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| How should Welsh broadcasting reflect its diverse audience? | How should Welsh broadcasting reflect its diverse audience? |
| (5 months later) | |
| Just a month after the BBC began providing the lion's share of funding for Welsh-language broadcaster S4C, the corporation's director for Wales, Rhodri Talfan Davies, has raised key questions about how broadcasting in the nation as a whole should modernise. | Just a month after the BBC began providing the lion's share of funding for Welsh-language broadcaster S4C, the corporation's director for Wales, Rhodri Talfan Davies, has raised key questions about how broadcasting in the nation as a whole should modernise. |
| It is a touchy subject because, though S4C remains editorially independent, and both Cardiff-based bodies insist previous tensions are buried, BBC Wales also runs Radio Cymru, listened to by a modest 125,000 people a week and which plays a major role in producing programmes for the Welsh-language broadcaster. | It is a touchy subject because, though S4C remains editorially independent, and both Cardiff-based bodies insist previous tensions are buried, BBC Wales also runs Radio Cymru, listened to by a modest 125,000 people a week and which plays a major role in producing programmes for the Welsh-language broadcaster. |
| Davies pointed out in a keynote speech at the Celtic Media Festival in Swansea last week that the most recent census, published four months ago, showed that 19% of the population, or 450,000 people, spoke Welsh – down from 21% a decade ago. Davies noted that 10 years ago 40% of school age children could speak Welsh, but now only 24% of that age group can do so. | Davies pointed out in a keynote speech at the Celtic Media Festival in Swansea last week that the most recent census, published four months ago, showed that 19% of the population, or 450,000 people, spoke Welsh – down from 21% a decade ago. Davies noted that 10 years ago 40% of school age children could speak Welsh, but now only 24% of that age group can do so. |
| He observed that the language seemed "fragile", and in retreat in traditional heartlands, including Ceredigion (where S4C is currently making Hinterland/Y Gwyll, its detective drama in back to back English and Welsh versions, using the same actors). | He observed that the language seemed "fragile", and in retreat in traditional heartlands, including Ceredigion (where S4C is currently making Hinterland/Y Gwyll, its detective drama in back to back English and Welsh versions, using the same actors). |
| To judge by the reaction, which included views aired on a phone-in, it was not that popular a speech. English speakers are the majority in Wales, and their resentment of Welsh programmes intruding on BBC Wales schedules was alleviated by the launch of S4C. Satellite television was most eagerly embraced in Wales in the 90s, as an escape. | To judge by the reaction, which included views aired on a phone-in, it was not that popular a speech. English speakers are the majority in Wales, and their resentment of Welsh programmes intruding on BBC Wales schedules was alleviated by the launch of S4C. Satellite television was most eagerly embraced in Wales in the 90s, as an escape. |
| Any visitor to Wales is left in no doubt it is land of two equal languages: all communications appear in both. It is hard not to learn that "Araf" painted on the road means "Slow". In the course of any social encounter such as the festival, Welsh speakers move in and out of English. | Any visitor to Wales is left in no doubt it is land of two equal languages: all communications appear in both. It is hard not to learn that "Araf" painted on the road means "Slow". In the course of any social encounter such as the festival, Welsh speakers move in and out of English. |
| But Davies's point was that "just as lives in Wales are becoming more messy, media services are more rigid and uniform": they are either English language or Welsh, and he argued that they provide too few access points for people who speak a bit of Welsh. Before S4C began in 1982, one would "stumble across Welsh" on BBC1 or HTV Wales; arguably the language had a higher profile than now. | But Davies's point was that "just as lives in Wales are becoming more messy, media services are more rigid and uniform": they are either English language or Welsh, and he argued that they provide too few access points for people who speak a bit of Welsh. Before S4C began in 1982, one would "stumble across Welsh" on BBC1 or HTV Wales; arguably the language had a higher profile than now. |
| BBC Wales delegates said that in news reports on the Easter freeze, farmers in Bala, North Wales, who were clearly Welsh speakers, were made to contribute in English. BBC Wales drama production is a success story – from Doctor Who, Wizards & Aliens, Casualty and upcoming Toby Whithouse spy drama The Game. But little in that raft of success reflects Wales, in the way The Killing put Denmark on the map. | BBC Wales delegates said that in news reports on the Easter freeze, farmers in Bala, North Wales, who were clearly Welsh speakers, were made to contribute in English. BBC Wales drama production is a success story – from Doctor Who, Wizards & Aliens, Casualty and upcoming Toby Whithouse spy drama The Game. But little in that raft of success reflects Wales, in the way The Killing put Denmark on the map. |
| Davies did not plan for Radio Cymru to become bi-lingual. But he said its "priority is to serve its audience rather than save a language", a reference to the need to become more popular and include English music. Indeed, he cannily praised a recent Radio Cymru series on the Welsh poet RS Thomas, (who only learnt Welsh as an adult and wrote his poetry in English). And he could have added that Swansea's Dylan Thomas used English too, but in a Welsh way. | Davies did not plan for Radio Cymru to become bi-lingual. But he said its "priority is to serve its audience rather than save a language", a reference to the need to become more popular and include English music. Indeed, he cannily praised a recent Radio Cymru series on the Welsh poet RS Thomas, (who only learnt Welsh as an adult and wrote his poetry in English). And he could have added that Swansea's Dylan Thomas used English too, but in a Welsh way. |
| If life in Wales is messy and bi-lingual, does that undermine S4C's Welsh-language mission, or suggest it is ineffective? Carry the logic through, and perhaps Hinterland/Y Gwyll should be in one version, a mix of Welsh and English, to suit the new reality. Except that no one yet has the confidence to make it that way. | If life in Wales is messy and bi-lingual, does that undermine S4C's Welsh-language mission, or suggest it is ineffective? Carry the logic through, and perhaps Hinterland/Y Gwyll should be in one version, a mix of Welsh and English, to suit the new reality. Except that no one yet has the confidence to make it that way. |
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