Golwg: “According to The Sunday Times tv guide the Welsh language is the subject of jokes on Walter , and golwg360 has requested further information from the BBC.”
http://www.golwg360.com/newyddion/cymru/157386-cymeriad-sy-n-siarad-cymraeg-ar-bbc-1-heno.
According to this Golwg article a Welsh speaking character turns up tonight in a one off comedy - Walter - broadcast tonight on B.B.C 1 at nine o’clock.
B.B.C quote: “Helping Walter is a young, slightly clumsy and more than a little bit stupid detective constable Anne Hopkins”
Oh, yeah! Anne Hopkins is the Welsh character…I wonder if they’ll fit in a few sheep jokes? Can’t wait!!!
Hmmm! a bit of Welsh six minutes in but if this is what the B.B.C now serves up as comedy…Well maybe it’s an age thing as I didn’t laugh once except for when my mates said: “It’s crap!”…Yep, it stank!!!
Whatever happened to British comedy?
She didn’t…Very sadly it might be commissioned as a series…The B.B.C shouldn’t bother as they could save money by running Dads Army repeats on a dedicated 24 hour access channel loop.
I didn’t think it was that bad actually. Ann wasn’t really portrayed as stupid, just inexperienced and a little naive.
I wouldn’t really call it a comedy drama. More a drama with some comic overtones. It reminded me a bit of The Sweeney in some ways, although the jokes were a lot better in The Sweeney.
Among other implausibilities: if the money had only just been drawn, how could it so easily be lost in last year’s accounts?
Though I didn’t watch the whole thing, as Mike Ellwood says, she didn’t seem to have been portrayed as stupid. The quality of the writing aside, it was very good to see a Welsh character in a nationally broadcast (and even English made programme) just speaking Welsh without this being used to make any sort of point. She just spoke Welsh to her mother, because they speak Welsh.
So seldom seen on such programmes, it was good to see.
According to Golwg, it was the decision of the actress (Alexandra Roach) to do that, so fair play to her!
Just watched ‘Walter’ on i.player and I agree with Owain. It was nice to see some Welsh spoken on an English programme. A bit like ‘Gwyllt’ when it was broadcast on bbc 4 in the English version they still kept a little of the Welsh language in with sub-titles. I don’t think they made Ann any more stupid than the daughter of Walter who seemed a bit odd.
Almost certainly not. I know it wasn’t mentioned at all in the Daily Mail, but then that’s hardly a surprise. The papers in England are very anglocentric, so it’s not that big a surprise.
It used to be mentioned once in the broadsheets at least- normally around the chairing. But over the past few years there has been nothing. No idea what to make of that.
Owain (Lurch) : It used to be mentioned once in the broadsheets at least- normally around the chairing. But over the past few years there has been nothing. No idea what to make of that.
I’m rather tempted to question whether it’s any of their business anyway. :-\
Well, they are the Fourth Estate, and claim to be British newspapers. Their editors, journalists and stories are given importance and credence by British institutions and have an effect on how the news in this country is reported through other sources, and how the population of this country view the world.
One could say if we don’t have the guts to become independent and create our own newspapers (to say we ourselves have effectively no newspapers worthy of the name would be an understatement) then it is the situation we deserve, even the situation we want.
I find it difficult to argue with that, but believe the dismissive attitudes of “British” newspapers bolstered by the dismissive attitude of British institutions (directed certainly not only towards Wales, but towards Wales in a much greater degree than towards other areas of the UK) are at least part of the thing which has created this attitude.
So, to try and make this ramble relevant to the comment ;-), whilst we are part of the UK, papers claiming to serve the UK should serve the UK, which includes not being ignorantly dismissive of part of the UK.
Well, at least we know who our friends are…close on 150,000 people turn up to an event, £8 million is generated into a local economy, world-class performances across a range of cultural events and exactly the community spirit all politcians crave the general public to show…so be it. Da iawn Sir Gar!