The Wales Thread

Well in the absence of the Wales Today & HTV News thread, that almost became the 2-man conversation that was the "TVDragon and Jez2003 Thread", I thought I’d open it up a bit to emcompass all things presentation and Welsh. I’ve wanted to say stuff about BBC Wales and S4C~ before and it would’ve been OT, so..

There’s a new series with Huw Edwards starting on Wednesdays about the history of the Welsh language, which is his mother tongue – which looks ok. Continuing Huw’s role as programme writer and host type thing, along with Thursday nights’ The Exchange programme, which is also quite good [has finished now though]. It’s like Question Time, but for Wales, in case anyone doesn’t know. If anyone wants to watch The Story of Welsh outside of Wales, it’s repeated on BBC 2W and BBC4 at various points in the week.

Well now everyone is saying how BBC One is becoming more regional than ITV now. And you can’t really compare BBC One NW to Granada, cos of course apart from news, BBC One NW only have Inside Out to their regional tally. So I thought BBC Wales and ITV1Wales might be a better comparison. So for the week ahead, the regional variations from network, excepting news ~


BBC One Wales
Sat 04 Jan Wales On Saturday – 45mins
Sun 05 Jan The Story of Welsh – 5mins [pushing film back 5mins – how bizarre]
Mon 06 Jan Remember Wales – 30mins
Wed 08 Jan The Story of Welsh – 30mins
--Total: 1hr 50mins [plus an extra sign-zone programme on Thursday]

ITV1 Wales
Sun 05 Jan Soccer Sunday – 30mins **Not a normal Sunday for regional programmes**
Tue 07 Jan The Ferret – 30mins
Wed 08 Jan Top Sport – 30mins
Thu 09 Jan Country Lives; Wales This Week – 60mins
Fri 10 Jan Club Life [with bloody Bernard Manning]; Shotgun Slideshow – 60mins
--Total: 3hrs30mins

So the BBC still has a way to go to catch HTV in terms of regional output, and it’s not a normal Sunday there either. BBC Wales are producing 3 non-news programmes next week on BBC One Wales.

S4C~ have gone back to their normal idents now, not a bad thing though. Haven’t spotted any new year ones, like the Magic Hat, Shower head and Drama Nos Sul ones last year. But then we have had Egg Cup and Speaker recently – and how great are they.. Ah well, never mind.

Oh, and couple of pics from yesterday’s HTV News to keep the ITV mob happy ~

Juliet Piper, returning to the news after a long break with The Ferret, with new hair
http://members.lycos.co.uk/tindragon/HTVJulietPiper.jpg

And a miserable Catherine Evan-Williams in a silly hat and brooch..
http://members.lycos.co.uk/tindragon/HTVCatherineEvanWilliams.jpg

Oh it nice to see a familiar face is coming back to HTV News.

Well the following Sunday is slightly better

12th - 17th January 2003

Sunday - Your Centuary and Soccer Sunday = 60 mins
Tuesday - The Ferret = 30 mins
Wednesday - Top Sport = 60 mins
Thursday - Country Lives, Wales this week = 60 mins
Friday - Clublife and Shotgun slideshow = 60 mins

= 4 hrs 30 mins

So more or less the same next week too

Add to that the HTV News at 6pm and thats 2 1/2 hrs =7 hrs and 2 hrs for bulletins and thats 9 hrs - I was told HTV needed to screen 10 hrs a week unless the rules have changed?

I think that's another Ident I haven't seen. Do you happen to have any caps of it?

Shame the Christmas Idents have gone. I really liked those.

Slightly random and I doubt anyone will know the answer to this, but does anyone know if S4C~ do Work Experience?

I'm doing it next year and live close to the S4C building and my school is only about 200 metres away from it, so I'm thinking of doing work experience there if I could. Does anyone happen to know?

I dont know abot S4C to tell you the truth but are you interested in TV journalism or something? Are you Welsh speaking cos you might need to be to work at S4C

I can't speak much Welsh at all, but I am interested in working in Television.

I guess if the S4C don't do Work Experience, BBC Cymru Wales might.

Im sure you wouldnt be expected to speak welsh if you are going there for Work Experiece but if you wanted to work there as a journalist/reporter or whatever you would need to I think. I would write to them and ask.

Btw does anyone know if all the announcers and newsreaders on HTV have to speak Welsh? I know wiggy (Mr Haines Davies) and a few others do but do they all?

Chris the address for S4C I think is

S4C
Parc ty glas
Llanishen
Cardiff
CF4 5DU

And HTV

HTV
The Television Centre
Culverhouse Cross
Cardiff
CF5 6XJ

Personally I would love to work at HTV as im much more interested in them than S4C!

On HTV? I very much doubt it. Why would they need to? All of the programmes for the channel and announcements are in English. The only welsh programmes they make are for S4C, so they'd probably hire welsh speakers specificly for those programmes.

Sorry I just saw you said BBC not HTV - sorry I dont know anything about the BBC

Thanks Jez, even though I knew the S4C one already.

I think I'd prefur to work at BBC Wales than HTV, especially now they've been ITV1ised.

Anyway, I have a year to go yet until I have to actually do the Work Experience, so I may as well wait a bit yet.