THEY CANT STOP US SIGNING: FILM AND TELEVISION AND THE REPRESENTATION OF THE WELSH
GAN David Edwards
15 January 2026
Llanelli WEA members, and the Deputy Chair of Llanelli Rural District Council, were treated to a comprehensive review of Wales in film and TV by Dr Perrins, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Glamorgan/University of South Wales.
Dr Perrins started by commenting that Wales never had it's own film industry until the relatively recent coming of BBC and S4C - so the early representation of our country was largely dependent on the views of outsiders.
His talk, illustrated by a selection of film and TV clips, was based on his forthcoming book, ' They can't stop us Singing', and critically reviewed a range of productions starting with 'How Green Was my Valley', a film which he saw as a trope for an idealised community, living out certain tensions in the world of work. Early on, It implanted a set of Welsh paradigms in the minds of its world wide audience. Moving to consider British documentary style films such as The Citadel, The Proud Valley, and The Blue Scar, Darryl went on to reference the contribution made by Welsh actors such as Stanley Baker and Richard Burton, who established a place for Wales in post second world war cinema: "Burton and Baker and the Welsh style swagger".
The 1970s were epitomised by the work of Karl Francis, who used a mix of actors and local people to produce what Darryl described as 'oppositional cinema' in productions such as 'Ms Rhymney Valley' , a documentary narrative of 1979.
Moving swiftly along, as his talk had been so all embracing, Darryl covered the concept of 'Wales as a process' in which productions make and remake the concept of the country year by year, for example in 'Twin Town', and the cultural shift depicted in 'Hinterland'. Remembering to include the contribution made by comedy, reference was made to the way in which it can be a form in which it is safe to overcome inhibitions, such as in the Valley based 'Stella Stella', and of course 'Gavin and Stacey'.
The talk, which must have embraced a whole academic terms worth of content, was enthusiastically received by WEAs audience, before they stepped out into an evening swathed by authentic Celtic mist.
