A Child's Christmases In Wales
A Child's Christmases In Wales

A Child's Christmases In Wales

  • TV comedy drama
  • BBC Four
  • 2009
  • 1 episode

A one-off period comedy, peeping into the lives of a south Wales family's Christmases across the 1980s. Written by Mark Watson. Also features Ruth Jones, Mark Lewis Jones, Steve Speirs, Paul Kaye, Oliver Bunyan and more.

A Child's Christmases In Wales. Image shows from L to R: Mum (Ruth Jones), Young Owen (Oliver Bunyan), Dad (Mark Lewis Jones)

Key details

Genre
Comedy Drama
Broadcast
2009
Channel
BBC Four
Episodes
1
Creator
Dylan Thomas
Stars
Ruth Jones, Mark Lewis Jones, Steve Speirs, Paul Kaye, Oliver Bunyan, Jamie Burch, Mark Charles Williams, Rhys McLellan and more
Writer
Mark Watson
Director
Christine Gernon
Producers
Steve Doherty, Juliet Charlesworth, Gareth Rees, David Peet and Dic Jones
Companies

Child's Christmas in Wales evoked by Dylan Thomas, and the inspiration for this captivating story, is a montage of many idyllic, colourful festive seasons rolled into one delicious dream. But for young Owen Rhys, growing up in a terraced house in Eighties South Wales, Christmas is a rather less poetic affair - though just as eventful.

Every Christmas, the peace and quiet of Owen's house - where he lives with his pessimistic father and his obsessively tidy mother - is shattered by the arrival of three family members: Owen's two uncles and his cousin, Maurice. In a series of glimpses from three Christmases across the decade, Owen and Maurice grow from boys into young men, while his dad and uncles seem to regress to a childhood of sibling rivalry and Owen's mum watches in despair.

The years change but the Christmas routine remains the same. Dad and his older brother, Hugh, bicker and undermine each other; Hugh's son, Maurice, and Owen are forced into competitive games which play out their respective fathers' rivalries; the youngest brother, Gorwel, the black sheep of the family, arrives late, hands out badly judged presents and usually destroys the bathroom; while Owen's mother, Brenda, tries to prevent everything from going to pieces.

Yet despite all this antagonism there is a peculiar joy in the certainty that they couldn't really have Christmas without the family.

Additional details

Production
Studio
Picture
Colour
Soundtrack
Music by Paul Clark.

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Thursday 17th December 2009 at 10pm on BBC Four
Episode length
1 hour
Most recent repeats
  • Thursday 4th December 2014 at 1:45am on Gold
  • Wednesday 3rd December 2014 at 11:00pm on Gold
  • Saturday 23rd August 2014 at 2:00am on Gold