Logged into Netflix today and noticed that Season 2 of Hinterland is now available. Still English only of course (sigh).
Well, bilingual - the English version is actually both English and Welsh (which in all honesty, is probably a more accurate portrayal of the area).
Hwre! Iāve been waiting for it! I checked not too long ago and it wasnāt there. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Craig!
Iāve thoroughly enjoyed watching these episodes again on Netflix in the States. My wonderful friends I stay with in London managed to figure out how to record the original episodes yn y Cymraeg for me so I could watch them whilst visiting last December. Now that Iāve been able to watch both versions of this season, Iāve noticed a few things: primarily that a lot more Cymraeg has remained in the English version this season (hwre!); secondly, the character of DC Ellis is noticeably less confident in the English version (there was a passing mention of this in the extras of the Season One DVD, so I think I was more tuned into observing character traits this time around); and thirdly, as much as I enjoy Y Gwyll/Hinterland, I canāt help but experience hiraeth each time I hear them speaking yn y Cymraeg or see the beautiful landscape! Looking forward to the release of this season on DVD in late May. According to the Amazon UK site, it looks like both languages will be available in the box. Hereās hoping! As a side note, Amazon US does offer reasonably-priced universal players for those of us who canāt live without Region 2 discsā¦
The problem with having both in the box is that any scene where English is spoken (unless itās in English in both versions) is filmed twice - once for each version - because they felt that the difference in language should also come with a difference in physical acting. Having both languages on the disk therefore ends up not being quite as simple as having an alternate audio track.
I think Iām right in saying that everything got filmed twice (English and Welsh), and then the decisions about which scenes to use where were made in the cutting room. But then each version is an entity in its own right - you canāt chop and change from one to the other scene by scene. Is that what you meant? I presume by āboth in the boxā it means each episode will appear twice on the menu - once in the bilingual version and once in the Welsh one?
Finally!
If I recall the interviews correctly, they shot scenes specifically for each version, with the exception of scenes where the languages used were identical (such as where they were interviewing an immigrant who didnāt speak Welsh, or when the Inspectorās wife showed up).
Ah - I get you now!
When I first discovered Hinterland/Y Gwyll, I read somewhere that all the scenes with dialogue were filmed first in English, so the poor sods involved with production not fortunate enough to siariad Cymraeg would understand what was going on in the scene. However, watching the extras on the series one discs, I believe both Richard and Mali mention that the shooting of dialogue scenes actually switched back and forth from scene to scene (English then immediately repeated in Cymraeg one time and vice versa another time. So the actors have to remember which language theyāre supposed to be speaking in for that particular shot.)
So Iām hoping that when the ālanguages availableā line on Amazon says āEnglish, Welshā it means that the DVD set will include both Y Gwyll and Hinterland separately in one box. (Although subtitles apparently will only be available in English, which is a real pity in my estimationāI find isdeitlau Cymraeg to be quite beneficial.) I donāt think Iād want to watch, much less own, a set that only switches audio tracks! I guess weāll know for sure in a few weeks.
Regardless, Iām thoroughly enjoying watching Hinterland on Netflix US (although I am disappointed for my friends in London to learn that series 2 isnāt available on Netflix UK yet.)
Y Gwyll/ Hinterland secures USA broadcast deal
https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2016/05/title-183988-en.html
We just got foxtel 2 days ago, on bbc channel I just noticed, s2 e2. Couldnāt hit the series record button quick enough haha. And being hinterland the missus might even watch it with me. She lasted about 3 minutes of my Y Gwyll DVD haha.
What is this all about?