Welshface: Yet again, no Welsh leads available for upcoming ‘Welsh’ TV dramas

Stephen Price

As ‘excitement builds’ for new TV dramas ‘Under Salt Marsh’ and ‘Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards’, a tale as old as time continues, with the predictable casting of English leads in Welsh roles

According to the synopsis from Sky, Under Salt Marsh is a limited series from writer, creator, and executive producer Claire Oakley, set in the fictional Welsh town of Morfa Halen, a tight-knit community precariously nestled between towering mountains and a fast-encroaching sea that threatens its very existence.

As a once-in-a-generation storm begins to gather far out at sea, former detective turned teacher Jackie Ellis , played by English actress Kelly Reilly, discovers the body of her 8-year-old pupil, Cefin, seemingly drowned. The discovery sends shockwaves through the community, reviving the ghost of an unsolved cold case that rocked the town three years prior – the disappearance of Jackie’s niece, Nessa, which cost her career.

Cefin’s death summons Jackie’s former partner, Detective Eric Bull (played by.. wait for it.. English actor Rafe Spall), back to Morfa Halen to lead the investigation into a community he failed once before.

Convinced the cases are linked, Jackie and Bull must reconcile and race to uncover long-buried secrets inside Morfa, before the storm breaks and all the evidence is gone for good.

An intimate and cinematic story, Under Salt Marsh takes audiences into the heart of a community bound by nature and fractured by an unthinkable crime.

Or, as I would put it, a laughably cast drama set in a mock-version of Wales, taking mugs silly enough to be paying for Sky TV rot into the heart of a gathering of English actors in Wales capitalising on the modern trend for a cheap-attempt at Scandi-noir. And breathe.

So who stars in Under Salt Marsh?

Kelly Reilly (English) as Jackie Ellis,  Rafe Spall (English) as Detective Eric Bull, Jonathan Pryce (North Walian but his accent in the clip leaves a lot to be admired) as Solomon Bevan, Naomi Yang (Chinese-born English) as Jess Deng and Harry Lawtey (English) as Dylan Rees.

With support from a few actors among the named below (four Welshies unless I’m mistaken – and very much in support as is always the case):

Dinita Gohil (Sandman, Greed)
Brian Gleeson (Bad Sisters, Phantom Thread)
Kimberley Nixon (Fresh Meat, Life and Death in the Warehouse)
Mark Stanley (Happy Valley, The Reckoning)
Dino Fetscher (Fool Me Once, Foundation)
Lizzie Annis (The Witcher: Blood Origin, Extraordinary)
Rhodri Meilir (Pren Ar y Bryn/Tree On A Hill, Craith/Hidden)
Julian Lewis Jones (House of the Dragon, Wheel of Time)
Newcomer Amara Atwal as Nessa

And we are all supposed to swoon at the fact that all the shooting took place in Wales (wow!) and to not question, yet again, Creative Wales’ support for English actors taking roles that could have gone to homegrown talent. What does their ‘Skills Advisory Panel’ advise on, I often wonder? Certainly not advising better casting anyway.

Also this week, we had the news that Doc Martin star, and go-to English actor for Welsh roles, Martin Clunes will portray disgraced BBC presenter Huw Edwards in a new drama.

The two-part factual series, which has a working title of Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, is the first collaboration between 5’s factual and scripted commissioning teams and will recount how one of the most recognisable figures in British television was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals at the public broadcaster.

Edwards was one of the BBC’s highest-paid newsreaders, known for presenting the BBC’s News at Ten for decades, delivering some of the biggest stories to the British Public including Queen Elizabeth II’s death, before pleading guilty to making indecent images of children in July 2024.

Clunes will portray the newsreader in the new 5 series, which says it will recount the presenter’s “double life” and how the scandal unfolded, featuring interviews from those who first reported the story.

Ben Frow, chief content officer at 5, said: “This is an important and shocking story of how a man in a position of power and trust betrayed that status.

“By gaining exclusive access to the key individuals involved and those who investigated the story, we explore the human cost behind the headlines.

“As a close collaboration between 5’s factual and scripted teams, this is a first for the channel.”

I can only assume those involved in Clunes’ casting didn’t catch him and his ‘Welsh’ accent in the dreadful ITV drama ‘Out There’ – or, not being Welsh, they simply didn’t pick up the inauthenticity, and simply don’t care. Big name means big numbers means bigger advertising revenue, simples.

Granted, many will think it a challenging role not for the faint hearted, but surely the most challenging thing for Channel 5 to get right will be portraying Huw’s bilingualism – his life and work lived through the Welsh language. Clunes is more skilled than I thought then…

Call me overdramatic, but there’s also a strange fetishisation to the same actors returning to Welsh roles too – namely Martin Clunes and Harry Lawtey, following the former’s Welshface ITV drama and Lawtey’s (let’s be honest, not too bad) turn as a young Richard Burton. A mask to wear, an accolade to ‘pull off’ the other.

I wanted to dislike Mr Burton, but it turned out OK – only with a bad taste in my mouth all the same at the lost opportunities for young Welsh talent, and the ability to actually hold the film close to my heart and say ‘This is ours – this is us’.

The sad thing is, however, that the casting of English people in Welsh roles becomes a recurring self-fulfilling prophecy for younger Welsh talent who just aren’t given the chance, just don’t have the connections.

Talent? In spades. Authenticity? The only holders thereof. But never ever given a chance. It’s the same for Scotland, and it’s absurdly all-too-often the same for independent Ireland. Colonialism-lite, one might say.

Like clockwork, I’ll be told “Sheen played Kenneth Williams.. Burton played Mark Antony..” – indeed they did. But  how often do marginalised or minority actors get to play the miniscule roles available to them? How often does one small break catapult a star from obscurity, from minimum wage roles and a spare room in the family home into starhood, iconic status, a flag-waving ambassador for not only Wales as a country, but Wales’ talent to believe in themselves.

Also this week, we had the lighthearted news that Vicky McClure would like to portray a Welsh person at some point, simply because she can and, more often than not, we can’t.

“In her best Welsh accent” (apparently), McClure revealed that she wanted her next role to be playing a Welsh character.

She said: “Right, let me tell you, right. No Jonathan listen. I’m not joking. I’m ready for my next role in Wales. If anybody has got anything, going let me know, obviously after Line Of Duty.

“I would love to play somebody Welsh. I love Wales, I love the valleys, I love Merthyr, I love Merthyr FC.”

Do you know who else would love to play somebody Welsh, Vicky? Somebody Welsh.. Imagine such a thing!

As I have repeated on more than one occasion, the arts are embedded in Welsh culture, acting prowess is in our blood, and there has never been a shortage of Welsh talent.

When it comes to telling uniquely Welsh stories, our own people are naturally the best people for the job, and these examples are yet more shameful lost opportunities to let our own talent shine on the world stage.

And aside from the missed chance for Welsh talent on the world stage, does anyone involved actually expect Welsh audiences to want this fed back to them?

If we’re not calling this out, we’re telling our young talent that, at best – if they train and sacrifice, up sticks and head to London – they can dream of landing a supporting role back home one day.

That their stories, and the stories of their ancestors, are in safer hands with the masters of stage and screen from the land next door.

“Aim for the bottom, Welsh actors – England’s got us covered.”