WEBVTT

00:00:00.681 --> 00:00:02.658
My name is Hywel Gwynfryn

00:00:02.658 --> 00:00:05.868
and I'm a broadcaster at the BBC

00:00:05.868 --> 00:00:09.503
BBC Cymru here in the capital, Cardiff

00:00:09.503 --> 00:00:11.916
where I live as well as work

00:00:11.916 --> 00:00:15.720
But my journey starts back in 1942

00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:19.899
That's when I was born in
Llangefni, in Anglesey

00:00:19.899 --> 00:00:24.925
A small island on the
north coast of Wales.

00:00:24.925 --> 00:00:29.135
Then I went to primary school
when I was about six

00:00:29.135 --> 00:00:31.342
and I had to learn English

00:00:31.342 --> 00:00:34.534
because Welsh was my first language

00:00:34.534 --> 00:00:38.124
Welsh was the language we spoke
as a family and at home

00:00:38.124 --> 00:00:41.114
and it had been that way for years

00:00:41.114 --> 00:00:44.501
certainly, when I was at
school in Llangefni

00:00:44.509 --> 00:00:50.859
around 95% of the island's
population spoke Welsh

00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:54.987
but that figure has dropped 
quite a lot since then

00:00:54.987 --> 00:00:58.679
Anyway, after primary school 
I went to secondary school

00:00:58.679 --> 00:01:01.814
and I thoroughly enjoyed
myself there

00:01:01.814 --> 00:01:05.161
because it was there that I developed
an interest in acting

00:01:05.161 --> 00:01:09.418
and I also had the chance to 
visit the studios in Bangor

00:01:09.418 --> 00:01:11.097
and be a radio actor

00:01:11.102 --> 00:01:13.942
My mother was an actress herself

00:01:13.942 --> 00:01:17.211
and I would go with
her to the studio

00:01:17.211 --> 00:01:20.797
to watch the other actors while
I sat quietly in the corner

00:01:20.797 --> 00:01:24.260
and then one day, I had 
the chance to act

00:01:24.260 --> 00:01:26.318
and I remember it well

00:01:26.318 --> 00:01:29.042
the producer came up to my mother

00:01:29.042 --> 00:01:34.320
to ask if she knew anyone who
would like to act on the radio

00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:38.640
it was the part of a boy in the soap opera
"Teulu'r Siop" (The Shop Family)

00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:41.828
the first radio soap opera
in Welsh, as it happens

00:01:41.828 --> 00:01:44.805
and she said "well Hywel",
that was me

00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:46.877
"Hywel's an actor"

00:01:46.877 --> 00:01:49.896
"Maybe he'd be interested"

00:01:49.896 --> 00:01:53.169
And then Wilbur Lloyd Roberts
gave me the script

00:01:53.169 --> 00:01:55.727
and I read the script straight away

00:01:55.728 --> 00:01:59.218
and he said "well, the boy can act"

00:01:59.218 --> 00:02:01.431
I didn't know how he could
possibly know that

00:02:01.431 --> 00:02:03.915
but it was a truly accurate prediction

00:02:03.915 --> 00:02:07.404
because what happened later on,
to fast forward a little bit

00:02:07.404 --> 00:02:11.738
I came here to Cardiff in 1960

00:02:11.738 --> 00:02:15.447
to study at the (Royal Welsh)
College of Music and Drama

00:02:15.452 --> 00:02:17.882
not to study acting,
funnily enough

00:02:17.882 --> 00:02:21.823
but to become a drama teacher

00:02:21.823 --> 00:02:26.161
And by the way, the college itself was
in the castle here in Cardiff

00:02:26.173 --> 00:02:28.573
inside the castle walls

00:02:28.573 --> 00:02:31.758
and it was a very happy two years.

00:02:31.763 --> 00:02:34.049
At the end of that spell

00:02:34.049 --> 00:02:36.258
I then got my certificate

00:02:36.258 --> 00:02:40.736
that proved that I was good enough
to be a drama teacher

00:02:40.736 --> 00:02:43.487
and I actually had
a job to go to

00:02:43.487 --> 00:02:46.169
A certificate as well as a job to go to

00:02:46.172 --> 00:02:48.342
just down the road in Kenfig Hill

00:02:48.342 --> 00:02:52.593
but what happened was that I had started
working part time that summer

00:02:52.593 --> 00:02:57.567
during the evenings
to earn some money

00:02:57.567 --> 00:03:00.803
before going on to start as a teacher

00:03:00.803 --> 00:03:04.021
And who came in to the place
where I was working

00:03:04.021 --> 00:03:06.542
The Borough Arms here in Cardiff

00:03:06.542 --> 00:03:08.055
but a crew from the BBC

00:03:08.055 --> 00:03:09.987
and to cut a long story short

00:03:09.987 --> 00:03:14.324
they asked me to go over to the studio
in two months time

00:03:14.324 --> 00:03:16.520
in order for me, or so I thought

00:03:16.521 --> 00:03:19.114
to have the chance to talk
about my work

00:03:19.118 --> 00:03:21.598
but when I arrived, what they wanted was

00:03:21.598 --> 00:03:26.272
for me to form part of the
"Heddiw" (Today) team

00:03:26.272 --> 00:03:28.890
a daily news roundup

00:03:28.890 --> 00:03:31.876
and I was to go out of the studio

00:03:31.876 --> 00:03:36.930
and bring a part of Wales
far away from the studio

00:03:36.934 --> 00:03:40.464
into the studio and onto the programme

00:03:40.464 --> 00:03:45.077
I received a job offer 
for three months

00:03:45.077 --> 00:03:48.521
and since then I've been working
with the BBC for fifty years

00:03:48.521 --> 00:03:51.215
in fact, this year I'm celebrating

00:03:51.215 --> 00:03:53.451
fifty years as a presenter

00:03:53.451 --> 00:03:55.401
through the medium of Welsh, no less

00:03:55.401 --> 00:03:57.569
I've been very lucky

00:03:57.569 --> 00:03:59.096
in the sense that, effectively

00:03:59.096 --> 00:04:02.936
I've been paid all these years

00:04:02.936 --> 00:04:04.796
to speak my own language

00:04:04.796 --> 00:04:08.071
or rather, to listen to other people
speaking Welsh

00:04:08.071 --> 00:04:09.478
So what have I done?

00:04:09.478 --> 00:04:12.654
during this time, I've been
around the world

00:04:12.664 --> 00:04:15.593
I've been to Florida in the USA

00:04:15.593 --> 00:04:18.775
I've also been to Patagonia
in South America

00:04:18.775 --> 00:04:21.828
I've been as far as Sarawak and Borneo

00:04:21.828 --> 00:04:23.827
I've travelled around Europe

00:04:23.827 --> 00:04:27.710
filming programmes for children

00:04:27.710 --> 00:04:29.123
back in the 70s

00:04:29.123 --> 00:04:33.324
then in the 80s I made a programme
called "Ar dy Feic" (On Your Bike)

00:04:33.324 --> 00:04:36.060
and I went as far as Beijing in China

00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:39.052
and it was an experience and a half
which I remember well

00:04:39.052 --> 00:04:42.201
So I count myself very fortunate

00:04:42.201 --> 00:04:46.651
to not only have been able to do
what comes naturally to me

00:04:46.651 --> 00:04:50.434
that is, to speak nineteen to the dozen

00:04:50.437 --> 00:04:53.157
but I've had such interesting work

00:04:53.157 --> 00:04:55.179
and such a variety of work too

00:04:55.179 --> 00:04:58.150
and I would later go down
another route

00:04:58.150 --> 00:05:00.384
and I started to write books

00:05:00.384 --> 00:05:02.882
I've written a book
about Hywel Griffith

00:05:02.882 --> 00:05:04.635
a very famous actor

00:05:04.635 --> 00:05:09.152
in a film I'm sure you all know,
'Ben Hur', with Charlton Heston

00:05:09.152 --> 00:05:14.610
well in that film Huw Griffith won
the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor

00:05:14.610 --> 00:05:17.636
well, I could obviously go on for hours

00:05:17.636 --> 00:05:19.717
talking about what I've done

00:05:19.717 --> 00:05:22.920
but that's a little snippet of my story

00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:25.388
it's been a pleasure chatting to you

00:05:25.388 --> 00:05:27.196
what's more, in my own language

00:05:27.196 --> 00:05:30.115
there are currently about half a million
of us here in Wales

00:05:30.115 --> 00:05:32.076
who speak the Welsh language

00:05:32.076 --> 00:05:34.038
and even though its numbers are dwindling

00:05:34.038 --> 00:05:36.909
there are significant campaigns

00:05:36.909 --> 00:05:38.329
to keep it alive

00:05:38.329 --> 00:05:41.208
So thank you very much for listening

00:05:41.208 --> 00:05:42.725
thank you for listening

00:05:42.725 --> 00:05:43.515
Goodbye!