Hinterland

I just saw this and I can tell you you’re not the only American who responds that way instinctively. Real cops here rarely have to draw their guns, but they would feel naked without them.

I’ve also felt a little alien when a British show features a home invasion or other attack on a civilian where the perpetrator is completely confident of finding his victim unarmed. In the US (the part where I live, anyway) he’d at least have to consider the risk of getting his heinie blown off.

Also not expressing an opinion on the gun laws in either country. Just a cultural observation.

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Don’t worry Joel, or @AnnaC, this is a well known difference in our cultures! It is true that most Brits (I think) are convinced that, if only the US adopted our gun laws, your murder rate would instantly drop to ours, but I doubt if it is true! Personally, I wish we would go back to the drug laws I grew up with, in which addicts were seen as sick and went to the chemist (pharmacist) for their prescribed drug - morphine, heroin etc. Of course this was before manufactured ‘legal highs’, but I still feel that making drugs illegal caused criminal gangs to get involved! (As per prohibition of alcohol sales in US!). But that is just my view and I know many disagree and I respect their opinions. :sunny:

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I have a box-set of the UK 70’s series “The Sweeney”, based on the Metropolitan Police’s “Flying Squad”. In many episodes, at least in the early days, you would see them drawing weapons from a special store (or being told to), prior to going out on a pre-planned raid or “sting” type operation.
(This didn’t happen in later episodes, because John Thaw (later in “Morse”, of course) said he was unhappy being portrayed handling guns).

I’m not sure what it was like then, but modern UK police forces can call upon Armed Response Units when required. This is probably most like to happn in London or other large cities, but it can probably happen anywhere if there is something like a siege or hostage situation.

But of course, the normal “Bobby on the Beat” (most often in a car nowadays) won’t have a gun, although they have something a bit bigger than the traditional “truncheon” nowadays, and some will have tasers. They probably have a few other gadgets that the general public don’t necessarily know about, as well.

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I haven’t caught every episode, but I watched the last episode of series 3 which has been on BBC4 on Saturdays at 9pm for the last few weeks (having also watched it as “Y Gwyll” on S4C Clic).

I was pleasantly surprised how much Welsh was in it, including the dramatic scene near the end, by the waterside (won’t give more details to avoid spoilers).

It should be on iPlayer for a while, for those who have access to it.

Back to the armed police subject - things have changed in Britain this week, for obvious reasons. I’m not sure how it’s working out across the UK as a whole, but it seems pretty much OK in the Swansea area. A couple of friends have mentioned that they have been able to have friendly chats with the cops. One was at a well known sea-side ice cream café, where said cop had one hand on a large gun and an ice cream cone in the other :smile:

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I suspect two factors, firstly a growing confidence about including more Welsh without alienating the audience, and going hand in hand with that, the opportunity to save money by shooting scenes only once!

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I did not imagine such a sight ever in Abertawe in my lifetime! I do hope they put the guns away soon. These suicide nuts tend to blow up their belts, no shooting, no warning!

This thread seems like a good place for my quest… I own season 1 of Hinterland, as a german DVD release, which has the English version, but not the Welsh. I was lucky enough to pick up both seasons 2 and 3 in Welsh last summer when I was in Wales. I’d really like to re-watch season 1 in Welsh at some point and complete the collection in Welsh.
But it seems that the Welsh-language DVD release and the Dutch Bluray are out of stock now and are nowhere to be found. I’d even be happy with a used item, but I had no luck on Ebay, either.
So, if anyone has any idea where I could get “tymor un”, please let me know, either here or in a private message. Diolch!
ETA: After some more digging it appears that the Dutch version was also released on DVD, and this release seems to be still available, at least from Dutch shops. :slight_smile:

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Hendrik, which Dutch shops are you looking at? I’ve just checked bol.com and found a DVD with Dutch subtitles but product information says that the original language is English.

@Tall_Paul, I saw this on bol.com, too, and it’s by the same publisher as the Bluray release (Just Bridge Entertainment). The product information doesn’t list the Welsh version, but the cover picture says on the bottom “Met de engelse en originele welsh taalversies” (same as the Bluray). Lastly, some reviews confirm that the Welsh version is indeed included. I found that same product on Amazon Marketplace and I ordered it there (only because I didn’t need to sign up on bol.com that way). I’ll keep you updated.

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Additional evidence, from the cover of the DVD is that it says the running time is 775 minutes, which is twice as long as my English-with-tiny-bits-of-Welsh-for-flavour copy of the first series.
I’ve now ordered it from bol.com.
So, @Hendrik many thanks.

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The eagle has landed, and everything is as expected. :slight_smile:
There seems to be some controversy regarding the run-time (the cover of the box I am actually holding says 380 minutes), but this is just because some people count the two versions seperately, and some don’t. The important thing is that the box contains 4 DVDs. The EAN-code copied right off the box is 8717344755146, if anyone else is interested in buying this version (with the known drawback that subtitles are only available in Dutch).

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Sorry to jump in on the thread - but if anyone wants a Hinterland/Y Gwyll copy, get hold of one soon.

Apparently (the Welsh version at least) is now out of print - so any that are out there, are what is left.

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Grrr!
I watched Hinterland/Y Gwyll ‘live’ ish when transmitted (?) on BBC and loved it. I thought I’d watch it again in Wenglish before trying to watch it in Welsh (as I did with Craith using subtitles then watching without).
Anyhow, I’m watching Hinterland on Netflix and fuming :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:Where’s the Welsh?

My Hinterland/Y Gwyll series 1 DVD has now arrived from the Netherlands - or should I say dat nu m’n Hinterland DVD is aangekomen - and I can confirm that it contains 2 DVDs of the Welsh-only version, 2 DVDs of the English-only version and that the subtitles are in Dutch only and are permanently on.

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It’s now being shown (haf 2018) on BBC Alba (look up under ‘H’ in the BBC iPlayer A-Z).

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The version on Netflix is different to both the S4C Welsh version and the BBC Wenglish version, I believe. They’ve made it basically monolingual English and removed the bilingual aspect that was present on BBC. They’ve also combined the two-parters into single episodes. It’s a shame, as I never saw it the first time around and would love at least a small amount of Welsh so I can get some practice.

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