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My name is Hywel Gwynfryn
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and I'm a broadcaster at the BBC
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BBC Cymru here in the capital, Cardiff
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where I live as well as work
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But my journey starts back in 1942
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That's when I was born in
Llangefni, in Anglesey
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A small island on the
north coast of Wales.
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Then I went to primary school
when I was about six
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and I had to learn English
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because Welsh was my first language
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Welsh was the language we spoke
as a family and at home
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and it had been that way for years
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certainly, when I was at
school in Llangefni
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around 95% of the island's
population spoke Welsh
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but that figure has dropped
quite a lot since then
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Anyway, after primary school
I went to secondary school
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and I thoroughly enjoyed
myself there
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because it was there that I developed
an interest in acting
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and I also had the chance to
visit the studios in Bangor
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and be a radio actor
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My mother was an actress herself
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and I would go with
her to the studio
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to watch the other actors while
I sat quietly in the corner
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and then one day, I had
the chance to act
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and I remember it well
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the producer came up to my mother
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to ask if she knew anyone who
would like to act on the radio
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it was the part of a boy in the soap opera
"Teulu'r Siop" (The Shop Family)
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the first radio soap opera
in Welsh, as it happens
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and she said "well Hywel",
that was me
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"Hywel's an actor"
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"Maybe he'd be interested"
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And then Wilbur Lloyd Roberts
gave me the script
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and I read the script straight away
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and he said "well, the boy can act"
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I didn't know how he could
possibly know that
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but it was a truly accurate prediction
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because what happened later on,
to fast forward a little bit
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I came here to Cardiff in 1960
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to study at the (Royal Welsh)
College of Music and Drama
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not to study acting,
funnily enough
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but to become a drama teacher
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And by the way, the college itself was
in the castle here in Cardiff
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inside the castle walls
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and it was a very happy two years.
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At the end of that spell
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I then got my certificate
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that proved that I was good enough
to be a drama teacher
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and I actually had
a job to go to
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A certificate as well as a job to go to
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just down the road in Kenfig Hill
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but what happened was that I had started
working part time that summer
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during the evenings
to earn some money
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before going on to start as a teacher
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And who came in to the place
where I was working
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The Borough Arms here in Cardiff
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but a crew from the BBC
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and to cut a long story short
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they asked me to go over to the studio
in two months time
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in order for me, or so I thought
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to have the chance to talk
about my work
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but when I arrived, what they wanted was
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for me to form part of the
"Heddiw" (Today) team
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a daily news roundup
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and I was to go out of the studio
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and bring a part of Wales
far away from the studio
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into the studio and onto the programme
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I received a job offer
for three months
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and since then I've been working
with the BBC for fifty years
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in fact, this year I'm celebrating
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fifty years as a presenter
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through the medium of Welsh, no less
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I've been very lucky
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in the sense that, effectively
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I've been paid all these years
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to speak my own language
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or rather, to listen to other people
speaking Welsh
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So what have I done?
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during this time, I've been
around the world
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I've been to Florida in the USA
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I've also been to Patagonia
in South America
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I've been as far as Sarawak and Borneo
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I've travelled around Europe
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filming programmes for children
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back in the 70s
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then in the 80s I made a programme
called "Ar dy Feic" (On Your Bike)
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and I went as far as Beijing in China
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and it was an experience and a half
which I remember well
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So I count myself very fortunate
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to not only have been able to do
what comes naturally to me
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that is, to speak nineteen to the dozen
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but I've had such interesting work
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and such a variety of work too
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and I would later go down
another route
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and I started to write books
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I've written a book
about Hywel Griffith
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a very famous actor
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in a film I'm sure you all know,
'Ben Hur', with Charlton Heston
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well in that film Huw Griffith won
the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
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well, I could obviously go on for hours
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talking about what I've done
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but that's a little snippet of my story
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it's been a pleasure chatting to you
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what's more, in my own language
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there are currently about half a million
of us here in Wales
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who speak the Welsh language
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and even though its numbers are dwindling
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there are significant campaigns
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to keep it alive
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So thank you very much for listening
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thank you for listening
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Goodbye!