In the 1970's, a government report recommended that the planned
fourth national TV channel be bilingual in Wales. When plans for
Channel 4 were drawn up by the new conservative administration under
Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980's, this recommendation (and
her own commitment to uphold this idea) was dropped.
A formidable campaign was launched by Cymdeithas Yr Iaith (The Welsh
Language Society), culminating in a hunger strike by Plaid Cymru
leader, Gwynfor Evans. Realizing that creating a Welsh martyr could
have dangerous ramifications, Margaret Thatcher's government capitulated,
giving birth to Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) in 1982. Together with
the Welsh language BBC Radio Cymru, S4C has produced many popular
Welsh learners programmes and helped to preserve one Europe's oldest
languages.
S4C's remit is to provide a service which is in the Welsh language
in peak viewing hours. S4C does not produce programmes of its own;
instead, it commissions programmes in Welsh from the BBC and independent
producers. It has particularly developed a reputation for commissioning
cartoons, such as SuperTed (which won a BAFTA in 1987), Fireman
Sam (Sam Tân) and Shakespeare: The Animated Tales. BBC Wales
fulfills its public service requirement by producing programmes
in Welsh for S4C, including Newyddion, S4C's news bulletin, and
a soap opera, Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley).
Pobl Y Cwm is arguably S4C's biggest success, being shown in many
countries across the world. First aired in 1974, it is made for
S4C by BBC Wales and gave Hollywood actor Ioan Gruffudd his first
big TV break. It was allowed into the Royal Television Society Hall
of Fame in October of 2004. In non-peak hours on analogue, S4C shows
programmes produced for Channel 4 in the rest of the UK (usually
a few days later).
TV movies produced for S4C have received some good foreign reviews
— Hedd Wyn being nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar
in 1993 and Solomon & Gaenor being nominated in 1999.
To make Welsh language programmes accessible to English speakers
they all carry English subtitles which are viewed as a Teletext
page (888, promoted as transl888); the usual Welsh subtitles are
also available. |
