RTS Cymru Wales

We do enjoy a quiz at the RTS, so here’s a question for you: what notable moments in British television history took place in 1959? You get a point if you knew that it was the year that Juke Box Jury was first broadcast on the BBC (or, indeed, Noggin the Nog).

Two points to anyone who answered that it was the year that the ITV franchise Tyne Tees Television started broadcasting. But there’s another event that you almost certainly didn’t know about – and it’s why 1959 interests me: it was the year that the RTS formed its first committee in Wales.

Thank you to RTS Cymru Wales for inviting me to give this year’s lecture. It’s a privilege to be with you all here tonight, particularly as we’re here in this shiny building – the new home for Cardiff University’s prestigious school of journalism, media and cultural studies as well as, of course, BBC Wales.

Opportunities such as this give a rare chance to reflect publicly on what has been an incredible few years - a constant and glorious work in progress that myself and the other Bad Wolves are passionately driven and obsessed by.