Thanks Sara. More old dramas & films would be great. I really enjoyed watching Y Palmant Aur (five series - i watched once with English subtitles & the second in Welsh) & Jonni Jones (both from the '90s) & there have been some excellent newer dramas for teenagers (eg Y Goleady, Iwtopia) along with the newer adult series. Even all the various series of Amser Maith Yn Ôl, Mabinogiogi & shows like that are worth having available. The first year I started learning Welsh there were several films online but there’s only ever one or two up there now. I’ll echo previous comments about subtitling!
We sometimes get shown old snippets of Hwb (from about 2010 onwards). These include a fun cookery show with learners (who have to do their shopping & cooking in Welsh); interviews with folk like Dafydd Iwan & Bethan Gwanes; celeb learners (Cariad Iaith) - some are on YouTube but it’s hard work finding them as they aren’t even in ordered playlists & are only up there in ten minute sections. Would there be any chance of taking some of these series & putting the on there? Thanks.
Any of the programmes about language are very good (eg Popeth yn Gymraeg, Y Llarfar & the one along the border - I’ve watched all these in the last year or so but they’ve gone now) & about local areas (several mentioned above plus Pobl y Rhondda). So more like those would be welcomed.
There must be more comedy programnes in the archives. I’ve seen a few specials & stand-up shows (eg Tudur Owen, Elis James & a couple of old sketch shows). Ryan a Ronnie get mentioned fondly by some folk in my classes. Do any shows like those still exist?
Thanks a lot & I look forward to seeing what suggestions & additions you can make.
Pobol y Penwythnos is a good little series, just following three ordinary people per programme as they go about their leisure and work activities at the weekend. Quite relaxing viewing. Would like to see more of that.
Coming at this from a slightly different angle, would it be possible to flag up programmes that show how Welsh is used in different areas - maybe something like “this is a great chance to hear how people use the language in Pen Llyn” or “if you want to know how teenagers sound in Welsh, try this”. Learners are just like everyone else in that they will find different topics interesting, and others less so, but what we do have in common is an interest in the language in and of itself. So if there was a way of signposting how different programmes show different aspects of the language, I’d find that very valuable.
Wow - quite a lot here! You obviously know your way around Clic
First thing to mention is that learners love to see things from the archive, but lots of other viewers don’t (“too many repeats”). Add to that the cost and sheer difficulty of re-broadcasting things (because of the way that the contracts are structured), and we will never have enough archive material on the Clic player to satisfy our learners. However, I’m working on something whereby learners will get to see some of our archive material “for educational purposes”. I can’t give any details yet because we haven’t pinned everything down, but I promise to let you know as soon as I can! (I’m also a bit fan of Hwb - that’s what I used to watch when I was first learning.)
As far as comedy is concerned, there is an Ellis James series up at the moment: Clic
There’s also a series with Gareth the Orangutan (I love him, but not everyone’s taste…): Clic
There’s a new series of the sitcom “Jam” written by Alun Saunders on the way (not quite sure how far along that is).
Did you know as well that there’s an S4C comedy channel on YouTube? Some of the stuff is quite old, I think, but if you don’t mind that… https://www.youtube.com/@S4CComedi/videos
Great suggestion, Phil - thanks. I’ll bear that in mind when I’m drafting my monthly newsletters to learners. Which leads me on to a plug…
If you haven’t signed up to my newsletter, and you’d like some of the signposting that Phil is suggesting, please do! There’s a link in the thread here: New S4C learners' newsletter - #9 by sara-peacock-1
If anyone has a particular dialect or type of language they’d like to know more about and would like a suggestion or two, post away below
An easy way to hear different dialects etc is to watch the programmes like Cynefin which travel to different parts of the country.
When people complain about repeats BTW, are they generally talking about on TV or the player? I think the latter is where a bit more choice would be welcome.
Thanks a lot for that detailed reply Sara. I appreciate there are issues with broadcasting rights but it seems such a waste of excellent archive materials. Many of us didn’t grow up in Wales so haven’t seen any of the content before! Your comments on achieving something ‘for educational purposes’ sounds excellent & I hope it works out.
Much of the old online BBC learners’ content has disappeared with subsequent website redesigns & it seems a pity so many programmes have been ‘lost’ to all us new learners. It must be cheaper for old progs to be made available than producing ones from scratch. I know some of your output is / was linked (as some of your shows are on iPlayer too), so maybe there are some options available with them to share costs in creating some joint educational archive area?
Cheers for those links. I shall enjoy checking them out.
Ooh, and another thing - the ‘My Lists’ part of Clic doesn’t work. I originally started adding useful programmes I wanted to watch onto it but it stopped working at some point a couple of years ago (“! Sorry, we’re having trouble loading this.”). It was really handy to flag stuff as I spotted it or read about it online, so if there’s any chance of that feature being resurrected please that’d be fab. Thanks everso.
I’ve just checked the “My List” mechanism on my version of Clic, and it seems to be working fine. If it’s still not working for you, it might be something specific on your system. The best way to solve that would be to contact the Viewers’ Hotline (phone, email or web form - they all go to the same team) as they are brilliant at helping to troubleshoot anything technical. (I’m totally rubbish at anything like that! )
Thanks a lot for that. It’s wrong on all the devices I use & it wasn’t working when I stayed round my brother. I’ll definitely contact them: I’d assumed it broke when the website got updated & didn’t realise it still works for some people!
Can Dysgu Cymraeg help at all with getting the educational materials used in a cost-effective way? I know they’ve offered help to libraries & other organisations in the past (I realise everyone is strapped for cash, but perhaps they get special dispensation being an educational organisation that wouldn’t apply to you as a broadcaster?)
Halloween itself is what I’ve heard, but not sure if it’s official yet… I’ll try to find out when they’re planning to release that info and let you know.
I think it’s a great idea, Sara. I found a quiz programme on S4C once (can’t remember the name of it), it seemed to be for children between 10 to 14ish. I think, because quiz hosts need to be precise and clear when asking questions, it can often give learners that additional, split second you need to understand some, if not all of the question(s). In this quiz the question was also printed on the screen, in Welsh. I know it’s not specific but we all like a quiz…don’t we?
There’s a quiz at the moment called Pen/campwyr (it’s sports-themed, but as far as I remember the questions are more general than that), which is presented by Jason Mohammed, who himself is a former Welsh learner. Clic
Would love to see more in the way of quizzes, and I hope we can develop that in the future.
I loved the Elis James Nabod y Teip series when I caught it a couple of years ago. Wish he’d film another! I can give him a list of suggestions : )
Also enjoyed Tywysogion about the Welsh princes – talking heads included the late Dr John Davies. That pops up fairly regularly on Clic, though it’s not there now.
Tŷ am ddim (buy a wrecked house at auction, do it up and flog it) can be great, but I sometimes find the broken Wenglish spoken in dull snippets by the participants a bit off-putting. “Chwarae teg iddo, at the end of the day, he did the job.” etc. I wish the producers/directors could manage to coax a slightly more articulate/interesting/different response out of them sometimes. Not fair since the participants are often young and not used to being on TV and possibly very stressed and tired.
Still. It must be okay to prod them with a toasting fork just a little from time to time and very gently to see if they come out with anything unexpected.
Thanks for the tip about Tywysogion - I’ll keep my eyes out for that. Another one that comes back fairly regularly (but I think has just dropped off for now) is Mamwlad, with Ffion Hague telling the stories of prominent women from Welsh history. We’ve got some recent history up as well, with Terfysg yn y Bae presented by Sean Fletcher (who has learned Welsh himself) about the Cardiff race riots - it’s on my “to watch” list: Clic
If you haven’t caught it yet, you might enjoy Prosiect Pum Mil - presenters Trystan and Emma have £5000 to spend to help a community project (e.g. here the Theatr Fach in Llangefni: Clic)
As far as the “dull snippets” are concerned, I think you’ll find that’s pretty common to all programmes of that genre whatever the language. Sometimes I think that I’ll scream if I hear another person talk about their “rollercoaster” experience. But it’s not about me - other people really like the comfort of the familiar language patterns, and they deserve to be catered for as much as I do.
Oh yes. just saying that if there was an alternative version of Tŷ am Ddim where the participants had to wear evening dress, take design advice from Laurence Llywelyn Bowen (he can learn the language) and with one week to go, the assistant director would give the order to release the squirrels, I would be happy. I’m not highbrow, just easily bored.
On the bright side, the latest episode appears to be from Swansea. The glamour and excitement will all follow naturally.
BTW, thank you for recommending Prosiect Pum Mil. The theatre episode especially sounds up my street.
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