An obscurantist writes...
When commercial television started in the provinces in 1957 we, in Bristol, shared our service with South Wales. It was provided by TWW ...Television Wales & West. There was a small number of programmes in Welsh, including an evening news bulletin. Still a small boy, I used to turn on our Ekco television set to listen to these broadcasts; I couldn't understand a word, but I loved to hear it. Others constantly moaned about "Welsh programmes" on their televisions. Had they no poetry in their souls? If they didn't like it, couldn't they find something else to do for ten minutes? In later life it occurred to me that the survival, against all the odds, for 1,500 years, of the aboriginal language of the whole of Britain, little more than a hundred miles from London, was one of the most remarkable things about our remarkable and mysterious islands. I have remained a partisan of Wales and the Welsh.
Since moving to East Anglia eleven years ago the thing I have missed is the soft, maritime light of the West. Just look at that distant hillside. It's almost a wall of grey, but subtle gradations of tone, seen through the damp air, create the semblance of trees. Never mind, for the moment, that they are Forestry Commission sitka spruce. I have sometimes thought of "the Valleys" as the place where I'd like to spend my declining years. Everything is a little behind the times here (regulars will remember "Fray's Law") and there is an air of benign neglect. These are things of which I approve. Traffic wardens make a fortune up here, I was told. With no garages or driveways and "double yellows" outside their houses, where are the residents to park? The wardens look benignly upon their predicament and, on their occasional patrols of these streets, may, for a small consideration, be persuaded to turn a blind eye to infringements of the regulations. This humane, informal commerce also meets with my approval. Looked upon with disfavour by officialdom, because untaxable, it will disappear in the coming cashless future.
An obscurantist writes...
When commercial television started in the provinces in 1957 we, in Bristol, shared our service with South Wales. It was provided by TWW ...Television Wales & West. There was a small number of programmes in Welsh, including an evening news bulletin. Still a small boy, I used to turn on our Ekco television set to listen to these broadcasts; I couldn't understand a word, but I loved to hear it. Others constantly moaned about "Welsh programmes" on their televisions. Had they no poetry in their souls? If they didn't like it, couldn't they find something else to do for ten minutes? In later life it occurred to me that the survival, against all the odds, for 1,500 years, of the aboriginal language of the whole of Britain, little more than a hundred miles from London, was one of the most remarkable things about our remarkable and mysterious islands. I have remained a partisan of Wales and the Welsh.
Since moving to East Anglia eleven years ago the thing I have missed is the soft, maritime light of the West. Just look at that distant hillside. It's almost a wall of grey, but subtle gradations of tone, seen through the damp air, create the semblance of trees. Never mind, for the moment, that they are Forestry Commission sitka spruce. I have sometimes thought of "the Valleys" as the place where I'd like to spend my declining years. Everything is a little behind the times here (regulars will remember "Fray's Law") and there is an air of benign neglect. These are things of which I approve. Traffic wardens make a fortune up here, I was told. With no garages or driveways and "double yellows" outside their houses, where are the residents to park? The wardens look benignly upon their predicament and, on their occasional patrols of these streets, may, for a small consideration, be persuaded to turn a blind eye to infringements of the regulations. This humane, informal commerce also meets with my approval. Looked upon with disfavour by officialdom, because untaxable, it will disappear in the coming cashless future.