Cofio Dinas
Remembering the iconic soap 'Dinas'
A special edition of the series Cofio looks back at one of S4C's most popular soaps during the early years of the Channel - the iconic series, Dinas.
In the hour-long programme on Thursday, 12 January, Lisa Gwilym will relive the series which followed a number of fictional business empires in Cardiff between 1985 and 1991.
Over 400 memorable episodes, characters such as Paul, Helen and Miriam Ambrose, her partner Elwyn Scourfiled, Robin and Ruth Gregory, Alan Martin and their contemporaries became household names.
Viewers were introduced to glitz, glamour, wealth, power and fashion never seen before on Welsh television.
Cofio contains a wealth of film clips from the series produced by ITV Wales and there are interviews with members of the cast and the production crew.
Among the actors interviewed are Geoff Morgan, Eiry Palfrey, Donna Edwards, Christine Pritchard, Wynford Ellis Owen, Simon Fisher, Ian Saynor and Mair Rowlands.
The series reflected exciting changes in the Welsh capital as the old industrial port was transformed into Cardiff Bay.
"It all started down in Penarth Docks," says producer Graham Jones. "There were hundreds of acres of unused land there. We could see that Cardiff had the potential to develop as a city, so it was a good canvas for the drama."
Dinas broke new ground in the Welsh language as most previous TV dramas had been set in rural areas.
Actors such as Geoff Morgan (Paul Ambrose) and Donna Edwards (Miriam Ambrose) had never acted in Welsh before and the producers took a risk, casting them because they 'suited the Cardiff' they wanted to portray.
Geoff Morgan, who now teaches Welsh to adults in Cardiff says, "I was living in London and working as an actor in the West End when I decided to go on an Wlpan Welsh language course in Lampeter and everything changed overnight. I got a part in Pobol y Cwm and Graham Jones saw me on the programme and I received an invitation to come to Cardiff to audition for a part in Dinas.
"I was still having lessons after starting Dinas, in Clwb Ifor Bach, with language tutor Gwilym Roberts because there were long words such as 'llwgrwobrwyo' (bribery) which were very hard for me to say."
The cast members recall spending hours in make-up to create the right look.
The themes were often quite intense - Paul Ambrose's affairs, fraud and conspiracy in Ambrose International and Atlantic House making the headlines.
Viewers will also remember Donna Edwards' emotional portrayal of the rebellious Miriam and Wynford Ellis Owen's portrait of the alcoholic Robin Gregory while he too was suffering with a drink problem.
And who can forget the public sympathy when Paul Ambrose was sent to prison for fraud? It could only happen on Dinas…
S4C will also broadcast an archive episode of Dinas the same evening at 21:30.