliant at egg and spoon races.

Kerry won. Despite scoring an allowed goal whilst having a man sent off during the same play. I did not understand at all how that was possible.

So I'm a fan of, for want of a better phrase "Irish sport". Even though for the moment I don't know my Kerry from my Derry (although savvy enough not to enter an argument on Twitter as whether Gaelic football or Hurling is the better). So far mind you, I've only dipped my little toe into this. When I'm able to go deep end who knows?

But for now....Come on Mayo!

Until the next time.

Eisteddford 2018: When Timing Is Everything

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as I mentioned yesterday timing is everything. If we had gone to the Eisteddfod held in Cardiff  Bay any day of the week we would have been bathed in sunshine and heat. Instead it turned out to have been yesterday....

Yes it was yesterday....in August

Wife, daughter and I went. Two of us had the presence of mind to bring a coat. One of us said "I don't need a coat as long as I've an umbrella I'll be fine..."

Guilty.

What I hadn't taken into account was how windy it was going to be. That plus the rain which came earlier than forecast and was the sort of taunting variety which was heavy one moment, clear the next, but mainly light but persistent meant that even with an umbrella your first thought was shelter.

Though I didn't take it here

We were able to hide under large tents and listen to Welsh language music. I must say that I've no real knowledge of Welsh language music. Of those I do know about tends to be the middle of the road easy listening variety of Sian Cothi. Still it was good and. note to self, best I make more of an effort in this regard.

We also went here.

Yes a cinema in a tent

If we had gone yesterday we would have seen the world's premiere of Monday's episode of Pobol Y Cwm and have seen some of the actors (more on Pobol later). Today though was a collection of home movies set throughout Wales through the decades. All of them were interesting. But the one that probably sent an emotional tear in the wife's eye was on Cardiff in the seventies when she was a child.

You know when you're growing old when what you consider nostalgia your daughter views as history.

Daughter got a few things. Her particular favourite was a Harry Potter novel translated in Welsh. I too got a couple of books. This was the first.

Blas Yr Iaith Cwmderi - Robyn Lewis/Robyn Llyn

Now we were in a stall of a North Walian bookseller (whose name I didn't catch but I will try and find out) and we had a chat in full on no English parachute Welsh with this very kind man. At the end I felt having occupied a lot of his time I should buy a book and picked the above Pobol one.

The guy (and how kind is this) said I could have it for free!

It is the most different Pobol Y Cwm book (published in 1993) I'm aware of where from first perusal the regional dialects of various characters are analysed. So better put my A game in Welsh to action here.

The other book was:

Y Fawr A'r Fach - Sion Tomos Owen

These are stories for learners from the Rhondda Valley. The writer is the presenter of Pobol Y Rhondda, a programme I've mentioned before where he interviews people there. A programme so good I know of one non Welsh speaking couple who live up there who are ardent fans.

We actually enjoyed our visit. Though obviously it would have been better if the weather had held up for that day. Memo to self. Next time the Eisteddfod is in South Wales, go on the earliest day possible so that if the weather's bad you've got another chance to enjoy it more.

Until the next time.

Geraint Thomas 0 Pobol Y Cwm 1

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well yesterday Tour De France winner Geraint Thomas was cheered by crowds along the streets of Cardiff celebrating his classic win. I, wife and daughter were not amongst them. Not because we're not really cycling people. It would have been an interesting experience to have been there. We just had a prior appointment.

(And as a quick aside whilst all this deserved attention is put on Mr Thomas spare a thought for Nicole Cooke. Welsh former Olympic and World Champion cyclist. She reached the peak in her sport and all this attention didn't come her way).

But I digress. We had a prior appointment. Tickets were obtained months in advance. Not my fault Geraint Thomas then won the Tour De France. Not my fault the Cardiffian celebrations occur on the date of the appointment. I mean he could have changed things, I couldn't last minute change the date of the appointment now could I?

I suspect you'd have guessed the appointment was to have a tour of the sets of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm. Something that BBC Wales arranges every year and just so you know is free. As regular readers know I'm a fan, wife flits in and out and daughter does what teenage daughters do. But all of us were at BBC Wales studios yesterday afternoon, along with other fans (rough count twenty - thirty).

After a quick introduction we were led to the studio sets for the interior scenes. I won't bore you with every one. But this was notably nostalgic.

The Farmhouse At Penrhewl Farm

I first watched Pobol with my wife when we courting. We took turns seeing each other for weekends between London and Cardiff. When I visited Cardiff we would watch the Sunday Omnibus edition before going to bed early as I needed to catch the first train back to London. At the time Eileen and Denzil were running the farm. Now it's Eileen and Jim (through a soap opera journey too complicated to explain here).

Apologies for the blurring but here's the local pub. The Deri Arms .

And yes even though I don't drink I pulled A Pretend Pint

This is the flat where Britt Monk lives with her partner Colin. I have mentioned before I think that I've a soft spot for that character because oh those many years ago when she gave birth to Chester that (based on the Sunday omnibus programmes) was when my wife suspected she was pregnant. The other character being Sheryl, who gave birth to her son when our daughter was born.

No TV in the flat though

We went to set of the high street afterwards. Britt works in the local Chippy.

Made me want to have a jumbo sausage and chips afterwards

Which of course allowed me (and you have permission) to pretend with theatrical battered fish etc.

As I said. Wanted to have the real thing afterwards

Now I mentioned the soft spot I had for Sheryl as well. Well this is the hairdressing salon where she worked.

Seemingly Quiet Unassuming Place But....

It's where she got murdered (How could that happen?) The current major storyline in the programme is who killed Sheryl? My money is on her husband Hywel Llywelyn who I reckon couldn't take it that she was had an affair (which of course is ironic given when I started watching Pobol he was the Cwmderi Casanova).

The scene of the crime

I had a great time. So though did wife and daughter (who now want to watch it). So sorry Geraint. Cycling's loss is soap opera's gain.

Thankyou Pobol Y Cwm.

It was fun

Until the next time.

The Eisteddfod : Another Reason Why S4C Needs A Second Channel

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have mentioned before in this blog that the Welsh language TV channel S4C's biggest problem is not the language but the fact that it is limited to one channel stream. Thus the soap opera Pobol Y Cwm (Sheryl is dead....how could they!) could be followed by a gardening programme which I wouldn't watch.

My view was that even if it was for limited hours, say 7pm to 1am, S4C needed a second channel to provide an alternative to the viewer which other broadcasters are able to do.

Well coming up is another reason why S4C needs that second channel. The annual festival of music, literature (mainly poetry) and performing arts in the Welsh language that is the National Eisteddfod.

Now I've been to an Eisteddfod before, about eight years ago. I and my daughter enjoyed it.  There were various reasons why I haven't been to one since but we're planning to go this one in Cardiff next Friday and we're both looking forward to it (in fact to a sort of twilight zone person like me re Welsh,not fluent but far better than the cat sat on the mat, a place for the most part where Welsh is spoken without a safety parachute adds to the excitement).

As a TV viewer though my view is slightly different. For me then the Eisteddfod is exactly like my opinion of chocolate. Enjoyable in small doses but something I cannot gorge myself on.

And there's the problem. S4C provides blanket coverage of the festival. And when I say blanket if we take next Wednesday for example it broadcasts from 6am to 12:45am the following day. That's eighteen and three quarter hours. Of that time (including news and weather headlines) fourteen hours will be spent on the Eisteddfod. And remember, that's for one day.

(There are other similar festivals/shows that S4C provides similar coverage for. But as this is the next one coming up this is the one I'm using as the example)

Let me stress here. I'm not saying that S4C should not provide blanket coverage of the festival. It's in it's DNA it has to do it. But the lack of a second Welsh Language channel means that there is no option for the fluent Welsh speaker, learner or Twilight zone intermediate like me in case we'd rather watch something else. In terms of TV (as I know there is an S4C catch-up service) it might actually mean that the viewer turns to an English language channel. Irony of ironies.

So in an age when TV channels emerge for no obvious reason whatsoever. A second Welsh channel would perform a public service for the Welsh language and would provide choice. Even if it was full of repeats..

Until the next time.

Going Back To Watching The Pobol In The Cwm

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

During my roughly two nearly three months of Essex exile whilst looking after my mother many things that I used to do had to be put to one side. Watching the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm  (People of the Valley) about the goings on in a village in West Wales on S4C was one of them. Now of course even in Essex I could have just downloaded it and watched the programme as and when I could. But I won't lie. For most of the time I'd other things on my mind and I neither really had the time or the inclination.

But that was then and this is now. Mum is better and I sit before you on a Saturday morning watching a recording of the omnibus edition I did last Sunday......as you do.

When you miss a soap opera for a considerable length of time you are conscious of the changes. The omnibus opens with a mother and her daughter (Sioned) arguing over the theft of a wallet. Something obviously happened during my absence. Also teenage Chester seems to have a girlfriend. A fellow student with multi-coloured dreadlocks. Presumably common in the Welsh Valleys. Last time I saw the soap he was in jail.

Sioned's partner. A man who she beat up and was practically bald seems to have grown a full head of hair and become a window cleaner. Did not recognise him at first

Both their relatives disapprove of the relationship. So they want to leave the village of Cwmderi? Where do they want to go to? Australia! I've written before about people leaving Wales since Brexit. Now here it is in soap opera form. Eventually they don't go. Instead there's an (accepted) proposal of marriage at the airport as the young couple are about to leave.

To get the money for the fare Jason borrows it from Gwyneth (with interest!). A woman who has turned into the local moneylender since I last saw the show. The man (Sion) who she was with seems to have turned his attentions to another  (Anita) whose niece is arguing with another character over the ownership of a cat.

When the couple do leave the village his mother and her grandmother panic. These are two characters I remember from when I started watching the soap oh those years ago. You do anchor yourself to those type of characters. A sort of soap nostalgia I guess

The new doctor came as a surprise. Bryn Fon. Actor, singer and as I remember it when my daughter was a toddler the Welsh language voice for Bob the Builder.

Sheryl the hairdresser is having a fling with Gethin the mechanic. Which is all very ironic as the man she's with (Hywel) was the Cwmderi Casanova when I started watching the soap. Gethin was living with Ffion who was the wife of the local priest years ago before as I remembered it he turned to murder. As a career change goes that's dramatic.

Interestingly in a pub scene in the Deri arms there were books in the background (?). One of them happened to be by Sue Grafton. A writer of private eye stories who died recently. Was this a subtle tribute or just coincidence?

Of course there were more plotlines than those I've chatted about. One particularly emotional one with regard to abortion.

It was an omnibus after all.

It was good to be back.

Until the next time.

How I've Learnt To Love The Inventors Of Videotape. The Experiment (Part 1)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I've spent the day being nurse to my mother with her viral infection. I won't discuss it. People look after their family everywhere in the world everytime of the day. It's in the job description.

So instead I'll chat about something else.

My mother does not have a DVR. Nor does she have a Smart TV. That's her choice. She does not even have all the Free To Air Channels. Essentially then she goes retro and watches TV when it's being broadcast, like I did as a child of the seventies.

Whilst my mother is asleep there is little else I can do but to watch broadcast TV. I do not at the moment feel I can concentrate on reading books. Only now do I realise how much I depend on recorded or on demand TV. Because without the filtering process of your own choice you suddenly realise that TV is for the most part rubbish. In the seventies there were just three channels to watch in Britain and yet (even through the prisim of nostalgia) if you removed sports from the equation there seems less shows you want to watch now even though there are countless channels. More means less.

So during the time I had spare I decided to conduct an experiment. About as scientific as Daffy Duck you understand but there you go.

As when circumstances allow from BBC1 onwards I would watch the TV as and when it's on. When it's boring/I don't like it I'll move to the next channel on the line. The key thing is not the channel which can hold my attention for the longest, that's the luck of the draw. It's taking it all as a whole.

It couldn't be done in a day. Hence Part 1.

Half past eight in the evening: Let's start with BBC1 then. Still Open All Hours. The sequal to Open All Hours. Like most sequals it's not a patch on the original. And yet it's still there. I stay out of loyalty to the Ronnie Barker classic...and then I can't stand it anymore. After fifteen minutes click.

BBC2: Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise. It's an animal programme. Regular readers will know that I've not got an interest in animals. So after four minutes click.

ITV: Emmerdale. Apart from the Welsh Language Soap opera Pobol Y Cwm I don't watch soap operas. Mainly because the plot twists always seem to be in the TV guides. I'm incidentally old enough to remember when Emmerdale had a farm (and if you understand that joke then you're old enough as well).As I see it a female vicar gives a man a cuddle and a woman goes to pieces in a pub. Nine minutes click.

Channel 4:The Secret Life Of The Zoo. Another animal programme. Zoo staff chatting about why a couple of rhinos didn't have sex. Four minutes click.

Channel 5: World's Strongest Man. Initial reason why I found myself watching this was the voiceover. Eddie Butler, the man who would normally voice the dramas of Welsh rugby games is doing this?Then James Richardson normally a football presenter turns up.

Of course then comes the games. It's A Knockout as if devised by ancient Spartans. Muscled men lift heavy things....and then heavier things. Curiosity value for a time....then that curiosity goes. Seventeen minutes click

ITV2: Amazing Spider Man 2. 45 minutes left for the movie. Regular readers might remember the trip I made in the summer to see Spider Man Homecoming. Spider Man in this one seems to be older than the comics. He also has a blonde girlfriend who knows his secret identity...what?? The Green Goblin also seems to be a sort of green cyber punk and Sally Field is Aunt May. Ok she may not be Marisa Tomei but she's still too young. I'm a comic traditionalist me

My mother wakes up from her slumber to chat to me during this. It would have been clicked a lot earlier. But as it happens it's the forty five minutes click.

London Live: I'll say this for London Live. It's better than it's Cardiff eqivilaent. But only because it shows programmes that have nothing to do with London (I seem to remember Raise The Titanic yesterday. Spy drama Spooks will on next week). Now it's Best Pair Of Legs in the business. A 1973 film starring Reg Varney. As far from On The Buses as you can get. I've seen it before. Depressing is not the word that goes anywhere near to explain how black this is. Your first urge after watching this would be to jump off a cliff before you controlled yourself. Seven minutes click.

BBC Four: Francis Bacon: A Brush With Violence. A Biography of the painter. Not interested. Four minutes. Click.

ITV3: Endeavour: I'm a fan of Inspector Morse and Lewis but I've never liked Endeavour and I've tried. The problem I have with this is the problem I have with all prequels. You may not know the route to get there but you know what the destination is going to be. I try for a while but nothing has really changed. Fifteen minutes click.

Pick: Three Days To Live: One of these reality Crime TV shows. Not interested at all. Three Minutes. click

My mother asks me to make her a small snack. So I return to the TV at Ten.

Dave: Would I Lie To You? : You know if it was Have I Got News For You or QI I'd have stayed to have watched the whole programme. But it isn't. One Minute. click.

Channel 4 +1: What Britain Bought In 2017: Mary Portas, a woman who looks like an explosion in a sweet wrapping factory, presents this exploration of the shopping trends this year. It's not uninteresting I must admit. The moment you think it's just too girly (big knickers anyone?) it throws you the single brought out for the Grenfell Tower disaster. I watched it all.59 minutes click.

More 4: Greg Davies. The Back Of My Mother's Head, This was the comedian's 2013/14 tour. I enjoyed it  One hour click

Out of fourteen channels so far only two attracts my attention

So thankyou Mr/Mrs/Ms videotape. The pioneers of TV I wanted to watch. For without you....I might have gone out more.

Until the next time.

The Welsh Language In The Age Of Jackboot Politics

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Brexit it appears has unleashed many prejudices to those who feel emboldened by the result. For those only slightly above the IQ of a caveman it's in attacking people from Poland for the crime of being Polish. With regard to Wales this has also brought out of the woodwork those who feel that the Welsh language should slowly lay on the ground bleeding through neglect before being led away from view and shot.

You hear the arguments being rattled out again "It's an old language" "No one uses it" "I went into a shop where no one would speak to me because I only spoke English". Another argument I've heard is that Welsh is dying because the Welsh language TV channel S4C or Radio Cymru has very low ratings for some of its programmes.

But behind these arguments there is an instinctive fear. I've written before of how I believe that the Welsh are too nice as a nation and so have allowed governments, organisations and people to take liberties with it that they wouldn't do say, to the Scots. But the language is something that shows that Wales is different. That it should not be considered as a merely adjunct to England. That it shouldn't have the word "and" forever in sentences (as in .....England...... and Wales). For those who criticise the language there is as a consequence a fear of something they don't understand.

I may be an old romantic (I'm certainly old) but if the language was allowed to die then there would be a part of Wales that would die with it. I for one (even though my Welsh is in that annoying Twilight zone of not being fluent but being far better than the cat sat on the mat) will continue to learn and continue to speak it in all the occasions I can.

And you know, Welsh speakers are very patient with the likes of me with my hesitant delivery, limited vocabulary and I'm sure countless mistakes with mutations for the simple reason that I'm making the effort. Welsh is spoken more often than it's critics would suggest. If you look you will find it everywhere and not just in big cities or in the West of the country.

Also if we focus on S4C (but this also applies to an extent with Radio Cymru) the low ratings argument is a misleading one. S4C's biggest problem is not the language but the fact that, if we use BBC as the example, it's meant to be BBC1 (entertainment ,news, sport and drama), BBC2 (as BBC1 plus minority programmes), BBC3 (teenagers , BBC4 (culture), Ceebies (Pre school childrens' programmes) CBBC (School age childrens' programmes) BBC News and BBC Parliament in just one channel.

So taking me as the example whilst I'm a fan of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm I'm not going to watch a farming programme that might be shown afterwards. Unlike other broadcasters S4C would be unable to offer anything else as an alternative, hence it suffers.

Ironically the detractors of S4C would probably have you watching something brain dead like Big Brother. To think so far Orwell was nearly right. Big Brother is not watching us at our homes we are encouraged to watch it.....not me though.

So in this age of jackboot politics. Where I'm sure some of the Welsh language haters out there would like Welsh in the national curriculum replaced by synchronised goose stepping. Remember that learning Welsh marks you out as being different and independent of the way that jackboot politics would like you to live.

Until the next time.

Bremen With Hope

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Sunday afternoon. Not any ordinary Sunday afternoon but a Six Nations Sunday afternoon. Not just any Six Nations Sunday afternoon but the first match this weekend where Wales are playing. And what this all means is that the wife is out of the house and watching the game between Wales and Italy with "the girls". I and my daughter (who considers rugby "too violent") are at home.

Of course after the events of Saturday I wouldn't have gone out anyway. Was feeling a lot better. Not a hundred percent but enough to know that my vazovagal fear has long since gone. Still to be on the safe side a trip out in the getting increasingly cold weather was best left for another day, that day depending on the weather being next Saturday when the Welsh play England.

I might have spent the afternoon joining most of the rest of Wales and watched the game. Or ploughing through my Pobol Y Cwm recordings (moving to the beginning of December - they are being gone through at last). But instead decided to watch Werder Bremen, the Bundesliga team I follow.

Clearly an explanation to my choice of team is required at this moment. After all it's not closest to where I was born (West Ham) or the closest Serie A team to where my Italian relatives live (Fiorentina) or even that I bought a travel bag in Paris during my honeymoon years before the team become the dominant force in French football (Paris St Germain). Indeed I've never been to Germany in my life let alone Bremen (and the way the exchange rate seems to be going at the moment it looks as if I need to negotiate a loan just to buy lunch there).

No the reason I support Werder Bremen is that many (and I mean many) years ago I walked into the Nike store (no longer there) in the Macarthur Glen outlet store and saw this tasteful number on sale for just six pounds.

Radioactive Orange is the new Black

I have many years later bought a Bayern Munich shirt for my small haphazard collection. But it doesn't matter, this shirt was the first Bundesliga one I've ever bought so unless they ever play West Ham (I want them beaten) or the other teams in foreign leagues I follow (neutral) I'm one hundred percent Bremenite. I suppose I'm unique in supporting Bremen in this way. You could say I'm a Werder Original (sorry couldn't resist).

Indeed no one could accuse me of being a glory hunter by following Bremen. In the last couple of seasons they've hovered precariously on the cliff edge of relegation and this time is no different. Before the game they were just above the drop zone. They had lost the first two games of this year having been unlucky in facing not just Bayern Munich but Borussia Dortmund. The team had by all accounts been playing well. But unfortunately playing well in football is no substitute to winning.

The team they were playing against was Augsburg. Also in the lower half of the league but in a better position than Bremen. So it was a game that the team I supported needed to win if only to provide more impetus for the battles ahead in the rest of the season.

So the match began. The shirt was worn. The drink and food was ready.

A West Ham mug by the way

A quick aside. Nestle: The Blue Riband biscuit has shrunk to such an extent that it's only slightly bigger than my finger. You have to eat more than one of them to be satisfied and then you're accused of being greedy. Come on now.

It was a lively match. Early on Augsburg missed two chances because their striker had a sudden amnesiac attack and had forgotten how to head a ball. But gradually Bremen took control of the game and Selassie scored.

So then dancing in the streets....for all of two minutes given that was all it took for the home team to equalise. That's how it stayed at half time. In the second half Kruse scored for Bremen from the penalty spot, Kruse control if you will. However Augsburg equalised with about ten minutes to spare.

A draw then....a disappointment but not a disaster.

Then, in the last extra time minute of the match......disaster.

From a cross the Augsburg player was able to stick his leg out despite a defender nearby to score a late,very late, winner. It was as if someone had wrenched your heart from the body.

Football can be very cruel. Particularly for those teams battling to avoid the drop. Still whilst there is life there is still hope and the players of Werder Bremen showed a fighting spirit that's encouraging. Even to a follower far away in Wales like myself.

Until the next time.

Ibsen Is Rubbish.....Or Is He?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It has to be admitted that it would have taken a lot for me to have liked Brand by Henrik Ibsen. For a start as I've explained previously the idea of reading a play for pleasure is beyond my understanding and something I only do if it's a Penguin paperback. A position which, as I've admitted before, makes me a slight hypocrite.

But there's more. It's also a poetic drama. As I've also explained before. With a few exceptions poetry and me have not really got on.

And I wish Brand could have been different for me...really....but it wasn't. Basically this is about a priest and the effect he has on those around him. It is basically a shouty misery, layered with gloom, depression, despair with sprinklings of pessimism. After finishing it you feel yourself resisting the urge to throw yourself from the nearest fjord

Still I'm going to give Ibsen a pass.

Why? Well the version I was reading was from a stage version by the poet Geoffrey Hill. But he wasn't the translator. His introduction showed he took a literal translation and then proceeded to invest it with a more poetical slant.

However he also stated that lines and whole passages were "omitted, amplified or transposed".

Even if this is not a translation, but a diluted version of the original it's still unacceptable. After all we, the non Norwegian speakers have no idea what was omitted. Transposed suggests that passages in the original were moved and worst of all is amplified. For whatever Ibsen actually wrote there were moments where he made it "louder".

A translator, or whatever Mr Hill called himself here, is the nursery school teacher of literature. Leading the reader to the promised land of books in a language other than his/her own. Because of the way Mr Hill acted here you feel blind and worse, betrayed.

I'm no expert on languages but I know that any difference in a translation, however relatively minor, can lead you into a way that the original writer did not intend. I'll give you an example. Many years ago I was watching a subtitled episode of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm. Two female characters were discussing a male one and the subtitled line was:

"He thinks a woman's place is in the home".

But I'd caught the words cegin (kitchen) and gwely (bedroom). What it meant was that there was a difference between what the woman actually said and the subtitled line on screen. A slight,nuanced difference I'd accept, but still different.

In the case of this version of Brand you are unsure at any moment whether you're reading Henrik or Hill. You are however definitely sure  you're not reading Ibsen as close to what he would have intended had he been born Henry Ibsen in Norfolk and not Norway.

As to why Penguin decided to put this into classic book status? No idea. Don't care either.

This of course means that there is a new Penguin paperback to read and it's this:

George Eliot - The Mill On The Floss

I remember reading another George Eliot novel, Silas Marner, many years ago. Remember feeling that I'd liked,but not loved it. Let's see how I feel about this considerably bigger novel.

Until the next time.

Pobol Y Cwm A-Thon

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So then what do you do when you've spent Sunday morning on the early shift at work? Well clearly after you've come home, had a nap and then had to watch a Christmas TV film at the wife's insistence (as awful as you can imagine - clichés a go go) you watch old episodes of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm (People of the valley).

I had started to watch the soap opera in the late nineties when I was starting the long distance courting with my now wife. Every other week either I would travel to Cardiff or she London for the weekend and either as broadcast on. We would  the Welsh language channel S4C or on VHS (for those too young google it) we would watch the Sunday evening omnibus edition (now sadly axed).

This was perfect Sunday evening programming. We would follow the lives, loves, trials and tribulations of the people of the Welsh village of Cwmderi. It's great advantage was that unlike other soap operas we would be able to avoid any knowledge beforehand of what was going to happen. I don't understand why this is done with other soap operas. It's like watching a recording of a football game whilst already knowing the result.

And we continued to watch it for years. But then certain things happened. And for me that main thing was redundancy. Long term unemployment affects many people in many ways. But for me there was a gradual but paralysing depression.Things that I had a passion slowly went. Learning Welsh had been one of them. When I stopped learning the language then by and large watching programmes in Welsh stopped with it. Not watching Pobol Y Cwm was one of the consequences.

But now that I'm working my old self seems to have returned. And earlier this year I to learn Welsh again and with that programmes on the Welsh language channel S4C such as Pobol.

As an aside although my verb use has been criticised by my currently Welsh language school educated daughter (eleven o'clock last night when I insisted she went to bed...so I didn't care) being from the East End of London though make the point that it's not the quality or breath of my vocabulary that counts but it's the fact that I can speak it to a credible level. If I judge my Welsh on other parents in the school there are the fluent speakers, the vast majority who are non speakers and (as far as I can work out) me. My Welsh being currently in a very annoying twilight zone stage that whilst I wouldn't call myself fluent I'm far better than "the cat sat on the mat".

Pobol Y Cwm is broadcast twice every weekday. Once without English subtitles and once with. I record both so that the parts I haven't understood are explained. Now for various reasons I tend to watch about four in total a week. These reasons tend to be family, work, life the universe and everything with special mention for reading and TV sports. What this means, as my wife/daughter did not hesitate to remind me, was that the DVR had ninety two episodes in the hard drive. To explain that in mid December in Pobol Y Cwm time I'm on early October. So yesterday I ploughed through eight episodes.

When you return to a soap opera after a long break you're conscious of what's changed for reasons that you don't know . The local pub, the Deri Arms has had a major revamp. The previous landlady lives in the village but the previous landlord is not there. There is also an openly gay couple about to get married with a reception in the main village street.

First thing you do on returning is to cling to people you remember when you originally watched the programme. Personally I have a soft spot for the characters of Britt Monk and Sheryl Hughes. This is for the sentimental reason that (based on the Sunday omnibus episode then) the day when my wife first thought she was pregnant Britt gave birth to Chester (who in my current Pobol Y Cwm time has just been sent to jail for four months!) and when our daughter was born Sheryl gave birth to a son (who isn't there for reasons I don't think I want to look into).

Sheryl now lives with Hywel Llywelyn who seems besotted with her. This is interesting given that he used to be the Cwmderi Casanova. The list of ladies he wooed including the wife of the then vicar (who I think was a murderer unsure of that), who is now a teacher (being falsely accused of sexual harassment by Chester) / secretary of the local rugby club and lives with a mechanic who works in a garage owned by Garry Monk, Britt's brother,.....as you do.

Well I'm back to being a Pobol fan. A slow one (I'll see how they spend Christmas in February) I'd admit but still a fan. Should find out what fans call themselves ....Pobolites perhaps?

Until the next time.