A Child's Christmases In Wales is BBC's Christmas special that premiered on BBC Four on December 17, 2009.
Premise
The special centers on Owen Rhys who lives with his parents in a terraced house in the small mining town of Ferndale in South Wales during the 1980s. Every Christmas, Owen and his parents are visited by his two paternal uncles Huw and Gorwel and his cousin Maurice.
In a series of glimpses from three Christmases across the decade (1983, 1986 and 1989), Owen and Maurice grow from boys into young men, while Geraint and his brothers seem to regress to a childhood of sibling rivalry and Brenda watches in despair.
The years change but the Christmas routine remains the same. Geraint and Hugh, bicker and undermine each other; Maurice, and Owen are forced into competitive games which play out their respective fathers' rivalries; Gorwel, the black sheep of the family, arrives late, hands out badly judged presents, usually destroys the bathroom and bets every year for a White Christmas; while 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.
Cast
Actress/actor | Character |
---|---|
Ruth Jones | Mum |
Mark Lewis Jones | Dad |
Steve Speirs | Uncle Huw |
Paul Kaye | Uncle Gorwel |
Michael Sheen (voice) | Narrator |
Oliver Bunyan | Owen (young) |
Jamie Burch | Maurice (young) |
Mark Charles Williams | Owen (older) |
Rhys McLellan | Maurice (older) |
Alex Beckett | Carol Singer |
Notes
- During the 1989 Christmas, during an argument with Huw, Maurice says that he'll be 16 in two weeks. This would make Maurice's (and possibly Owen's) birth year 1974.