New S4C drama: Byw Celwydd

I’d almost forgotten about him! Y creadur …

Just seen this and told Mrs G who yelled print it out, quick! Anyone know if they’ll put out a DVD of this series?

2 Likes

I’ll see what I can find out.

3 Likes

Gwych, diolch, @Louis was asking too😀

1 Like

Need something similar to watch? Here’s a glimmer of hope Superted yn ol ar @S4C ? #postcyntaf yn datgelu bod trafodaethau ar y gweill

Angharad is going to ask the producer, next time they’re in correspondence (next series starts filming in June…)

2 Likes

Ardderchog, diolch! It would be great if she could ut in a good word forSuperted too. :grinning:

2 Likes

One thought occurs to me - Here we have a vision of the ‘rainbow coalition’ of everyone but Labour, which is the only way of getting anyone else into power at Y Senedd. I hope this does not effect anyone’s vote in May!! Of course, there is now UKIP lurking!!
But I would imagine my homeland, or rather, the people thereof, will not be right wing enough to vote ARTD into power!!! But the fact that he is totally unlike nasty, conniving Meirion might cause people to think he’d be OK. Megan is more like a certain member of the current Governing party, notable for her lack of caring for her constituency and desire for personal publicity. I always relied on my MP for help.

2 Likes

I’d guess that in the next series, a new coalition of Rhiannon, Llafur and Superted will restore sanity. And Superted multi-vitamins will return to the local pharmacies. Probably past my bedtime, nos da, bawb😳

3 Likes

What or who does the Matthew Desmond(?) character represent? (I’m a few episodes behind, by the way…). Is he a Welsh Language campaigner, or independence campaigner or something (although I thought that’s what the Nationalists were for, and he seems to have fallen out with them)?

Spoiler, Episode 8, 21 February 2016

(I hadn’t realised this was the last episode, but it is, apparently)

…warning, spoiler for this episode below…only read on if you have watched it already…

.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
…warning spoiler for episode of 21 February 2016 follows…also a question for anyone who has seen it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I’m not clear what the relationship between Harri and Angharad was in London…

…was he her lover? a customer…? …pimp?

Repeating the spoiler warning…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There be spoilers … you have been warned…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I think he was a client, but had a bit of a thing for her. So when they met up in the hotel he thought they were finally getting it together (but she didn’t).

I think he’s supposed to be a SPAD, by the way - a special adviser. No, I hadn’t heard it before either. I think that’s what they call the people who pull all the strings in the background - spin doctor sort of thing. Or political strategist. Each of the parties had one (although I imagine in real life they have more than one? Don’t really know…)

Thanks Sara. I had in the meantime sort of come to the same conclusion myself, especially when I re-watched an earlier episode which I had not previously understood properly … the hotel episode in fact…might have to re-re-watch that if there’s still time, to really understand what was going on there …from her point of view.

One thing that came over very clearly as I had a bit of a blitz through the remaining episodes before they get deleted, was how much of a “game” it all is, to politicians, journalists, and spin-doctors alike. A game in which people sometimes get hurt though.

Oh dear…now we have to wait until 2017!

I had problems with your question, Mike, because I wasn’t sure who you meant!! Matthew Desmond is some sort of Prof at Harvard!! I finally decided you meant Harri and was going to say what Sara says above. He is definitely what we would have called a ‘spin doctor’ for the Nationalists. In my day, Plaid didn’t have such things!! I suppose, since Peter Mandelson at Westminster, all parties have come to think they need them!!
I really did find the whole series very depressing.
Please let me believe that there are still some politicans who genuinely care and want to help people and run the country properly for all!!!
The current situation of DaveC running a "vote stay and keep me in power" campaign, while the poor folk at Y Senedd and the Holyrood Parliament are trying to run a General Election does not help!! Neither does Boris the ‘bandwagon’!! :cry:

I asked about Matthew Desmond in a separate question. Anyway, I’ve now found out who he (Matthew Desmond) is by going back and watching old episodes, and also from here:

" Mae’n debyg mai’r ymgeisydd annibynnol carismataidd Mathew Desmond" - he’s a charismatic independent (and local) candidate in the byelection. It seems he was once a Nationalist, but left them as they were too moderate for him (or he was too extreme for them). Rhiannon tried to win him back into the fold, but that backfired on her. Her heart’s in the right place, but she’s not quite as skilled (or as cutthroat) a politician as the rest of them.

Harri is a great character (whether you approve of him or not). The whole series mainly seemed to be about the chemistry between him and Angharad. There didn’t seem to be much chemistry between him and Rhiannon. Politically speaking, I have no idea what he was doing there (I mean I don’t think he had much in common with the Nationalist cause), but nevertheless, it was entertaining to watch him in action.

Love them or hate them, I will miss them all!

On another subject: language-wise, was there some sort of class thing going on? I thought it was odd the way that the service staff were all addressed in English. (for example, people behind the bar, room service in the hotel, the security man in charge of the CCTV) As though Welsh in that environment was confined to the middle-class and/or the elite.

I don’t think so. I think it was more a case of trying to be realistic; not everyone you meet in Cardiff Bay speaks Welsh by any stretch of the imagination.

2 Likes

I was there just yesterday ordering a panini in English (in a cafe that had everything listed in Welsh as well) - mainly because the entire staff appeared to be eastern European :wink:

3 Likes

It’s an issue I think you have to live in Wales to understand, or at least in a country with a minority language. A few years ago I was in Madagascar, our hosts taught us some useful phrases in Malagasy, as the locals do not speak English. Buying things at the market, the sellers couldn’t understand how these white folk didn’t understand French (French being the official language), but knew a little Malagasy! Kind of like a visitor to Wales knowing some Welsh but no English.
A friend of mine was working as an exam invigilator at Aberystwyth University. He had to read out the exam regulations in both Welsh and English (it’s university policy) and he came to me, to me! for advice on pronunciation, knowing I was at least Welsh. I did know enough Welsh to quietly be amused by many of the exam announcements in Welsh.
What is odd about Byw Celwydd is that all the politicians can speak Welsh, although this makes sense as it’s an S$C drama.

1 Like

There are stories of students from Patagonia sent to ‘yr hen wlad’ to Coleg Harlech to get an education and arriving at Heathrow speaking Cymraeg and Spanish but no English!! The real shock would have come when they reached Cardiff, as in those days, their chances of meeting a Welsh speaker were probably lower than finding someone who knew Spanish!!

In truth, few AMs actually use Cymraeg, even if they learned it once. The number of children taught in Cymraeg in Cardiff rocketed upwards when Y Senedd arrived, so in a year or so, there will be more young people serving in the canteen who speak the language than (older) AMs who can!!

I guessed that might be the case. But this is a fictional drama, so we expect dramatic license and can suspend disbelief. Everyone speaks Welsh in Rownd a Rownd and Pobl y Cwm, even though we know that does not reflect reality (not even on Ynys Môn). On Byw Celwydd, all the major characters speak Welsh, except to foreign visitors (like the Israeli ambassador), and Megan to the east European carers of her mother, i.e. to people whom we would not expect to know Welsh.

I was just wondering why the programme makers had also chosen the service staff to be among those not expected to know Welsh…perhaps they also tend to be (e.g.) east European immigrants, although I doubt if they all are. (I think actually sometimes the people behind the bar were addressed in Welsh…it seemed to vary. I also missed some of the early episodes.

@sarapeacock with your possible insider knowledge, do you have any thoughts about this? i.e. about what the programme makers might have been trying to convey, language-wise?