WIKITONGUES: Hywel speaking Welsh

My name is Hywel Gwynfryn

and I'm a broadcaster at the BBC

BBC Cymru here in the capital, Cardiff

where I live as well as work

But my journey starts back in 1942

That's when I was born in
Llangefni, in Anglesey

A small island on the
north coast of Wales.

Then I went to primary school
when I was about six

and I had to learn English

because Welsh was my first language

Welsh was the language we spoke
as a family and at home

and it had been that way for years

certainly, when I was at
school in Llangefni

around 95% of the island's
population spoke Welsh

but that figure has dropped
quite a lot since then

Anyway, after primary school
I went to secondary school

and I thoroughly enjoyed
myself there

because it was there that I developed
an interest in acting

and I also had the chance to
visit the studios in Bangor

and be a radio actor

My mother was an actress herself

and I would go with
her to the studio

to watch the other actors while
I sat quietly in the corner

and then one day, I had
the chance to act

and I remember it well

the producer came up to my mother

to ask if she knew anyone who
would like to act on the radio

it was the part of a boy in the soap opera
"Teulu'r Siop" (The Shop Family)

the first radio soap opera
in Welsh, as it happens

and she said "well Hywel",
that was me

"Hywel's an actor"

"Maybe he'd be interested"

And then Wilbur Lloyd Roberts
gave me the script

and I read the script straight away

and he said "well, the boy can act"

I didn't know how he could
possibly know that

but it was a truly accurate prediction

because what happened later on,
to fast forward a little bit

I came here to Cardiff in 1960

to study at the (Royal Welsh)
College of Music and Drama

not to study acting,
funnily enough

but to become a drama teacher

And by the way, the college itself was
in the castle here in Cardiff

inside the castle walls

and it was a very happy two years.

At the end of that spell

I then got my certificate

that proved that I was good enough
to be a drama teacher

and I actually had
a job to go to

A certificate as well as a job to go to

just down the road in Kenfig Hill

but what happened was that I had started
working part time that summer

during the evenings
to earn some money

before going on to start as a teacher

And who came in to the place
where I was working

The Borough Arms here in Cardiff

but a crew from the BBC

and to cut a long story short

they asked me to go over to the studio
in two months time

in order for me, or so I thought

to have the chance to talk
about my work

but when I arrived, what they wanted was

for me to form part of the
"Heddiw" (Today) team

a daily news roundup

and I was to go out of the studio

and bring a part of Wales
far away from the studio

into the studio and onto the programme

I received a job offer
for three months

and since then I've been working
with the BBC for fifty years

in fact, this year I'm celebrating

fifty years as a presenter

through the medium of Welsh, no less

I've been very lucky

in the sense that, effectively

I've been paid all these years

to speak my own language

or rather, to listen to other people
speaking Welsh

So what have I done?

during this time, I've been
around the world

I've been to Florida in the USA

I've also been to Patagonia
in South America

I've been as far as Sarawak and Borneo

I've travelled around Europe

filming programmes for children

back in the 70s

then in the 80s I made a programme
called "Ar dy Feic" (On Your Bike)

and I went as far as Beijing in China

and it was an experience and a half
which I remember well

So I count myself very fortunate

to not only have been able to do
what comes naturally to me

that is, to speak nineteen to the dozen

but I've had such interesting work

and such a variety of work too

and I would later go down
another route

and I started to write books

I've written a book
about Hywel Griffith

a very famous actor

in a film I'm sure you all know,
'Ben Hur', with Charlton Heston

well in that film Huw Griffith won
the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor

well, I could obviously go on for hours

talking about what I've done

but that's a little snippet of my story

it's been a pleasure chatting to you

what's more, in my own language

there are currently about half a million
of us here in Wales

who speak the Welsh language

and even though its numbers are dwindling

there are significant campaigns

to keep it alive

So thank you very much for listening

thank you for listening

Goodbye!