You have no idea have long it took me to put this one together. Sigh.
Anyway, a while ago, I decided to give S4C's Caerdydd a try. Then we got a little bit addicted and now it's compulsory Sunday night viewing. It's just brilliant. You really don't get this kind of thing on mainstream TV anymore, which is sad. I really miss mopey arsed indie rock groups doing end title songs.
We especially like the evil red-haired Natasha (whom we last spotted at Gavin & Stacey's wedding, having fun with Fingers) who tries so hard to speak Welsh but can't so uses an endless stream of borrowed words, resulting in marvellous Welsh along the lines of “…going out for a piss up on the town” (that was in Welsh, by the way. See the problem?). Then she rails against the “Taffia”. Plus Ceri, with her London ways, is always entertaining – how does she afford that flat next to the Royal Festival Hall?
Anyway, here's how last night's episode ended – you can catch the repeat on Thursday if you want, although the Eisteddfod keeps messing the timing up so it might not be at 9pm as usual. Caerdydd's worth watching if you've seen Torchwood for example, simply to get a baseline on what standard Welsh acting is – so much less repressed than English acting, if we feel like indulging in stereotypes for a moment.
Don't worry, I've embedded both English and Welsh subtitles in it (which is why it took so bloody long).
Incidentally, if you recognise 'Ceri' (Siwan Morris), that's probably because you saw Russell T Davies's Mine All Mine - she played eldest daughter Maria Vivaldi. If you missed that particular delight, tune in next Thursday when it'll be “Today's Joanna Page”.
PS S4C is 134 on your Sky box, if you have one
PPS Keep your ears open for the Welsh word for knife (although it's been 'soft mutated') if you want to know why it's such a hard language to pronounce for lazy English people like me.
Updates and related entries
June 12, 2008:
A look at Russell T Davies' Mine All Mine
June 2, 2008 | Reply
Less than five minutes and I got caught up in it, and the Welsh wasn't the blockade I thought it would be. Certainly more graphic than you'd get in any American soap opera, daytime or prime time!
June 2, 2008 | Reply
Told you it was brilliant. Incidentally, you can watch the latest episodes online and they are subtitled in both English and Welsh. If you're using Windows (which is the only easy way to do. Don't make me explain the Mac way - it's not easy) then you can find the captioning options in Window Media Player's Play menu, which you can get by holding down the Alt key since there's no menu bar.