This 30 year-old programme will change the way you see Wales
Nick Stradling
The biggest problem we have in Wales is that our children grow into adults without any perception of the events that shaped their surroundings.
I was one of those children. Growing up as a monolingual southerner, my only outlet for Welshness was sport.
This was despite my own father being a historian, who wrote and presented a BBC Wales documentary about Welsh volunteers in the Spanish Civil war.
But a little over a decade ago he did something that would transform my own understanding of Wales, which was to obtain for me an old VHS copy of the 13-part documentary series ‘The Dragon Has Two Tongues’.
“What is history? Divine gossip about the past, among gentlemen. Have another glass of port.”
-Wynford Vaughan Thomas
“History in more than a page in a book! History is the buckle that bites your back. History is the sweat you can’t keep out your eyes. History is the fear crawling in your belly!”
– Gwyn Alf Williams
From this opening gambit, The Dragon Has Two Tongues demanded my undivided attention.
It transformed me from a 26-year-old with little understanding of nor love for Wales, into the 38-year-old member of the Welsh independence movement I am today.
Power
For those unaware of The Dragon Has Two Tongues, it presents the history of Wales from two entire different political standpoints.
Wynford Vaughn-Thomas gives us the conservative, establishment, unionist point of view, while Gwyn Alf Williams speaks as a fire-breathing Marxist and separatist.
What is so powerful about this series is that it is, by its very nature and in its title premise, entirely counterpoint and bi-partisan. It could never be accused by objective viewer or critic of polemicism or partisanship.
Herein lies its great power and this is the most important point I want to make: The Dragon Has Two Tongues is not Unionist or Nationalist. Not Marxist or Capitalist.
It just wants you to care about Wales. And that in itself makes it a revolutionary programme.
Just by seeing that Wales actually has history, it achieves more than any of the arguments put forth by its two presenters.
Hywel Dda, Llewellyn the Last, Cilmeri, the Acts of Union, Prince Madoc, Iolo Morganwg, and Tryweryn – I hadn’t heard about any of them before I watched this series.
A new audience
Wales is the only country I know of that is accused of insularity for taking an interest in its own history. The motive behind this, of course, is to discourage us from doing so, in case we come to conclusions the British establishment would not like.
Our history is not better. Or a sign of prophecy or greatness. It’s just Welsh, and we need to know it to understand where we now find ourselves culturally, politically and psychologically.
The Dragon Has Two Tongues, although groundbreaking, was never repeated on television and is not commercially available to purchase through any UK or Welsh retailer.
I am not suggesting a conspiracy here, but pointing to clear patterns of behaviour and culture in our media, schooling systems and lifelong learning. The lesson is that Wales doesn’t matter.
My passion for Wales on film inspired me to start a twitter page @MoviesWales and the YouTube channel Wales in the Movies.
It is through these channels that, until February, I shall be uploading one episode of The Dragon Has Two Tongues every week on Thursday nights. And I want as many people to watch the show as possible.
I hope that we can start a debate and by doing so, show a new audience that Wales, and our history, are worth understanding.
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This thought-provoking series is available (most of it, anyway) on YouTube.
It’s pre-devolution – if that makes any difference – but as an exercise in presenting two conflicting interpretations of Welsh history it’s well worth a watch. Gwyn Alf is the ultimate firebrand ‘voice of the valleys’, Wynford the epitome of self-satisfied but gentlemanly unionist Welshness.
It isn’t a history lesson in the normal sense, though. I actually got more from the BBC’s ‘Story of Wales’, which ironically, had a stronger message of Wales as a distinct nation even when we were more overtly under the cosh.
I could only ever find the first two episodes on YouTube – where is/was most of the series? I would love to see it again.
An excellent article which should surely encourage everyone who reads it to watch the series. I watched it the first time around but will definitely make time to rewatch this brilliant piece of TV.
There’s very little of it currently on YouTube Eps 1+2 only), hence my plan to upload it weekly.
I agree, you may get a better factual history Education from the more recent BBC series. But as the screenwriting guru Robert Mckee wrote:
“What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens”
Nothing beats the bo partisan format and energy of The Dragon Has Two Tongues. The BBC series, as welcome, entertaining and hi-production as it was, is ponderous by comparison.
I think the programme was a HTV production… which could cause you problems if you try to upload it without the ITV archive’s permission… they are quite zealous. However, I’m sure if you contact them at the National Library, I’m sure they’d be open to giving it a wider platform?
The story of fluttering snowflakes of history which when lands for most quickly evaporates as neve was, but for others, it drifts and multiplies over time. The snow flake is pure and under the microscope holds a mystery and beauty like nothing else. The question is why does it affect some and not others. Even to a point of intense dislike or intense like. I see a shop window of opportunity to reach out and move the shadows of noise and mischief that eliminates our history from discovery or at least demeans its importance. There are significant beneficiaries in remaining… Read more »
Welsh Anerican living in Mexico. Hope I can get it
Don’t forget the women of Wales also have a history, often excluded. Go to the Wales Women’s Archive to discover more.
A delight to read Nick Stradling’s praise for The Dragon has Two Tongues. I had the real privilege to be the Executive Producer of the series, though all the praise for its format and quality must go to Producer Colin Thomas and, of course to the two presenters, Wynford and Gwyn. In case there is any confusion, the series was made by HTV Wales for Channel 4, and was one of the first things to be commissioned from Wales by Channel 4’s first Chief Executive Jeremy Isaacs. Gwyn Alf was, indeed, an inspiration but I would not be as ready… Read more »
Can I, an American Jones with no paper trail to Cymru, see this in the USA? Will it be available at least for a while to be seen at other times? Diolch! James William Soares Jones
A brilliant series which did much to fire up my nationalist sympathies as a young teenager. Gwyn Alf Williams also wrote a book, “When Was Wales?”, based roughly on his input to the series, which I still have on my shelf having devoured it as soon as it was published.
Nationalism aside, I think I disagree with Gwyn Alf Williams’s politics in every possible way; but we’d be a better nation if we had even a handful of people today with the fire in the belly that he had.
I look forward to seeing it again. I met Gwyn Alf when I was in the Welsh CP – though he was not.
I would just like to mention the welsh author Terry Breverton,the welsh writer of twenty books of welsh interest.His book,The Welsh The Biography, rekindled my interest in our history and his breadth, generosity and sheer enthusiasm about Wales is compelling and a must for anyone with a drop of Welsh blood in them.
Has anybody else read this or any of his excellent books.I highly recomend them because he examines the history that has been air airbrushed from view and it is unashamedly pro Welsh.
If you think Cymru has it bad as a colony, just remember the Cornish are even more forgotten
There’s an interesting book recently by the historian Bernard Deacon, about Cornwall between the end of Rome and the Normans, called Cornwall’s First Golden Age : from Arthur to the Normans secure.francisboutle.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=130 The author examines the traditional view of historians that Cornwall arose as a rump of Dumnonia, having a different view that Cornwall was the core of the kingdom, and that present-day Devon was frontier territory (rather than the continuation of the Roman Dumnonia with capital at Exeter), and that pottery production stopped completely in Devon for about 200 years before being introduced by the arrival of the English… Read more »
I’m hoping ITV can see sense. Thousands of people want to see this. It’s being uploaded on the Fair Use policy for educational, critical and most importantly non-profit purposes on a non-monetised channel, with the blessing of the producer and director – internationally-renowned Colin Thomas. It’s not commercially available anywhere nor repeated on TV. I plead with everyone to support me to help me keep it on YouTube for our kids to grow up with. This is a series that the people of Wales need to see.
Great to read Nick’s passionate tribute to “Dragon has 2 Tongues” – I remember when it was first broadcast and what a stir it caused. Good to know that when it comes to Gwyn and Wynford- age (or time at least) has not withered them. And praise is due too to Colin Thomas for his brilliant direction. There was one error in Nick’s piece: the programme was made by HTV, not the BBC. Those were the days! The only thing which rankled at the time- and still does – is that it was two males’ view of Wales, and Welsh… Read more »
Fascinating. I remember hearing about it at the time but have never seen it before. It’s great. Should be required watching in every Welsh school
Those two opinions are both extremist to me. Where’s the Liberal voice for an independent Wales im all this?
I say no thanks to building a right wing nationalist party. Plaid Cymru is the best we’ve got. Just… where is the Liberal voice?
It’s not really about that. It’s an old historical series covering the valleys/industrial type approach, versus the establishment and conservative (but not the Welsh nationalist establishment as there wasn’t one) approach.
What ‘right wing’ nationalist party are you referring to Benjiman? You will be aware that a new party is being created. However. it has been made ABUNDANTLY clear that this new party is a syncretic party that does not label itself with tags that belong in the French Revolution. We do not subscribe to the ridiculous, old fashioned and now defunct, single axis paradigm of ‘right, ‘centre’ or ‘left’. Our policies will be formed to suit what is best for Cymru. Our focus will be purely on Cymru and it’s citizens, and no other. Whether those policies will be deemed… Read more »
Don’t forget Dai Smith’s excellent ‘Wales! Wales?’ (BBC Wales) giving a perspective from the English speaking south Wales valleys. In my opinion another important contribution in the raising of national consciousness in that long march from March 1979 to September 1997.
Yes, Dai Smith’s ‘Wales! Wales?’ has more or less been forgotten about, but really needs to be considered. Pretty much contemporary to
(Continued from previous comment – where is the edit button?) ‘The Dragon has Two Tongues’ it presents a different perspective. I know it’s been dismissed as a Labour Party view on Welsh history, but none the less it’s still an interpretation that needs to be considered, even if it’s then completely rejected.
I’ll be watching in Australia. I have learned my Welsh history as an Aussie adult language learner and I’d have to say there is a very high consciousness of those things among Welsh speakers. ?
I’d have to agree with you there – English language broadcasting in Wales is way behind Welsh language broadcasting in terms of teaching us about these important events in our history. Nationalism is much stronger in Welsh speaking areas, and I think that has as much to do with the teaching of history as it does with support for the language
Great to hear about the upload. I still have all but one of the episodes on VHS, and keep meaning to transfer them onto disc, while I still have the technology. However, I’ve had similar problems to others in uploading ‘out of print’ recordings from the eighties and nineties onto youtube. There should be some kind of thirty year rule. Gwyn was my Prof in Cardiff before he made the series, and it was a privilege to know him and have his input to the research stages of my PhD. I left Wales shortly before the programme was released. I… Read more »
“Where it ain’t you can’t put it” is a Cockney saying, and a very good one at that. The thing that ‘AIN’T’ in Cymru is a comprehensive knowledge of our unique history, heroes, culture, literature and of course language etc. That’s because it’s been systematically airbrushed out of our collective memory and knowledge since the English Education Act of 1870 came into force. It is arguably the single most devastating and damaging thing that has ever happened to our nation. Ask any child in Cymru today who Alfred the Great or Henry VIII was and the chances are they will… Read more »
There is a resounding echo throughout Wales that the cause of independence has changed little over many decades or even longer. It’s stirring in Cardiff. The implausible has happened. The view of greater diversity throughout Wales is progressive. It’s impossible to circumvent anyway, but the reality is that old allegiances, that come with cross border transfers of home, remain stubbornly fixed. Certainly in voting terms. The reasons are hanging from every tree. Unless we pick up the pace of identity transfer, to recognise what being Welsh means in historical and cultural terms, then the tide will not turn. Whatever new… Read more »
Any chance of putting the series on a compact video disg? I’m technologically beyond the pale: can’t do it, can’t afford it, so i cannot see your offering. A disg could be stuck into my old offline computer and i’d have a chance of seeing the series.