RTS Cymru Wales

This month marks 20 years since the first BBC Wales-made episode of Doctor Who was broadcast, effectively creating the Welsh drama hub we enjoy today. Aside from a Children in Need special and a TV movie starring Paul McGann, the series had been off-air since 1989 until it was revived in 2005 by the then Controller of BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey.

Production was bestowed on Julie Gardner, Head of Drama for BBC Wales, under the penmanship of Russell T Davies.

After watching harrowing news images from the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004, Paul Sergeant, then manager of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, was moved to raise money for the victims of the disaster.

With the help of two friends, he vowed to put on a concert in the capital in just three weeks – with no artists signed up. As Sergeant says in the film: “We all thought it was probably a crazy idea.”

Pobol Y Cwm, which celebrates a half-century on air this October, was honoured at the RTS Cymru Wales Awards last month.

The soap, which is set in the fictional Welsh-speaking village of Cwmderi, was recognised by the RTS with a Lifetime Achievement award, as were Lis Miles, who plays Megan Harries and appeared in the first episode in 1974, and long-serving director/producer Robin Davies-Rollinson.

Pobol Y Cwm, which airs on S4C three times a week, is filmed at the BBC’s drama studios in Cardiff Bay.

Wales is in flames after a strike at the Port Talbot steelworks spirals out of control, forcing the Driscoll family to flee their home and country. Such is the premise of The Way, by turns doggedly realistic and fantastical, but always highly watchable.

The ambitious three-part BBC One drama, which imagines a civil uprising in Wales, is written by James Graham and marks Michael Sheen’s debut as a TV director. And, unusually, has the creative input of the iconoclastic documentary film-maker Adam Curtis.

Doctor Who is back, bigger and arguably better than before. RTS Cymru Wales was first off the mark, hosting a premiere in Cardiff two days before the show returned to BBC One. It was also 60 years to the day since the Time Lord first appeared on TV.

A roar rose from a sold-out audience at the conclusion of The Star Beast, which saw David Tennant and Catherine Tate return as the Doctor and his assistant after almost 15 years. Also back, as showrunner, was a visibly moved Russell T Davies.

It was part of an afternoon of sessions produced by the BBC Academy’s Production Unlocked initiative.

Rebecca Meredith, ScreenSkills training liaison manager for Wales, was joined by freelancers Ella Stockton, an assistant director, and two members of the RTS Cymru Wales Committee: script editor Edward Russell (Chair) and Joe Towns, a media lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University, who is also a freelance sports documentary producer.

Many TV producers have been making great efforts to cut their carbon footprint over the past few years. There is still much more to do behind the camera, but more attention is now being given to environmental messages on-screen. 

The panel assembled for an RTS Cymru Wales event this month boasted the two winners of the Edinburgh TV Festival Green Award. Roger Williams’s bilingual cop series Bang won the inaugural award in 2020, while Sky Sports, represented on the panel by its manager for responsible production, Jo Finon, won this year.