A TV portrayal of Rhodri Morgan on Thursday, 14 January on S4C will reveal aspects of the former Wales First Minister's life which have had little coverage in the past.
In the S4C documentary Rhodri Morgan, veteran broadcast journalist Tweli Griffiths follows Rhodri in the garden as he reveals his green fingers and in Mwnt enjoying the west Wales air on his annual holiday. He also looks at his eventful political career which included almost a decade as Wales's second First Minister.
The documentary includes an interview with Rhodri's mother, Huana Morgan, filmed in 2000. She talks about the difficult task of keeping the Welsh language alive in their home in Anglicised Cardiff and remembers taking her son to his first political meeting when he was about 12 years-old. Huana Morgan died in 2005 on the eve of her 100th birthday.
In the Sixties, Rhodri Morgan wasn't one of the young Welsh speakers who had been inspired by Saunders Lewis's call for a 'revolution' to save the Welsh language. For one thing, his father, Professor T J Morgan, had previously crossed swords with the prominent writer and nationalist.
According to his brother Prys, there was a certain element of rebellion in the young Rhodri against his family's 'culture mania' - his father was a university Professor and his mother a writer. In the mid Sixties, his best friend, Neil Kinnock, persuaded him to join the Labour Party.
Rhodri Morgan had to face a number of disappointments in the late Nineties. Why did Tony Blair decide not to appoint him as the Secretary of State for Wales? Rhodri Morgan himself recalls the time when his mother-in-law greeted the then future Prime Minister as 'Lionel Blair', but doesn't believe it was that which influenced Tony Blair's opinion of him!
In the programme, Neil Kinnock says he was astounded when Rhodri wasn't offered a post in the 1997 Labour Government. Neil Kinnock explains, "I never had a clear explanation from Tony Blair about this decision, but at least he made up for his mistake quite quickly. In the end, he was glad to have Rhodri there."
© 2010 S4C
O Gymru / Made in Wales