Pobol y Cwm

Watched this for the first time tonight, now that I'm aware the 18.00 showing on S4C are the subtitled ones.

I thought I'd be completely lost as to who everyone was and what was going on because I'd never watched before, and on top of that because my Welsh is limited to a couple of basis phrases, but I actually found it really easy to know more or less what was going on and who a lot of the characters are in relation to each other.

It really is very similar to Ros na Rún. Enjoyed it a lot - shall be sticking with it for the foreseeable future anyway.

Ah here, I've only started watching and now there's a 2 week break. Typical!

Pobol y Cwm has been absolutely brilliant recently. For me, it's up there with Emmerdale as the best soap. It's a shame more people here on the soap forum don't watch because it really is great, and you do start to understand some of the dialogue the more you watch - sometimes I forget I'm even reading subtitles, because I get so caught up in the story.

Chester is a right little s**t - if he carries on like this he'd be able to give Joffrey Baratheon or Ramsay Bolton a run for their money...

It's a shame really. Would love to see it get more recognition. The only UK soaps I bother at all with anymore are Pobol y Cwm and Emmerdale, as well as the 3 Irish soaps and Neighbours, but I consider Pobol y Cwm and Emmerdale to be the most consistently good and strongest of the bunch.

Go Harvey Go (or anyone else who reads this thread), have you watched the other Welsh soap Rownd a Rownd? Do you know if there's any use in it?

Go Harvey Go wrote: »

I must admit, it's been a while since I last looked at Rownd a Rownd.

It is, of course, the Welsh Hollyoaks - though it's a bit more restrained and a bit less naughty than the Chester soap.

Funnily enough, both soaps began the same year (1995), while 'Oaks creator Phil Redmond had two stints as a consultant to RaR (on its launch and its 10th anniversary respectively).

Sorry it took so long to reply, BTW - I've repeatedly gotten carried away these last four weeks.

No worries. Gave it a shot, but couldn't really get into it. Think I'll just stick with Pobol y Cwm, which is great at the moment.

I have a horrible feeling that they're building up for something really really bad to happen to either Iolo or Sion, possibly both.

This week's episodes with just a handful of characters overall, and Sion's scenes being away from the village were class.

The Wolverine wrote: »

Thanks for posting about this. I've watched 3 episodes so far and am loving it

It's on top form at the moment so good time to be jumping on board, but even a poor episode is still great. The cast are all great and it's obvious the writers know and care about the characters.

The Wolverine wrote: »

Yeah between this and Ros na Run I'm all set, amazing what can be done in smaller budgets when you have good writers and actors.

Compared to the likes of Fair City :pac:

I also spotted something I think is called "round and round"? On Tuesday's and Thursday's only 30mins as well.

I have a record set for it anyway is it new anyone know? Seems to be a soap anyway

Round a Round is good as well - it's kinda like if Pobol y Cwm/Ros na Rún and Hollyoaks had a baby... It's 21 years going at this stage, and again the writer's seem to know the characters well.

The S4C player has the last months worth of episodes of Pobol y Cwm if you're interested in getting up to speed a bit quicker... http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=531290739

You'll also find Rownd a Rownd on there, but it's only back from summer break so there's only the last 2 episodes of last season and the first 2 of this season on there at the moment...
http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=529479655

There's a button to turn subtitles on once the episode starts playing. I actually really like the S4C player, they throw one ad in at the beginning and then leave you to your show, plus google chrome automatically translates the pages for me which makes it easier to navigate.

The Wolverine wrote: »

What was Sion Whites story? What was his job and what did he go to prison for?

He looks like a lad that would play a vicar

Don't think he was actually a Vicar, but he was essentially the face of the church and led most of their services - he also does translation work for his main job though. He never went to prison, but he was found guilty of embezzling money from the church to buy the pub (and then there was a whole thing where Megan found out and he panicked to get the money back so she'd keep quiet about it, which is how Garry got involved and now owns the pub). He was married to Britt (Garry's sister) and their marriage essentially fell apart on account of the whole situation. He got found out by the police when Chester (Britt's son) found out about everything and ratted Sion out. Then I can't really remember why but Chester was pissed at Sion and Garry so burned down the chapel while all 3 of them were inside in a weird revenge, which is why they had the festival to raise money for the church. Anyway, Sion went to trial and was given a suspended sentence with something like 7 months house arrest, which is when he went a bit doolally feeling that wasn't punishment enough gave away everything in his gaff for free.

Hope that clears things up slightly (missed a bit of the middle of that story myself, so bit hazy on some of the details)

The Wolverine wrote: »

What is the point of that Dol or at least the actress, she speaks more English than Welsh

Dol was brought into it last year and her general story is that she learned Welsh in school so understands fairly well, but doesn't have a lot of confidence speaking it - she asked everyone in the village when she first arrived to only speak Welsh to her as it'd help her learn faster and gradually she has spoken more and more Welsh since she arrived (she hasn't been in it that long - less than a year I think). It's common enough that a lot of Welsh people are like that and the producers wanted to represent it in the series - pretty much the same for a lot of people with Gaeilge actually, people understand more than they can speak.

I think the actress who plays Dol isn't a fluent Welsh speaker anyway, so she's similar to the character - actually spotted her in Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children when I watched the other day, she had a very small cameo in it.

The Wolverine wrote: »

How is Sion Chester's grandfather? Does he have another son who was with Brit?

Sion was Chester's Stepfather - Sion and Britt were married. Sion is Granddad to Arwen (Ffion's daughter). He has 2 other sons (Macs & Huw) other than Iolo who have both left the show - I think Macs is Ffion's dad, he seems to get a mention every so often. There's been at least 2 actors who have played Macs, but originally he was played by Iwan Rheon (best known as Simon from Misfits & Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones).

The Wolverine wrote: »

Wow some good acting talent has come from there so, Ioan Gruffudd too

Yeah, as far as I know, Ioan Gruffudd and Iwan Rheon are the two biggest names to have been in it, but that's not bad going.

Believe it or not there was actually a crossover week of Pobol Y Cwm and Ros na Rún at one point there (12 years ago) to celebrate the Celtic Languages. I think the general plot was that several of the Cwmderi gang travelled to Spiddal for some reason or other, but Iwan Rheon was one of them (of the current Pobol cast I believe Sion and Dai were there). Róise (as you can probably guess from the picture) and Peadar were definitely involved from the Ros na Rún side, but not sure who else - I'd assume Tadhg, Séamus and Máire would've been a part of it anyway.

On a side note, I've started doing Welsh lessons on the Duolingo app there last week and I'm pleasantly surprised with the amount I had already kinda picked up from Pobol y Cwm and Rownd a Rownd subconciously.