Dylan Thomas
- Episode aired Apr 24, 2014
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Photos
Matthew Rhys
- Self - Narrator
- (voice)
Dylan Thomas
- Self
- (archive sound)
Julia Cleverdon
- Self - Daughter of Douglas Cleverdon
- (as Dame Julia Cleverdon)
John Goodby
- Self - Senior Lecturer, Swansea University
- (as Dr John Goodby)
Daniel Jones
- Self - Friend
- (archive footage)
John Ormond
- Self - Friend
- (archive footage)
Liz Reitell
- Self
- (archive footage)
R.D. Smith
- Self - BBC Radio Producer
- (archive footage)
Aeronwy Thomas
- Self - Daughter
- (archive footage)
Caitlin Thomas
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
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Well-Trodden Path Through the Life of Wales' Greatest Poet
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Thomas' birth, this biography of the Welsh wizard did not have much new to add to our knowledge of his life and death.
Born in Swansea, Thomas grew up with an over-protective mother - so protective, in fact, that she rendered him almost incapable of looking after himself. Until his dying day he needed someone to cut the top off his boiled egg each morning; and as a father he was completely hopeless.
Yet what he did have was a unique talent with words - even as a teenager he was experimenting with poems, many of which comprised his first collection EIGHTEEN POEMS published in the mid-Thirties. After having been brought up in a respectable middle-class household, he moved to London and there discovered the Bohemian lifestyle as epitomized by fellow-Welshman, artist Augustus John. His wife Caitlin was another Bohemian; and it was she that encouraged him to adopt his now-famous public persona of the hard-drinking artist, even though he found it very difficult to do so.
During World War II Thomas worked for the BBC; but it was not until the late Forties that he attained global fame following his first visit to the United States. From then on he was feted everywhere he went, which might have been good for him but permanently damaged his health. The program argues quite forcefully for the fact that Thomas was in a sense led to his death by being encouraged to drink a lot - especially in the United States, where his favorite tipple changed from beer to spirits.
He died at the age of only thirty-nine: while many of the contributors attested to his greatness, we were still left with a feeling of regret that so talented and so vivacious a personality should have had his life curtailed so young.
Born in Swansea, Thomas grew up with an over-protective mother - so protective, in fact, that she rendered him almost incapable of looking after himself. Until his dying day he needed someone to cut the top off his boiled egg each morning; and as a father he was completely hopeless.
Yet what he did have was a unique talent with words - even as a teenager he was experimenting with poems, many of which comprised his first collection EIGHTEEN POEMS published in the mid-Thirties. After having been brought up in a respectable middle-class household, he moved to London and there discovered the Bohemian lifestyle as epitomized by fellow-Welshman, artist Augustus John. His wife Caitlin was another Bohemian; and it was she that encouraged him to adopt his now-famous public persona of the hard-drinking artist, even though he found it very difficult to do so.
During World War II Thomas worked for the BBC; but it was not until the late Forties that he attained global fame following his first visit to the United States. From then on he was feted everywhere he went, which might have been good for him but permanently damaged his health. The program argues quite forcefully for the fact that Thomas was in a sense led to his death by being encouraged to drink a lot - especially in the United States, where his favorite tipple changed from beer to spirits.
He died at the age of only thirty-nine: while many of the contributors attested to his greatness, we were still left with a feeling of regret that so talented and so vivacious a personality should have had his life curtailed so young.
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- l_rawjalaurence
- Nov 12, 2014
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