Un Bore Mercher Series 2 Airs on Sunday Nights at 9Pm on S4c

UN BORE MERCHER SERIES 2 AIRS ON SUNDAY NIGHTS AT 9PM ON S4C

The hotly-anticipated second series of Vox Pictures’ record-breaking drama Un Bore Mercher (6 x 60’) is currently airing on Sunday nights at 9pm on S4C before Keeping Faith has its BBC network outing in the summer.

The first series was broadcast in Welsh as Un Bore Mercher and then in English in Wales on BBC One Wales and then nationally on BBC One as Keeping Faith. The series received outstanding ratings and went on to break BBC iPlayer records.

Starring Eve Myles (Cold Feet, A Very English Scandal, Victoria, Broadchurch) the 8-part thriller tells the story of lawyer, wife and mother Faith Howells (Myles) as she fights to find the truth behind the sudden disappearance of her husband. Series two - written by Matthew Hall and Pip Broughton – joins her as she attempts to pick up the pieces of her life and marriage.

Eve Myles says: “I’m thrilled that this brilliantly written drama found such a place in the audience’s heart and I’m so excited to be back in the beautiful west Wales landscape working with a terrifically creative and talented team - it’s a joy.”

Adrian Bate, Executive Producer for Vox Pictures says: "After the phenomenal multi-platform success of the first season, Vox are delighted to be working again with the BBC, S4C and Nevision to bring Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith back for what promises to be another series full of emotional intrigue for Faith and her family.”

Originally developed by S4C as Un Bore Mercher and as Keeping Faith for BBC Wales, the series is produced by Vox Pictures in association with APC / Nevision and with support from Welsh Business Finance. The directors are Pip Broughton and Judith Dine. The producers are Gwenllian Gravelle and Pip Broughton.

S4C is available on all TV platforms in Wales and across the UK on Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media. The Welsh language channel is also, available across the UK on S4C Clic, s4c.cymru, BBC iPlayer, YouView, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TV and on mobile devices via the S4C App. English subtitles will be available on Un Bore Mercher on all platforms.

For further information please contact:

Kat Blair (Publicist for S4C) 07969 443090 [email protected]

EPISODE SYNOPSES

EPISODE 1 Eve Myles returns as Faith Howells, a lawyer, wife and mother whose life was turned upside down by the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Evan (Bradley Freegard). Now, 18 months later, Faith is drawn into a new mystery as she takes on the case of Madlen Vaughan (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), a local farmer accused of murdering her husband in cold blood. Madlen’s murder trial, the prospect of Evan’s return, and her conflicted emotions towards former criminal Steve Baldini (Mark Lewis Jones) force her to take a stand. She puts her children, her business and her life on the line to search for the truth.

EPISODE 2

When Madlen (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) fires her legal team, Faith (Eve Myles), backed by Cerys (Hannah Daniel), steps in to take on her murder case, sending them on a collision course with Tom (Aneirin Hughes). Evan (Bradley Freegard) receives a mysterious benefactor in prison, Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) wrestles with his feelings for Faith, while DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) turns his attentions towards Faith’s troubling association with Gael Reardon (Anastasia Hille).

EPISODE 3

As the trial reaches a climax, Faith (Eve Myles) battles to keep Madlen (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) out of the witness box. As the verdict draws near, Faith’s relationship with Cerys (Hannah Daniel) gets pushed to the limit. DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone), meanwhile, continues to probe Faith’s association with Gael Reardon (Anastasia Hille); Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) wrestles with his feelings for Faith; and Evan (Bradley Freegard) delivers a piece of news that will topple the family stability again.

EPISODE 4

Torn between keeping her family together and her growing feelings for Steve (Mark Lewis Jones), Faith (Eve Myles) battles with conflicting emotions, as Evan’s (Bradley Freegard) release from prison draws closer. DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) continues to up the pressure on Evan; and a call from PC Williams (Eiry Thomas) delivers an unwelcome new lead in Madlen’s case.

EPISODE 5

Amidst the fall-out of Evan’s return home, Faith (Eve Myles) uncovers new and disturbing truths, as she continues to probe into Madlen’s (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) case. Evan (Bradley Freegard) struggles to find his place at home; the Reardons threaten to detail the Corran Energy deal; and DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) continues to dial up the pressure on both Faith and Evan as Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) plays a new deadly game of his own.

EPISODE 6

As the clock ticks on the deal with Corran Energy, Faith (Eve Myles) races against time to find the woman who could overturn Madlen’s (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) conviction. DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) gives Evan an ultimatum, while Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) schemes to rid himself and Faith of the Reardons for good. As Tom (Aneirin Hughes) and Lisa (Catherine Ayers) face difficult truths, Faith finally learns the truth behind Will’s murder.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Interview with Matthew Hall, Creator & Writer

For anyone not familiar with the series please could you give us a summary of what to expect from the show.

“Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith is an intimate, emotional thriller set in a beautiful part of West Wales. It tells the story of Faith, a mother of three whose life was turned upside down in series one with the disappearance of her husband, the last person in the world she would ever have cause to doubt. Faith made the choice to believe in him and over ten desperate days tried to find out what had become of him. This search turned into a journey of transformation for Faith who had to draw on resources she didn’t know she possessed and become a very different kind of woman.”

The series is simultaneously shot in both Welsh & English for transmission in Welsh on S4C and then on the BBC in English. Tell us how that works…

“The cast are bilingual. Each scene is shot in both English and in Welsh. Actors have to know their lines in both languages and be prepared to switch between them in different takes. This means that they are some of the most highly prepared actors I have seen at work. Because they are so well prepared, all the work on set is geared towards them inhabiting their characters deeply so that rather than performing, they are truly embodying. I try to write scripts with maximum room for the actors to express what is going on beneath the surface and Pip Broughton, the director, is expert in guiding them to the exact state of mind their characters are experiencing. So when it comes to the camera rolling the language becomes a very secondary thing – the words are just part of the means of expression.”

Did the huge breakout success of the show take you all by surprise?

“I knew that because of the way Pip [Broughton] and I had approached the project during four years of development and because we had known each other well for fifteen years that we would create a show that had a unique identity of its own that represented our vision. I had no idea how that would go down with viewers – you can never know! But when I saw the first rushes of Eve Myles inhabiting Faith I knew that she would connect with an audience. I had never seen anything quite like it – her warmth and genuineness – and it gave me confidence that the show would at least be noticed. The audience numbers were a really welcome surprise and a great reward for all the years of work.”

What do you feel the secret of the show’s success is down to?

“Hard work, many years of experience and persistence rewarded with some luck. I have been writing for TV for over twenty years and novels for the last ten. Pip has had a long career in theatre and television. S4C commissioned all eight scripts for series one at once and the writing process took over two years. This is extremely rare in television. Usually a show is commissioned on the basis of one script and the rest are written in a great hurry. I had time to think and hone character and story and Pip was a brilliant editorial producer pushing me further. Even when 500 pages of script were assembled which had been through countless drafts, we still didn’t have any certainty of production – devoting so much time and effort to the writing was a huge act of faith in itself. We gave it everything. At times I felt I was wasting my time and being a fool for carrying on!

We were rewarded with Eve Myles, who then agreed to spend six months learning Welsh in order to play Faith. This is unheard of. It was a monumental effort on her part. Then Amy Wadge, a friend of Eve’s, volunteered to write some songs for the show after Eve showed her some scripts. These added another dimension again, so it felt as if our hard work was paying off in ways we hadn’t expected.”

There are no easy answers in Faith’s quest for the truth – let’s talk about that ending to series one and Evan’s reappearance.

“Series two digs deeper into the reasons for Evan’s disappearance and carries him and Faith forwards… Any more would be a spoiler.”

Without giving too much away do we see more of Evan in series two?

“There is a lot more of Evan in series two. Bradley Freegard is too good an actor not to use as much as possible.”

There is a strong range of female characters central to the plot rather than used as ciphers, two female directors and one female writer on the show – how important is this to the show’s sense of authenticity?

“I really don’t give this much thought. A writer’s job is to inhabit characters, to feel their emotions and express them dramatically. Dramatists in particular do their job because their particular psychological traits mean that they tend to sense and feel other people’s emotions to a highly sensitive degree regardless of whether they are male or female. There’s no agenda, no conscious decision to write more female characters, we just go where the story demands. Most writers will tell you that they don’t actually have much choice over what

6 stories they tell or the characters they tell them with – they just arrive and demand your attention.”

Tell us about the intense relationship between Faith and Steve – the strains of a forbidden relationship.

“Steve is a character who helps Faith in her search for Evan. He’s an ex-criminal scraping a living as a labourer and lives in a caravan. His life couldn’t be more different to hers yet they form a profound connection. There’s an honesty and wisdom to Steve – he has been to the depths and re-emerged – which means the attraction between them isn’t so much physical as ‘alchemical’. They each possess something the other doesn’t so are drawn together like magnets.

We’re playing with the idea of whether their connection is a healthy or an unhealthy one, whether they are two people who belong together in a romantic relationship or simply two souls who have an exchange to make that is nothing to do with sex. In series one there is no kiss between them, just an intense closeness. It’s a far deeper relationship than one based purely on physical attraction.”

Welsh landscape as a character in its own right – was this always the intention or something that grew out of the DOP’s great photography for the series?

“The landscape was mentioned at the opening of the first script before any of the characters. I have lived in the Welsh and Welsh borders countryside for most of my life and observe it in beauty, bounty, coldness, indifference, cruelty depending on the weather or season. Much of human effort in the last 200 years has been devoted to insulating us from and overcoming the natural landscape in a bid to protect ourselves from the harsher realities of existence. Cities are built from concrete, glass and steel – substances that don’t exist in nature. So making the landscape so central was about connecting our drama to the elemental. Subconsciously we all respond to the landscape as keenly as any animal. From spring meadows to precipitous cliffs to dark, still pools, all of these represent different states of mind.

The ability to capture the landscape has advanced hugely with drones fitted with HD cameras. Even ten years ago it couldn’t have been achieved in the same way. This technology has opened up a different dimension for visual story telling which Pip and her DOP have exploited brilliantly.”

What were your influences for the series – where does it sit in relation to other thrillers on TV and Scandi –Noir?

“The shows that were in my head the most while writing were Fargo (both the TV series and the movie) and Edge of Darkness, the brilliant 1985 mini-series. Both of these had landscapes as characters that were bigger than the human beings inhabiting them, and both had an enormous amount of intimacy and quirkiness. I like dramatic worlds that reflect something of the madness and eccentricity of real life with characters who run the gamut of emotions. I guess what I am constantly looking for in drama is character insight that runs alongside a compelling story – tiny details, gestures and reactions that expose deeper layers. Most often you get that in family-based dramas. The Sopranos remains for me the towering pinnacle of TV writing.

There is so much going on for Faith at so many different levels – tell us how you intertwine the personal and the wider political and legal ramifications in the structure of Keeping Faith?

“There is a large dent in the middle of my desk where I repeatedly bang my head against it … Almost true.

My mental image of writing a TV series or novel is like carving a sculpture. You know there’s a finished item in there somewhere that conveys your idea and the process is one of discovering it like a sculptor painstakingly chipping away the stone to reveal the figure hidden inside. The closer you get to the ultimate shape, the more detail suggests itself. As you continue you discover new layers, new branches of story and more emotional connections.”

Many TV Dramas have a sense of real community and place now (Broadchurch, Y Gwyll / Hinterland, Shetland etc). TV drama seems to be becoming increasingly global but are we seeing the success of these shows conversely and precisely because of their domesticity and knowledge of specific place and communities?

“Community and family are the universal experience. It seems to me quite natural and inevitable that the more digital, artificial and removed from traditional environments and social structures we become, the greater the need to reconnect with them through drama. Twenty years ago shows about young urban professionals forging a glamorous existence were in style because that was the novel experience; our minds were reaching out into this new realm and trying to assimilate it. Now we’re in a phase of trying to work out what we truly value, how much of the past and of our culture we want to keep and how much we want to jettison. You see this in politics and you see it in stories set far away from big cities.

We were very conscious in Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith of wanting to tell a modern story set in a traditional community but with a modern aesthetic. There is nothing nostalgic about it - rather it’s about a woman who has moved west to escape but reality catches up with her nonetheless. She finds herself at the edge of the sea with nowhere left to run, so has to turn around and face the world and herself.”

This is a really good time for Welsh drama…

“The Welsh character is an emotionally expressive one that really lends itself to screen story- telling especially at a time in which understanding and expressing emotion is very much part of who we are. I feel that the fundamental intention of the successful Welsh dramas of recent years has been to capture the essence and spirit of character more than it has been to merely tell intriguing or attention-grabbing stories. I suppose it’s drama of a more soulful kind.

In the past, Welsh TV characters (with a few exceptions) have often been clowns and objects of fun, even simpletons - people from the backwoods unequal to sophisticated society. I wonder whether their recent transformation into serious dramatic characters is connected with the process we are going through in the UK of looking to our history in search of our ‘lost’ identity. Welsh is the ancient language of Britain; Wales still has untamed places where the human soul can connect with the landscape just as it did in pre-history. We seem to be re-assimilating this.”

What do you hope viewers will take away from Un Bore Mercher series two?

“My only ambition when writing is to connect with the audience, for people watching to feel moved by and immersed in what they are seeing. If the audience is touched by the story and wants more we will feel we have done our job.”

Interview Eve Myles (Faith Howells)

What can we expect from Un Bore Mercher series two?

“A lot happens in series two. We start 18 months later, although we do also visit the night Evan comes back. Faith keeps moving on. When something so bad has happened to the family, such as a huge crisis – what do you do next? You do what you have to do – you take the kids to school, you try and get the business back on track and try not to go mad.”

Tell us about your character Faith?

“If Faith doesn’t like you, you really know it because she doesn’t give you a hug and a kiss or squeeze your hand – I think this is a very Welsh thing. My mother does the same – as soon as I step through the door I have a big hug, there will be a bath running and a chicken roasting in the oven… I’m aged 40 and she looks at me and says ‘oh you’re like nobody’s child – get in the bath! …

Faith is very very tactile and I think that that says a lot about Faith: she is very comfortable in her own skin. She’s very loving and she wants to give that to others. She wants to make other people feel wanted and warm and comforted. Especially with the children – they are so loved and they are her life.”

Where do we find Faith in series two, episode one? Is she back with Evan? Is Evan back with the family?

“The family has stayed in Abercorran. Evan left the family in a real mess and all of a sudden the world becomes a very dangerous place given what he got involved in and, in turn, what Faith got involved with. They have the children to consider and they try to do their best to normalise things again.”

What about that last scene in Series 1 Episode 8 – how are things with Faith and Steve Baldini? Are they now in a relationship?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! He was just being friendly! All the women in the UK are looking forward to seeing Steve Baldini and his vest! Well, it can’t be easy - that would be boring. It’s really complicated – we introduce Steve’s daughter in to the series who is the same age as Alys… But he is there: very prominent and rightfully so.”

Does Faith wrestle with her feelings for Steve?

“Faith wrestles with them a lot. In the first series, when she turns up blind to represent him in court, she sees in him a good man who is fighting for his daughter. At the same time, her husband had abandoned her and her two daughters and son. Steve Baldini is the antithesis to Evan and he came to represent safety for her, hope and strength. She finds these qualities very attractive when she’s at a very low ebb, in a huge crisis and very frightened. In a short space of time everything became very heightened and a man she would have walked past in the street or represented in court came at the forefront of everything she needed. We find out through the series how she deals with these feelings – it’s heart-breaking.”

How is Faith feeling in 18 months on?

“Faith is doing her best. I think from hereon in it’s about surviving. If she was a single professional woman she could have packed her stuff up and moved to London and made a new life for herself but she can’t because she’s imprisoned. She has a business and three children and a dirty, dark history. So, she’s trapped. She’s a different person 18 months on. The fragility of Faith and the struggle is something we should engage with and understand.”

How much crying do you do in the new series?

“Lots! It is emotional but there is a pay off because there is so much humour in it as well – real Welsh humour. There’s humour even in the saddest moments. In the first series you see her with her friend Lisa and her face is really sad. Lisa offers to help out – cooking supper for the kids. Faith replies ‘Those kids have been through enough without you cooking for them!’ so you get all those lovely female moments. Out of the darkness, splashes of sunlight come through. It makes you smile through the tears.”

How is Wales represented by the series?

“It represented the nation in a really positive modern manner yet keeping the traditions – the warmth of the Welsh people and the humour.”

Following the success of Series 1, Un Bore Mercher has an incredible fan-base…

“We have an amazing fanbase – you expect it for a sci-fi drama maybe but for a contemporary drama it’s quite unusual.”

Does Faith still have the yellow mac?

“Yes of course – it’s one of the biggest characters in the show! That and Laugharne – absolutely! It’s funny how an extra-ordinary thing can come out of something so ordinary, like the mac! I think it’s an identity thing. I think people see that coat and see Faith in crisis. You know when she puts it on, she’s on a mission! It’s lovely that men and women are going out to buy this coat and feeling they have some sort of armour. There is a beer club of about 30 men who put on their yellow macs and go out for beers – I’ve seen pictures of them – men with beards and bald heads. I just think it’s joyous! It’s lovely to be a part of something that’s so positive.

During filming, we were doing a hospital scene and we kept having to cut because people were coming in to shot in the yellow coat. They somehow knew that we were going to be there!”

What’s it like filming in Laugharne?

“There is something very special about Laugharne. There’s something magical about it – something intoxicating… the light down there is amazing. When we were filming, a big harvest moon came up – I was doing a scene with Aneurin (Hughes) who plays Tom – and this beautiful moon came up – people are going to think it’s CGI but it’s not. There’s no way we had money to do CGI - we didn’t even have money for cars so never mind a big moon!

The welcome we’ve had in Laugharne has been so heart-warming. They bring us tea and sandwiches, or you go into a bar and there’s a glass of wine for you - and the locals say ‘we’re so glad you’re back’. They’ve been so, so welcoming to us.”

How have you found learning Welsh?

“I do it without even realising sometimes and Brad says to me ‘you have just had a full-blown conversation in Welsh’. It’s a very, very odd thing. Not having the opportunity when I was younger to speak Welsh and to do it at my age – I’m very proud. It took four months of intensive work – I would drop the kids off at school and start to work on it. It has been so rewarding. The nicest part of it is when people come to me and say something in Welsh – it’s a lovely feeling not to have to apologise. I can now say ‘bear with me I’m learning’.”

Interview with Pip Broughton (Co-Writer, Director & Producer)

For anyone not familiar with the series please could you give us a summary of what to expect from the show.

“Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith is a domestic thriller, it’s warm-hearted, it’s intimate, set in a stunning little-known part of the Welsh coastline and centres around a woman in crisis. One Wednesday morning Faith kisses her husband goodbye and he doesn’t arrive at work. He disappears unexpectedly. Over the first series Faith tries to uncover and understand the reason why he left. Over a rollercoaster ten days she discovers he has been leading a double life and has got involved in serious crime. How could she not have known! She is a brilliant lawyer yet didn’t see any of the signs. Eve Myles leads a cast giving fresh, raw and emotional performances. It’s like she’s the Erin Brockovich for Wales. Or, as The Guardian said ‘Big Little Lies in West Wales’.”

Where do we find Faith at the beginning of series two?

“Series two starts 18 months later. We meet Faith in her ‘new normal’. Running the family, the law firm and still paying the debts her husband built up during his double life. She, and all those around her, are living with the scars of the lies of the past. Life will never be the same again after Evan’s disappearance and deceit.”

Did the huge breakout success of the show take you all by surprise?

“Eve and I talk about the ‘people’s show’. The audience found the show and the word went round like wildfire. The iPlayer figures went through the roof. And what the market research revealed was that the cross section of the viewers is huge. All ages, men, women, it seems to touch people. Everyone can relate to it. It’s universal. But also everyone just fell in love with Eve’s Faith. Her performance is so raw, so honest, so nuanced, so fresh. I think viewers loved that. And the landscape. And the music. Lots to love. It’s great because it was Vox Pictures’ first series and people know who we are now.”

What do you feel the secret of the show’s success is down to?

“See the answer to the above question but also, it’s a great story. All the performances are great. It’s got a unique feel. It’s intimate, relatable, available, warm and totally uncynical. It’s got its own unique tone, feel, look.”

There are no easy answers in Faith’s quest for the truth – let’s talk about that ending to series one and Evan’s reappearance.

“Right from the beginning of pitching the show, Matthew and I knew the final scene of the series. Evan comes back. By then Faith and the audience know some terrible and despicable things about him. He has betrayed her, put his family in danger, has got involved in illegal things as well as having an affair. Who wouldn’t want to see series two to find out how Faith deals with all of that? What would you do? Would you take him back?”

Without giving too much away do we see more of Evan in series two?

“We find Evan in prison for his fraud. He is visited by various people, not only Faith and Tom but other surprises.”

There is a strong range of female characters central to the plot rather than used as ciphers, two female directors (you and Judith Dine) and one female writer on the show (you!) – how important is this to the show’s sense of authenticity?

“Its femaleness is central to the identity and strength of the show. It’s basically about what a woman wouldn’t do for her kids. It tests her moral centre many times over. The love story and the thriller are predominantly played from a female point of view. The story is told honestly, humbly, with rawness and immediacy.”

Tell us about the intense relationship between Faith and Steve – the strains of a forbidden relationship.

“Faith and Steve are thrown together by destiny. They are both drowning and find solace in each other. Steve becomes Faith’s protector. They are both broken and have an unspoken understanding of each other. Their need to hold each other becomes overwhelming. The strain is complicated by their daughters becoming friends. Eve and Mark are just magic and magnetic together.”

The series is simultaneously shot in both Welsh & English for transmission in Welsh on S4C and then on the BBC in English. Tell us how that works?

“Un Bore Mercher is bilingual, most scenes in Welsh, a few in English and with the commercial breaks is about ten minutes shorter than the English version. Keeping Faith is in English only and runs an hour an episode. They are tonally different and don’t even have the same scenes. Basically we are making two separate shows.”

Welsh landscape as a character in its own right – was this always the intention or something that grew out of the DOP’s great photography for the series?

“It was always central to the intention and identity of the series that the Welsh landscape would be an important character in the show. We wanted to tell a dark story in a beautiful place. I first discovered Laugharne when I filmed a TV production of Under Milk Wood. I fell in love with the place and pledged to make a returning drama there. Now there is even a Faith location trail for fans! I love the feeling of ebb and flow, the ever-changing light and the intense relationship with nature. I have staged many of the intimate scenes on the beach, in caves, and water holds the key to the murder story too.”

You have written and directed this series. How have you found that shift? What were the challenges and ultimately the rewards?

“Matthew and I worked for five years developing the first series for Vox Pictures, so the characters, the story, the values at stake have become all part of my psyche. I have lived and breathed Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith for seven years. Producing, directing, writing it’s all part of making an authored show, which is distinctive and different. I love it.”

What do you hope viewers will take away from UBM S2?

“An understanding of the cost of love, the cost of loyalty, the cost of putting your children first. Questions about trust and our moral centres as human beings.”

Interview with Gwellian Gravelle, Producer

For anyone not familiar with this series, please could you give us a summary of what to expect.

“In series one, Faith Howells was a loving wife, caring mother and a hardworking solicitor whose husband mysteriously disappeared. She uncovered secrets about him which rocked her world. When Evan returned at the end of the series, he caught her in a clinch with reformed criminal Steve Baldini. Series two picks up 18 months later. Faith is still juggling with her family and work and remains loyal to Evan even though she is beset with doubt. A clean and sober Arthur is now the children’s full time ‘manny’, Tom has left Marion and is looking for love, Steve remains painfully in love with Faith, and the events of that fateful night on Evan’s return are revealed.”

Where do we find Faith at the beginning of series two?

“Faith takes on a murder case at the beginning of series two and this is what dramatises her emotional journey arc for the series.”

The series is simultaneously shot in both Welsh & English for transmission in Welsh on S4C and then on the BBC in English. Tell us how that works?

“The scripts are written in English by Matthew Hall and Pip Broughton then translated into Welsh by Anwen Huws but it isn’t just a literal translation. You can’t just put the script through Google translate! The scripts in Welsh have to have the same feel and this may mean a slightly different word to express that emotion. The Welsh version is also 10 minutes shorter so some of the scenes have been re-ordered or cut. The pacing is therefore different but ultimately the characters, performances, narrative flair and story arc are the same.”

What do you feel the secret of the show’s success is down to?

“I believe the strength of the show is down to its originality and a strong female lead. It also has an exceptional ensemble cast, not forgetting that the personal arcs and plots are interwoven with Wales’ stunning landscape as its backdrop.”

There is a strong range of female characters central to the plot rather than used as ciphers, two female directors and one female writer on the show, how important is this to the show’s sense of authenticity?

“Incredibly important. We are also two female producers and at least half the production crew were women. The beauty of Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith is that even though you see the strength in Faith and the female characters, they are also flawed, and I think that women, and men, can relate to that. We are all trying to juggle our lives to make things better for our families.”

“I think this is what gives Welsh drama its uniqueness. With TV audiences becoming more cine-literate we need to show sweeping landscapes with beautiful framing and lighting. Wales’s history is within its hills and valleys. It is what shapes us and what gives these series’ a dramatic edge. The variations in the landscape also represents the variations in the type of communities that exist in Wales. No two communities are the same and they all have different stories to tell.”

This is a really good time for Welsh drama.

“The Welsh are a very creative nation. We have a great tradition for poetry, theatre and song. We are quite a dramatic bunch, but we have humour in our bones. Characters are the heart of all dramas. The success of shows like Un Bore Mercher are a testament to this. In my new role as Drama Commissioner for S4C I want to build on the recent successes and find new voices and stories for dramas that are unique to Wales but are relevant to the rest of Britain and beyond.”

What do you hope the viewers will take away from Un Bore Mercher series two?

“A thrilling and satisfying sequel to series one but with the desire for more.”