Welsh Characters In Film, Part 1 (with Tales For Wales)

[00:00:00] This Show Is Nominated For A 2026 Golden Lobes Podcast Award. Get In! We topped up with a beer? We all did? Oh yes, hang on, I've never been drinking from his mug. Let me get it. I'm on a night time tea because I'm old. Vanilla and nutmeg. Ooh, living large. As soon as someone said the phrase, I'm just going to get a pint, then I'll dry. It was, I'll have a beer. I haven't had a beer while recording in a while.

[00:00:29] It's kind of dangerous how I need that little of an excuse to go, well, if the boys are having one, it's rude not to. Well, it is. We're all guests, I guess. Yeah, we're the guests first. Guest section. We can figure out how it works. I mean, this is pure, unadulterated, cold open territory. Yeah.

[00:00:55] We're all a bit annoyed. We just wasted about 20 minutes of great content in the build-up. We had some great chats before this, and now we've got to try and get that back up. Yeah. We've all been shy and bashful. Cardiff nights out. Yeah. Regret. Just regret. Regret. Yeah. Was it last time we were, so I'll say a sentence and then we'll dive into what will probably be our theme tune for this one, and then we'll figure that out.

[00:01:24] But I'm fairly sure last time we went out drinking in Cardiff, there was a guy who randomly took his top off and started doing press-ups on the street corner. Whilst someone was stood next to him playing the accordion. Oh, nice. That was weird enough. Though we have met that before. Yeah. We have been to Netros. I'm pretty sure it was an accordion. Accordion. What was it, a saxophone? One of the two. It was a while ago. Both very specific instruments of art. I mean, Cardiff is a fun night. I do think it's quite like a gentle night out, but there are oddballs.

[00:01:54] Like, there are a lot of characters. It's the kind of night where you're relatively calm. You can have a calm night out, but you'll just, like, kind of coast up along another night out that's gone absolutely insane. Yeah. Like, hangover levels. There's a hangover movie going on just at arm's length from you. Yeah. Just over the next table. And you don't want to just cross over into that parallel reality because it's just not worth it. Yeah.

[00:02:20] You can get, like, dragged along the wake of someone else's crazy night. Yeah. Like, it takes a lot. But metagoras will come and affect you. And you get lots of people from the valleys who walk around and they've got oranges under their armpits. And they're, like, they are jet, like, the amount of tan they've got injected into them, they're terrifying. And they're always, like, five, maybe five foot two, but, like, the same width in diameter. They're just, like, big square blokes walking around like this. Always wearing shorts regardless of the weather. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:02:50] They're as tall as they are wide. There are these little stocky, terrifying units walking around. You can't forget the bar flies as well. The people who are just in the bar constantly. Last time me and Frank went out for a, just me and him, into, like, catch up in the pub. We went to, is it the, oh, what the hell is it called? A cottage? Oh, yeah. And we sat down. We were like, this is going to be a great day. And this guy came over and was like, all right, boys. He was howling. It was about half 11. Yeah, half 11. We thought it was early for us, and he's already howling.

[00:03:20] And he was saying, like, he was making us, you know, cheers to his mother and all that. It's like, fine. We'll indulge with that. And then we were like, we'll probably go away now. And then he, like, proper plonked his elbow. All he wants to do into that. He's like, oh, he's marking his territory. He does not want to leave. Yeah. I have two related stories to this. One is when we went to Snowden, and there were some scary, scary pubs in Snowden. One of which was like an American werewolf in Paris. And we walked in. It was like record scratch. Everyone turned around.

[00:03:49] Well, they filmed that in Wales, didn't they? That was filmed in Wales. And they were doing karaoke. And this guy just walked up to one of our friends, and he went, you're singing next. Turned around, went back to the Wetherspoons. And then second, we had a very similar, we ended up, it was on my stag do. We were in Dublin at the Brazen Head, and this Irish guy came over and was chatting to us. I don't think he was steaming, but he'd had a few. He wasn't steaming, but I think he's always that level.

[00:04:20] Yeah, yeah. But also weird, and this isn't the part of the story that I was going to tell, but weirdly, we were there for like four days, and we saw him randomly in different parts of the city every day. Same amount of drunk. Yeah, yeah. It was bizarre. So we were chatting, having a beer, well, we were having a Guinness, obviously. And did you mention, someone pointed up and mentioned the Guinness toucan. The Irish guy's like, what's a toucan?

[00:04:48] Like, it's the bird up there. The Guinness bird. The Guinness bird. And he turned around and he goes, I've seen that little bastard every day of my life, and I never knew what he was called. The way you're telling that as well is like such a folk, like horror story.

[00:05:16] You just start seeing him in photos. So that's a punk. Down to the bat. Like shining it. I'm shining it. Like 1857. He was the caretaker. You guys are making a podcast.

[00:05:45] Governor's name, I'm him. So welcome to the podcast nobody asked for. With me, Ian Harries. And me, Graham Jones. This is the podcast where we argue about our top three lists of a topic that nobody asked us to talk about. And this week, on this very special episode, we are crossing over with Jack and Franks from the incredible and very Welsh Tales for Wales podcast.

[00:06:06] And starting to figure out the podcast nobody asked for's and Tales for Wales' official top three Welsh characters in film. How are you guys doing? Hello. Not too bad. Thank you for the intro. This is like Hollyoaks After Dark, isn't it? It's like that saucy little crossover episode. I forgot Hollywood's, Hollyoaks After Dark was a thing. It was so informative to my youth.

[00:06:33] That and ITV's Bad Girls really did do a number on me. I really like both those things. It made me the man I am today, I tell you. But thanks so much for the intro. I suppose we'll probably say what Tales for Wales is for people who don't know. Every week we do a Welsh history podcast, but we also enjoy quite a few beers along the way. And we kind of cover anything Welsh-ready. And it's become, sometimes if we're a bit tired and can't do the research, it'll be the flimsiest relation.

[00:07:03] It'll be like, oh, Welsh pub's funny. Come on. Do you try your best in every single endeavour in your life? No. Come on. Jack and I have both been fans of the pod nobody asked for because we're also big film nerds. I'd say Jack probably has the more extensive knowledge. I didn't have any good telly up until I was like 18. Well, your reference points were hard. Honestly. I've never seen Star Wars. I've been dragging this dead weight along for years.

[00:07:32] I'd say a Star Wars reference. Yeah, no, actually. It's only recently we've gone through the Harry Potters. I haven't seen any Harry Potter. It'll be like, oh my God, what happened in the bloody half of the prince? You're only like 15 years too late. But then I went mad for it. I went like, I didn't have anything like growing up for like good movies. And then I just went like, I just mainline all of it. So that's why we've been a big fan of your stuff. This is going to be a fun little crossover.

[00:07:57] I like the idea that Jack is dropping all of these like really obvious pop culture references. And Frank's is there just like quotes from bad girls in 1998. That's just what Sandra would have said. Yeah, I've never seen like E.T. I haven't seen anything. Although I've then since gone back through. And it feels amazing. I have all modern cinema and old cinema. And I've, yeah, I can assume. Yeah.

[00:08:25] And I'd say at my letterbox, I'm watching like two films a day for a while. I've been like mainlining it for like the last 10 years. So, yeah, we're excited to discuss. Culture to catch up on, mate. That's a book. Yeah, I know. It's great. Part of me is jealous that there's all of these films you get to watch for the first time. And the other part really likes the idea of you just out of nowhere going, God, that Alan Rickman was good, wasn't it? Have you heard of him? I think he's got something new coming out.

[00:08:54] Although to be fair, I did know about Rickman because one film I did watch repeatedly was Robin Hood. And him in that was like, I love that. Yeah. I can't look at a spoon without thinking of him. Please. It was always my go-to. One of our all-time faves, that is. Gotta be. Yeah. Those are very interesting cultural. Cultural. Fucking hell. Cultural touch points. Yeah. Anything like slightly medieval and historical as well, I really got into.

[00:09:23] So most of my Jack and I's podcast, we just either talk about any of the touch points, either hook, where we talk about the boo box. Always hook. Always hook. We do a lot of Robin Hood and a lot of Braveheart. Yeah. We don't want to quote actual Braveheart, the Braveheart himself, William Morris. Don't quote him a lot. We always quote Longshanks from that film. Yeah. Edward Longshanks. The baddie. We always quote him for all of it. But now I've got into Harry Potter.

[00:09:52] And I've still not been tempted by Star Wars yet. It still seems a bit too out there for me. I don't think you'll ever get Star Wars. I think that's too big a bite for you to take off. I mean, Star Wars is pretty much Harry Potter, but with lightsabers instead of wands. Like, all of the same beats. Yeah. Well, Lord of the Rings is also my favourite. You do love Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that's it. So thanks so much for having us on, guys. I do like that. Now, this is just going to become a slowly convincing to just watch Star Wars. Yeah.

[00:10:23] Like, is it that classic Welsh thing of if we find a Welsh connection with Star Wars? Oh, 100%. A million percent. If you just told me one of the little hairy fellas was, like, from Tonopandi, I'd be like, all right, I'm in. Well, I love that. One of the little hairy fellas. Is it bad that that annoys me that you don't know what they're called? I know he's like Chewy. I know people say that. Oh, the little hairy fellas. He's a big hairy fella. Chewy's a very big hairy fella.

[00:10:51] I've got three angry Star Wars fans. Look at him. Give me the luck my dad gives when I says something bad. Right. Kick him out. No, son of mine is not going to watch Star Wars. No, seriously. Darth Vader's red lightsaber represents the dry gorge, mate. Well, I mean. Sign me up. Absolutely sign me up. I mean, there's got to be. I mean, Billy Dee Williams sounds like a Welsh guy. Right? Yeah.

[00:11:20] You can definitely hear that in like a Valley Saxe. Oh, it's Billy Dee Williams. Oh, yeah. It's Billy Dee. Is it by him? No, his father. Good by him that he was. Well, I'll have a research. I'll have a look. He was a minor character, to be fair. Nice. Not in my heart. Great. Not in my heart. Okay. It is. I mean, Lando also kind of sounds like a Welsh guy. A Lando. Yeah, Lando. He's the other, other guy at the rugby club. I don't get these references.

[00:11:49] Well, there's a way to sort that. Yes. Yeah. All right. That'll be it. But there's only a billion of them. They're just too, they're too old. Only watch. You've got to watch four, five, six. Yeah. That annoys me as well. That annoys me that they can start with a four, five and six. And it's just, I guess I said before we were starting recording, maths is not my strong point. It's all too overwhelming. So I just moved on anything from like 1990 onwards. Actually, that's what they are. I love it. I love it. Chronological order is considered maths. Yeah. It's too much.

[00:12:19] I'm not sure where to start and that scares me. So I'm just not going to. Well, you could go with the movie that's been directed by a Welshman. Oh, that is a good one as well. Well, that's the best one. It is. Gareth Edwards. Yeah. Watch that one. That is a goodie. I've told Franks to watch Andor season one and two for a long time. Because even if you're not a Star Wars guy, you can just watch that standalone.

[00:12:49] And it's incredible. It's brilliant. Well, yeah, I might do. Gareth Edwards isn't the guy who did the raid. That's another Welshman, isn't it? Yes, that's Gareth Evans. Gareth Evans. Yeah. Okay. Cool. All right, then. Gareth Edwards does Rebirth, doesn't he? He does Jurassic World. Yeah. Gareth Edwards did like Monster? Monster. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. He's amazing at scale, isn't he? Yeah. Didn't he do one of the Godzillas? Yeah, he did Godzilla. That's how I know him. Yeah. He did something with the...

[00:13:20] I'm just going to call him Denzel Washington's kid. Because I can't remember his name. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Which was really, really cool. But I can't remember anything about it, apart from just the general feeling of watching it and going, oh, this is good. That's pretty good. Creator? Oh, the Creator. Yes. Creator? Yeah. Yeah. See, anything like modern, I'm really good at. I go loads, but old stuff, yeah. And I'm still catching up. John David Washington? Sorry, that's come to me really late. That's a lad, yeah. That's a lad, yeah.

[00:13:49] I don't know about you guys, it sticks in my head. If I can't think of the name, but I know it, I'm like, my neurons are on fire until I get it. Well, both Ian and you, then, for a second, your eyes look like they're rolling back. Yeah. Index is in your brain. How kind is this? I know you've seen this before. Like, June, you know, the men's hats go back. But, like, so, Steve Spears is in, I think, Phantom Menace, who's a Welsh actor.

[00:14:16] So that feels like some connection. Yeah, I'll have that. Yeah. Take it. But there are no Welsh characters in Star Wars, as far as I'm aware. Oh, it's the pity I've always said this. Well, for this episode, it seems like there's no Welsh characters in anything. It's quite hard to find her stuff. There's a couple of, half of them are played by Rhys Evans. Yeah. One of them was played by Robert Downey Jr.,

[00:14:46] which I refuse to watch or talk about. I thought his accent was bang on. It's Welsh with talking to animals. It's a slightly different, slightly more nuance. Yeah, Welsh animals sound slightly different to Welsh people. Oh, God. I erased that from my memory. Thanks for bringing that one back. Yeah. God, I'd forgotten about that accent. No, you're right. There's not a lot of actual Welsh characters in film.

[00:15:12] And I think it reminded me of, to go for another Gareth. So, Mickey Rourke, weird actor guy. That's his name from Gareth. Bought the rights to Gareth Thomas' story. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, Gareth Thomas, Graham. Famous Welsh rugby player. Yes. And he was apparently wanting to play, Mickey Rourke wanted to play him. I was just about to say, surely not Mickey to play him.

[00:15:41] That's such an insult to Gareth. Well, they weren't going to play him. They were going to change it to an Irish character. Oh. Because they thought the very concept of Wales would confuse an American audience. Yeah. What is this? Yeah. So, I'm fairly sure they were going to change it to like an Irish guy called like Kurt. Well, you know, so most, we have like a great UK, well, I say UK, we have a great Welsh following, but we have a really big American following because I think lots of Americans who,

[00:16:08] you know Americans love to have like ties back to Britain. So, there's so much stuff there about Scotland, England and Ireland. But because we do quite a niche thing, it's Welsh history, you know, there's only three million of us here. The amount of people we get from America who like have written in, messaged us, who like we look at the heat map from where our followers are, we have loads in like Ohio and all over because there's just, there's no culture or like things for them to grab onto for them to do it. And they love it. Like, they're thinking about making a, oh, I'm Glyndour film,

[00:16:38] who was like a Welsh rebellion leader in the 1400s. And it's, I always forget the name, Matthew Evans, is it? The guy who's in, yeah. He's been trying to get it going for ages and he's coming up against the same thing all the time where they're like, yeah, but, you know. Wales too confusing. We don't quite get it. What are you? Well, America discovered Wales recently, didn't they? With the Welcome to Wrexham documentary. Exactly. But that generally has done. There was so much to put us on the map. That really did. Yeah. Because the biggest insult when we were younger

[00:17:07] was if you'd meet in America and go, oh, I know Wales. That's part of England. And you're like, oh, okay. It was the biggest insult. Back to you just doing that accent as well. We're all even now. Yeah. It was that over. But it's so true that Wrexham, Welcome to Wrexham, put us on the map. I remember on my honeymoon, and as Frank said, when you used to go on holiday, if you said you're from Wales, they'd be like, oh, Wales, England. But when I went on my honeymoon, some guy said, oh, where are you from? He said, Wales. And he was like, oh, Wrexham. And I was like,

[00:17:37] I'm literally the opposite end of the country. But I was like, you know what? I said, yeah, yeah. You're back on, mate. I'm a Wrexham boy. Yeah. Yeah. I was in Florida for a conference in November, and they had one of these football shirt shops, and it had all the Paris Saint-Germain, Man City, all of these massive teams, and just like a massive section of Wrexham shirts. It was so bizarre. Yeah. What I love about that show, they've touched into like,

[00:18:05] they haven't just made it like another town. They've kind of, they've done what Welsh people have never done, and have used it as a unique selling point. And say, hey, this is actually Welsh. This is something slightly different. Let's really emphasize that. Whereas often, it kind of gets watered down, and kind of, they're slightly embarrassed to the culture. Whereas the two Americans, one's Canadian, have come in and been like, balls to the wall Welsh. And it seems to have come down quite well. You're saying like, these American like execs or whatever, saying, oh, Wales is too confusing or whatever. They've really, like you said, grabbed that with like, and like,

[00:18:35] they didn't need to put all the Welsh in it, as well as in the language aspect. When they put up something about, you know, this like sacked, because me, the American doesn't know what sacked means. It's sacked, fired. And then it was like, de soysia in Welsh. You don't have to put that in. And the next episode's about the Welsh culture aspect. You know, they wouldn't get any more or less money for doing that. It was just a choice they made. And I'm, yeah, I've won. I'm very glad they did. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't watched Deadpool. I feel like I should probably watch that as well, because.

[00:19:04] I think you hate Deadpool. I mean, the film, which is famous in how it references other films. Yeah. Yeah. All over my head. I don't care, guys. What's so funny? What's, I don't care if this is, you know, Godfather. I'd never seen Godfather. So when people kept saying like, you come to me on the day of my daughter, I was like, what are you on about? What are you bothered about? Never happened in bad girls. Is that from Zootopia? I have seen Zootopia. Great film.

[00:19:34] If Bad Girls or Hollywood After Dark had like a, I am your father moment, then you decide. Yeah. Well, yeah, I did get a few references. You know, but remember Two Pints of Lager and a Pack of Crisps? Yes. They had a couple of spoof episodes. Again, that was kind of my culture. That was my upbringing. My culture. Welcome to it, guys. It says a lot for Welsh TV, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, the one Welsh TV show, which I love, was called Pan V Do.

[00:20:03] And it was a brilliant show about, it's called Why Me God. And it's about these children growing up in the valleys in like a, in a, in a school. And it was generally really good. But the guy who made it turned out to be a paedophile. So they've got rid of it from everything. Damn it. One good thing they had going. Yeah. So I actually went on a Reddit form the other day to see if anyone had access to it. Some guy had like a snuff video. He's like, yeah, I've got it. But they just like, they won't release it on anything else. I'll give this to you for a price. Yeah. My, my son insisted on watch it. He picked a show.

[00:20:33] I sent you this the other day. I don't know what the show was called, but it's like some little blue fella. And it was on CBBs and he picks it. It was like, I want to watch it. And it was on like BBC Wales. And it was all in Welsh. And I had no idea what's going on. And he was like, I was like, yeah, we can watch it, but it's in Welsh. And he just looks at me and went, I want Welsh. I want Welsh. Well, Sam, Sam, Sam was Welsh. Super Ted was Welsh. There are two cartoons.

[00:21:02] I had a genuine crash out where we used to watch this, this series in school in a primary called Muzzy. Does anyone remember Muzzy? Yeah. He was like a green kind of alien. Right. And he would speak Welsh and do all this stuff. So it was like a Welsh TV show. I thought I found it later in life. Like maybe when I was like 15, 16, I was like, all right, this is just a mode by which to teach kids different languages. Cause you can get Muzzy in French,

[00:21:32] in German, in whatever language. He's just like a playful character to teach kids. Christmas wasn't real. I thought he was a Welsh boy through and through. I thought Muzzy, the Welsh boy. And I was like, this is a fucking disgrace. This is a betrayal. The full name sounds like a racial slur. A granddad would use that you don't fully understand. So the full title is Muzzy in Gondoland.

[00:22:03] Which is definitely like a, you can't say that anymore. You can't say Gondoland anymore, granddad. But I had the same thing. I never looked at Topps TV the same way. After I found out it was trying to teach me French. Those bastards. The train of the bastards. Every, every time you enjoy a show, then you find out this woke agenda. Puppets should be political.

[00:22:32] Keep French out of cinema. Oh dear. Yeah, I don't, I vaguely remember Buzzy, but at least, at least they were, you know, parents were trying to teach you stuff. Yeah. Which is, which is nice. Graham's son just watches dinosaur videos. I'm trying to lighten the fucking dagger in my back. Yeah. He, he has a strong proclivity for watching hippos eating pumpkins at the moment. That's his thing. They are great videos.

[00:23:03] They're good videos. I'm really competitive. I was saying, can you boys send me a link? They've got horrible hanging, they've got really mucky teeth though. Whatever they show. They've always got dirty little things. There's, there's a niche there for hippo, hippo mouthwash that someone's not capitalized on. Maybe that's, maybe that's where we make our millions. Yeah. It's a, and then we have the watch along podcast. Yeah. And we get more nominations. So we can touch on that actually. Is this, yeah,

[00:23:31] we've have talked about it on the podcast so far. I can't remember. We've all got award nominated. Yeah, we are. We are award nominees. Um, what would you call that? quad norm between all, between the two podcasts. Quad nominated. Quad and a half. Cause we are. Quad and a half. Yeah. We are. We are in the nomination world. Yeah. We are claiming a half nomination, uh, because we were featured on a tangent that we didn't actually put forward ourselves. Ooh.

[00:24:02] So I, I think that counts. Yeah. I'd say so. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it was my tangent, so I'm absolutely taken. Oh, do it. You should sue them for taking your tangent. Yeah. I think you should kick off my second. Yeah. You should really sour the relationship you have. So I would say he does this every time. But last year, he also put forward a tangent of us talking. We, um,

[00:24:29] in what I think is potentially one of the happiest moments of my podcasting life. We discovered while recording that he hadn't heard of Gary Barlow's massive son. I got that reference. Yeah. I got it. I got it. So we just got to introduce him to all of these memes. And he was live reacting to them. It was a thing of beauty. Telling him my,

[00:24:55] my 65 year old father was aware of the memes and kept sending them to me really kind of puts that in perspective. Um, but I think like we, we can just kind of get stuck in to figuring this out. So we've all bought, we've, it's going to be, uh, the podcast nobody asked for versus, uh, Tales for Wales. We'll have our top three lists and then we'll figure out what a joint top three list would be. And just, just to steer this further down our Avenue,

[00:25:24] we usually do a movie recommendation. Nobody asked for. I, uh, assume you guys are here for a movie recommendation. No, thank you. Yeah. I'm fine. Nah, I'm fine. I'm all right. Nah, I'm fine. It's all right. I'm fine. Fuck off. I was going to throw it out. But I think it has to be all of the Star Wars films.

[00:25:52] Do we have a quorum? Are we in agreement? It's a little bit niche for my liking. A little bit niche. Star Wars brackets, chronological order until you get to plus and or close brackets. Yeah. All right. Get to an angle. I'll take that. I'll take that. It's finally been the kick up the ass. And then there'll be a quiz. And, and before we dive into first choices, Graham, do you just want to mention the other film we recommend every episode? Yeah. If we're not watching Star Wars, we're watching Midsommar.

[00:26:22] Hey, because why not? And on that note, let's get underway. Who wants to take the first choice? Are we going to go with you guys? Are we going to go with us guys? You guys, us guys. Do you want to start? I was going to say, it's the hosts. Yeah. True. Why don't you true? And this is our feed. This is our house. That was a good bench actually before we started. Graham, you can start. Well, he's already been mentioned once on the podcast before, uh,

[00:26:52] and not before, probably before, but a couple of minutes ago by Jack. Um, it's Hollyoaks after dark. It's Hollyoaks after dark. I would say this person, this character is probably the first Welsh man. Most people are introduced to, unless you're Welsh, obviously my dad. Yeah. But then also maybe the first person, famous Welsh person you introduced to, unless your dad's Tom Jones. So it's five and Sam,

[00:27:22] obviously, obviously, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam Jones, is his surname. So I can't count him as a relative. We could have guessed. I think we're all being honest with ourselves. Yeah. We've had a lot of Evanses in discussion so far. So this is the first mention of a Jones. They often make fun of Wales for everyone having a nickname. So you have like,

[00:27:52] die the leg. If he's got a slightly long legs, uh, there's a guy called Tommy cows, uh, cheesy Tommy. Who's like, who likes his cheese. Um, because everyone has the same surname. So it's impossible to know who you're on about. So that's why there's like a rich history of people have been given. Like, and also the worst nicknames. It's like, it's just like what your name and something you'd like or something you do. So you've done in the past. Yeah. Normally something you're ashamed of. Yeah. I like it. Just to really bring it back to forever. Yeah. Sam Tan.

[00:28:23] Used to be part of Mamiac. Yeah. Yeah. No one else wanted to do the fires. So yeah, he kind of turned up. Let's get the resident expert in. Hales from Pontypandy, which do you know what the Pontypandy is a portmanteau of? Pontypree, the tollapandy. There you go. No flies on you, Franks. No, although I did, I think for rest, for nearly all of my life, I thought it was a real place.

[00:28:51] It actually took an Englishman from Birmingham to tell me it wasn't. And I was like, God, don't you teach me about my culture. You bastard. I know where I'm from. Culture. And it was, yeah, you mentioned Supertodale as well. So it was the same person that commissioned Supertodale, commissioned old Sam. He's obviously been knocking around since 1985 in various guises. I, I unfortunately have the misfortune of seeing the,

[00:29:20] the like CGI one. Now I was going to say, that's the latest one I saw. And I was like, they're saying, they're saying what the old stop motion type shit used to be. Yeah, no, it's not as good, but Norman is still a prick. Um, so they carried that all the way through. Yeah. Speaking of characters in Fireman Sam, I still don't know. And maybe you can enlighten me. Maybe this is a Welsh cultural thing that I'm not aware of, but like Elvis is, is why is, why is there a guy called Elvis?

[00:29:50] So the biggest, uh, Elvis convention outside of Las Vegas happens in Porthcall every year. We've had this discussion before. It is. It is insane. It's like thousands of Elvis's descend upon Porthcall every year. And it was, it was during COVID. They acted like that was the biggest hardship anyone went through. They were like, there were no Elvis's. Where will the Elvis's go? Humanity. Yeah. I think also like Welsh people do like to live in the past. So like,

[00:30:18] like when YouTube came along, people went mental in Wales. Cause you could just watch old rugby games where Wales had won for ages. Like there's a thing. You can't watch any new ones. No. Very true. They, um, in the Royal Welsh, uh, agricultural show, there's a big farmer's tent for everyone has beers afterwards. And they used to just replay rugby from like the seventies on a screen. Just to like relive the old glory days. It's honestly mad. That like,

[00:30:45] like we're not doing our culture any favors in terms of people looking inward. When it's like the biggest, one of the biggest events in Wales is the fucking Royal agricultural show. And you're watching rugby from the seventies. Yeah. My friend frequents that actually. They, they own a, um, they've got like a, uh, glamping site in the Brecon's. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they, they, they had that. It's really fun. I know. I'm just like it off. It's actually good fun.

[00:31:15] You can get like the free, free bees there as well. The free samples of the beers. Just FYI. The other big event that's near them is, it's like man versus horse. And it's like what it says on the tin. Yeah. We did a podcast episode about that. We did a, uh, a thing about, yeah. Do you want to say what it is, Graham? Yeah. For the uninitiated. As far as I know, you just, a load of people race a horse. Yeah. I'm sorry. You dread man versus horse. You pretty much.

[00:31:43] It's an actual marathon race. Yeah. It's, it's a long old thing, isn't it? Yeah. Some, uh, some of the men, a couple of men have won. The, the genius of man have actually won. Yeah. Those four legged bastards. Would that be like this? Are you not going to get into it? Ian thinks he could kill a cow. No. I'm just going to throw it out there. I'm just going to see where this is going. Cause he thinks he could kill a cow.

[00:32:16] There was something else I'm convinced I could do, which we are not mentioning on the podcast. Um, shag a cow. I wasn't going to say it. Um, 200 yards. Isn't that far? Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, I'll, I'll fill you. Yeah. We'll, we'll, we'll talk to you guys later. Um, I would be worried that if I beat a horse in a foot race, that would be my defining moment. Well, like, is that okay? Would that be so bad? I think I'd be,

[00:32:44] I'd probably be the achievement of my life. They, um, they came up with it in a pub. They were like, they got these. Of course they did. All good things happen. But they started arguing saying, there's no fucking chance you could beat a horse. And the Welsh guy was like, yeah, but I know the terrain. I know like when the Normans tried to come here, they can handle the terrain. And he was like, I understand. On the flat race, you could, but no, this is the mountains. Smart as a Norman. Norman horses. Yeah. So the, apparently the marathon itself is really hard. Cause it's,

[00:33:14] it's lots of uphill, lots of downhill. And then through a forest. But I think over the 27 years, it's been going about seven times. Man has won. Man has prevailed. That must be a messy horse. What's that chat? Yeah. That horse. You lost. It's not just one man. The one horse. Now it's like a whole squad of horses and like, like a couple of hundred people running. So the horses do at one point nearly trample a bunch of like, Runners differently. They,

[00:33:43] they veer onto different tracks as well. So like, I think so. At the very start, you let the men, the men a chance because, um, I'm talking about men. Yeah. They, um, like some of the trails for the horses is like, I can't remember if it's uphill down or, or, or next to both. And it's really hard for the horses to like, keep up a lot of speed on that. So that's like when the, you've got to gain, you've got to gain. So at the very start, the horses gallop. And then,

[00:34:10] then the old foe of going downhill gets the horse. And then that's when the man kicks in. But yeah. Also like general, like horses can't read maps. Yeah. Like there's, there's a disadvantage there, right? Yeah. And they don't know the races. They're often quite chill. They do have, they do have a rider as well, which makes it all the better that there's only seven, uh, men that have actually beat them. Yeah. Yeah. It's horses. It's done. It's really good. I'm fairly sure.

[00:34:42] Depending, uh, when this race is in the calendar year, I'm fairly sure. Recently, more horses, uh, more humans have beaten horses in this race than Wales have won rugby matches. Oh, that's heartbreaking. Yeah. Do you know what? Do you know what's weird as well? Um, men have only started winning like post COVID. So that would kind of add credence. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you guys need to play horses at rugby. Maybe that's, maybe you get a win. Well,

[00:35:11] maybe you just keep been campaigning for a long time to bring an old game called Knappan back. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you heard of this? Can I, cause the other day? I don't think so. Oh, it's, uh, it's basically the, you back in the day when all the way, uh, the Welsh were like disarmed and things like that. He wasn't allowed to like practice war games or anything like that. Um, you'd have a town versus town and the aim of the game, it'd be hundreds of people on each side and they'd get this pig skin. Oh yes. Yes. In oil, very slippy,

[00:35:40] hard to keep hold of. And what you do is you'd meet in like a middle bit between these two towns and the gate of the aim of the game was one team needs to grab the ball and take it to the church of the town. Yeah. It's about a thousand years ago. This is like, it's brutal. It was brutal. And it, it, there was no rules really. You could have weapons. You could like out of each other. And if you were rich, you were allowed to have horses and cudgels. You could have a horse and a cudgel. It was insane. And it only lost like notoriety.

[00:36:10] It only lost, um, like popularity when Henry the eighth came in because too many farmers. He ruined everything. He ruined it all. But too many people would get injured so they couldn't toil the field. Cause whenever they do these big rugby matches and it is a prototype of rugby and it started off with the Celts. So like in the like 200 BC, um, they then, they went on for like nearly a thousand years until Henry the eighth. Like guys, you keep fucking breaking your legs. We're not doing this anymore. What I like,

[00:36:38] what I like with that is I like, like there are things like man versus horse. Yeah. And cheese rolling. Yeah. It's very cheese rolling. Which you assume are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. And then you find out like cheese rolling is like 60 years old. Oh, is it really? Yeah. The man versus horse thing. 1980. Yeah. So it feels like something of like Edward the second said,

[00:37:08] whoever would beat a horse. Yeah. King of North Wales. Yeah. And it just turns out like you said, it was just drug guys in a park. I could be a horse. We did a, so I'm clap on it. And there's, uh, this one, one sort of, uh, account was so funny to us. There was this guy, apparently one of the villages who had signed up and he was like, he had the most luscious locks of hair that he was pulling loads of women all the time. He was cheating. He was like, shagging people's wives. Hated it.

[00:37:37] Cause he goes to the other town, shagging wives and stuff. So when he came to his nap hand, they held him down, battered him and ripped out all his hair. Like the ball just rolling off in the distance. And it's there ripping out. Sorry, sorry to get off. Did you know, did you just open a beer with a spoon? Oh yeah. I didn't have a bottle open up yet.

[00:38:06] I can open a beer with anything. He is, he is good at that. Oh yeah. Credit. Credit with credit. You just put your way to, you anchor anything in the crevice of your hand and then. Just need a, uh, what's it called? There you go. A thingy point. Yeah. A fulcrum, I think. Fulcrum. Yeah. A fulcrum Richard. It's a fulcrum Richard. Give me a lever big enough and I will open this beer. Yeah. Um, anyway, fine. Yeah.

[00:38:36] Movies, right? We said movie characters and you say, fireman, Sam's just in TV shows. No, he has been in five different feature films. Wow. 2009's the great fire of Ponty Pandy. 2015's heroes of the storm. Uh, 2016's alien alert. Uh, 2018's set for action exclamation mark. And then most recently, uh, our good friend,

[00:39:02] Norman price in Norman price and the mystery in the sky. Um, so he does fulfill the, uh, the criteria. And I think is two of the five fireman, Sam films about aliens. Very possibly. That sounds like the, the, uh, Ponty Pandy tried to cover things up. Norman's the only guy. Uh, Norman price in the mystery in the sky. Joe invents a new super battery, which catches the attention of the villainous professor polonium,

[00:39:32] who steals it and stages a series of accidents across the village. Hmm. Yeah. One brief fireman, Sam story, because I feel like it needs to be recorded for posterity. Um, so recently, and by recently, I mean, since, uh, August, um, I've had something of, uh, cause I feel like we're, we're like two families here, right? We've like come together. We can be honest with each other.

[00:39:59] I've watched what can only be described saying medically irresponsible amount of Chicago fire. All right. So we're talking hundreds of episodes. Wow. 271, I think. It's great. One of them is a ghost in. So that's where that show is going. I used, uh, chat GPT to put a picture of five and Sam into the Chicago fire. And it looked a bit, a bit weird.

[00:40:26] So then I asked chat GPT to make him sexier. And then I realized that is now going to forever be something. I have asked AI to do for me. Is when you're excited by the Russians. that'll be like, yeah, that's how suddenly our podcast goes like full. When, uh, Skynet goes live and all the humans are ushered into camps. That'll be the reason. They'd be like, this is what you need.

[00:40:56] Yeah. It's, uh, wasn't my finest moment. Not my special camp for you. Was he sexy though? Was the end result actually sexy? Yeah. We kind of need to see it. All it did was open his jacket. Ooh. Yes. Yes. Is the answer. Yeah. But, uh, I will, I will find the photo and I will, I will send it in the chat. I dressed up as fireman Sam once. not sexy fireman Sam. I was at a kids event. So very much. No,

[00:41:26] basically I was, I can't remember what it was. I was off. I think I was back from uni or something like that. My mum used to be a nursery teacher. She was doing an event. The guy who was meant to dress up as fireman Sam with like the big, like mascots had like huge thing. Um, just bailed last minute. And I was asked to, to jump in and save the day. Hated every second of it. I know everything about you. I didn't know this story. I'm sure some little shit like stomping on my feet. Look, he had these big old, like proper, like foam boots on.

[00:41:55] Cloth hoppers. So I couldn't feel it. We're so close to just backhanding the little shit. I was like, that's not, that's not what Sam Jones would do. Think of the Sam Jones mentality. God, can I just say, uh, he had just shared the photo and I clicked it. I didn't realize on zoom. It automatically downloads it. I have a work laptop. Now I have a sexy famous Sam. Oh wow. It really does just reveal his vest and chest. It does just reveal his vest. It's got a cheeky side eye going on as well. They do the little quiff though.

[00:42:25] I like that. Ah, good old, good old Chicago fire. Integral to the, to the bringing the Welsh culture, um, across the border and to 25, translated into 25 different languages. Oh wow. Including Mandarin. I know, right? Yeah. He's basically Muslim. All of these characters, they're just, they're just, they're just vessels for, um, bilinguism. I was about to say, thanks. Thanks.

[00:42:55] Don't pronounce it as a buzzy, mate. Okay. That's how you're going to see the trouble. It's buzzy. So I'm going to pick, uh, Private Owen, uh, played by Ivor Lewis Emanuel, um, in the 1964 film Zulu. Um, it's a little bit background, which I, when I was researching this for a little bit more info, um, I found out Emmanuel is born in Argon, which is down in Port Talbot, not far from where I am. Um, and his, uh, when he was 14 years old, his father, his mother, his sister,

[00:43:25] and his grandfather were all killed by one bomb during World War II. and, uh, it was like, uh, he got taken away as anti-flossy and he'd been working down the mine for most of his life until, um, he came into, into cinema. And, uh, that wouldn't have been a fun verse for Vindaloo, would it? His father is mum. His dad is mum. What's up? You're blown to Vindaloo. Yeah. Oh, that's funny.

[00:43:55] Um, yeah, but this is to our part, right? We'll know that we are like, we're almost like caricatures on how, how Welsh we are or how effervescent we are about like, like anything about Wales in, in media. So Zulu is like, oh, it's, it's like, it's just like the promised land. So, and people who don't know, like, uh, Zulu is a film about like, it's in the film, not historically, but in the film, it's a bunch of Welsh lads who essentially withstand the might of like 4,000 Zulu, warriors.

[00:44:25] but they beat them by out singing them in. So it's like, it breaks down to, there's a rousing rendition of men of Harlech, which is this, like it to me in jacket is absolute cinema. It's peak. Yeah. You can't be. I, I will rewatch that scene. I was going to say. Months or so. Yeah. It is, it's beyond, isn't it? My, um, my entire exposure to Zulu is that one line in that gold looking chainsaw. What does he say? What does he say? Was it like Michael Caine in Zulu? I can't remember.

[00:44:54] Is it in your mother's got a penis? Yeah. Oh yeah. I don't, I thought the line from Zulu, your mother's got a penis. I was like, do you remember that? When was that? Oh, I was, I'm not going to say that. I can't remember that. Well, I might just explain Zulu because it might be a little bit, um, probably obscure. It's a very famous film, but just in case people don't know, it's, like in 1964, like war epic, but it is beautiful. It's such a beautifully shot film. And it's,

[00:45:24] it's filmed on location. Uh, but it's a, it's a true story about 150 British soldiers who defend a Christian mission against 4,000 Zulu warriors. Um, and it follows a day after the Zulus crushed the British at the battle of Isandwala. Um, and what is so British about this thing is we're clearly the baddies. Like we're like colonized and invade and taken over a part of, you know, with thousands of miles from home, but it's the only way you can celebrate is because we're the underdogs in

[00:45:52] this one small chapter of a very horrific book. Like we have this one little thing and we're like the plucky underdogs who overcome the odds, but we have fucking guns. So there's these are like cowhide shields. We're still like the kiddies. Um, but it generally is fantastic. And like you mentioned, it's a film that made, um, uh, Michael Caine. Yeah. But, um, and I, I was just going to say like the reason it's so people question how Welsh it is because it's about the, uh, uh,

[00:46:21] Brecon battalion who were based there, but lots of the characters in it are Welsh and played by Welsh people. And there's one called, uh, Private Owen who, um, in that film, in the, the, like the, the thing that's very right, like probably most famous scene is, uh, just after hours of attack, he rallies the outnumbered British soldiers by leading them in this stirring Welsh rendition of, uh, men of Harlech, which is like, um, um, like if you haven't do yourself a flavor and watch it on YouTube, if you haven't, it's, it's really good.

[00:46:51] But the song is like, it's a, an old Welsh song, either about when, um, Harlech Castle was, um, garrisoned against the war of the roses or when Onglin Dour was, was being invaded by Henry V in like the 1408. And it's all like, a quiet question. How could it be either about one? Like surely it's one of those things. All of history is always caveats. It's always, this is like the, this, the amount of times in our episodes we go, some people say this, but other people say that. So,

[00:47:20] and also the, so there's like, it'd been written a few times, but the reason why, so in one of the early versions, it mentions the Saxons. It says like, men of Harlech stand too steady. Can't you see this? Be your heads ready. And then it goes on to talk about the Saxons. So that they would make it much more sense. It's part of Onglin Dour's campaign, which is when the, well, that's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. And also the war of the roses and English civil war. That's boring. We don't want that part of our history. But anyway, the film itself, it's like,

[00:47:49] it's gone on to be this pivotal part of Welsh identity and culture. And it's sung at every Welsh rugby game and football game. And especially Welsh football, which is like a real revival for like Welsh identity. But it's also, it's a film that's got a young Michael Caine in it, who apparently was so absolutely awful in his first interview. They were like, no, you're a dog shit. You're not going to be in it. And then the person who was meant to play him couldn't go out to Africa. So they sent Michael Caine and he was amazing. He's generally was amazing. Yeah. He's very good.

[00:48:20] But there's a, what I really like about the whole film is there's most of the Welsh people in it are just like the lowly soldiers. And they spend most of the time talking about the land and the cattle. And like, there's one guy who goes, I thought I was tired of farming, no adventure in it, but look at this country. There's no moisture here. And they just talk about, he can't cry. Is there one guy who like, he gets like almost, it's a borderline romantic relationship with like a cow. Well, he goes, the mother of the cow gets shot. And then he goes,

[00:48:51] no, no, the calf gets shot. And he goes, who's going to milk your mother now? It does sound a little bit awkward. Like I said, borderline romantic. But it's rather like, it's almost a sweet fish out of water characters who had this horrific colonial battle going on in the background mixed with these like sweet moments between them. And that's one of the things that helped it is the sixties when there wasn't a huge amount of Welsh identity on anything. John Chard, who's like the leader of the film, who's played by Stanley Baker,

[00:49:20] who's this big Welsh socialist to him at the time was apartheid. So none of the Zulu warriors who were in the show were allowed to be paid anything. So he made sure all the cattle they had for the film was given to the Zulu warriors who actually were descendants of the people who fought at this same battle, got the cattle and got the farmyards because they weren't allowed to attend the film. They weren't allowed to get any money for it. They weren't allowed to get paid back for it. So he did like a really cool thing in the background. And he's also the main person in the film, but he's not portrayed a Welsh person.

[00:49:49] But he says that line when the Zulus are singing this great like war song and like smashing their shields. And it's fucking really scary. It's really intense, it's like thousands of them. And Lieutenant Chad goes, do you think the Welsh could do better than that, Owen? And then Private Owen goes, well, they've got a very good bass section line, but no top tenors. And then he starts singing this like brilliant rousing rendition. And it generally gets me. It is very good. Yeah, I'm like, oh, fucking hell, come on, boys. But like, can you imagine being there? You're on like your third day of battle. Yeah.

[00:50:20] You're exhausted. And then you hear him say that next to you. Like part of your brain would just be like, mate, I get it, but fuck me. I got that. Yeah. It's very good. Side story vibes. I'm just kidding. I haven't seen it, but all I'm hearing is like two gangs, two armies facing off against each other, just like singing at each other. Well, they sing really cool. They, they, they like, um,

[00:50:50] like fill the hills around them. And it's, I love a siege film. I like Lord of the Rings, two towers, where I love anything where it's a siege. And that's what it, Lord of the Rings, two towers is very similar to, uh, man of that, that Zulu film. Don't just sing off though. That's the only thing that was missing from two towers. Yeah. But is that getting the great ones? Do you think we can outdo them? No top tenors. Well, Ghibli is a Welshman as well. That's true. But it is, you always forget, you have to remind yourself, oh, hang on, we're the absolute baddies here.

[00:51:19] We're the people who've come to this place. But yeah, that's my, my, my, my, I said my favourite thing about, my favourite thing about Zulu is specifically that scene. But what I do like with Zulu is, so the guy who plays the Zulu king is like the grandson of the actual Zulu king at the time. Yeah. And I just really like the idea of them going to him and saying, hey, remember, remember Rolls Drift? We're making a film about it.

[00:51:48] You all right? You all right? And then we go, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Dying. It's great. I think it's the place, the most amount of Victoria crosses were given out to soldiers. And it's like, it's, but the fact it's filmed in, in apartheid to South Africa at the time, but they get all, like you said, the descendants of the, the, the Zulus and stuff. And it's filmed beautifully. And it generally still looks amazing. And the soundtrack's amazing. It'd be such a cool thing that, you know, the whole, the descendants of the Zulu warriors at the time, that would be such a like, oh, that's such a great little thing.

[00:52:18] If they weren't like, yeah, you're not allowed to come to the premiere. Yeah. It's like, oh fuck's sake, you ruined it. Stanley Baker brought cinema to them and showed them, uh, showed them, Charlie Chaplin stuff. And they were like, this is fucking hilarious. But yeah, that's, that's my, that's my, it's slightly different to Feynman, Sam. I also like the idea that they, that they got to see all these old movies before you did. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:52:48] I'm a little bit behind. They probably all seen star Wars way, way, way, way. Someone shows you some clips of Charlie Chaplin on YouTube, but this is fucking brilliant. This is hilarious. This is real good. This is a little fella. Just Stanley Baker, just bringing castle and a cinema screen to your house. You just live this way, honestly. I hear you've only seen Hollyoaks after dark. Yeah. You're more unfortunate soul. Uh, my next choice.

[00:53:19] Um, so our next choice, our next choice. Apologies. Um, but actually that's a good, we are a unit. All right. That's a very good segue because we are a unit, Graham, much like twins who I believe legally count as one person. So my choice for best Welsh character is, uh, the Lewis twins from 1997 twin town, a film, which is almost impossible to watch.

[00:53:49] So I watched this for the first time, literally last year, because, uh, allegedly my father-in-law has a cracked fire stick. That's got a load of films on allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, if you had a cracked fire stick, load of films on it probably would have twin town on allegedly. Um, so I watched it. Uh, I then found out recently, it's so difficult to find. The director has just put it in like a put locker online and you could just download it. I'm watching now.

[00:54:19] I got so much time for that. We, we've got it on our list to do for the pod. And the only place I could find it is Kex, you know, like CEX, the place. And it's like, like 27 quid to buy it in some of those places. 27 quid. I know. So nice. I think on, on last check, I think on Amazon, you could get the DVD for like three pound 50 or you could buy the VHS for 117 pounds. Wow. Remind me, I'll send the, I'll send the link over.

[00:54:49] So when you told me that this film was like nearly impossible to watch, I thought you meant that it was like created in such. Yeah. Or just like you could not look like literally it's quite difficult to get. Yeah. It's, it is just very difficult to find, which again is a comment on like, this is like one of the iconic Welsh films. Yeah. And it's impossible to watch. Yeah. I love this film as well. Like it is. So the,

[00:55:17] like just to make it a long story, like a long plot, fairly short. It's about how Swansea is shit. Yeah. Really? That's all it boils down to. So the Lewis twins are played by the Evans brothers. Um, and it is just them running chaos around town. Yeah. There's then their dad, fatty Lewis, falls up a rugby club. I said,

[00:55:46] classic Welsh name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Fatty Lewis. And then there's just basically, uh, a film of one upmanship between Lewis twins and the local like drug dealer called Bryn Cartwright. And it is so over the top stupid. I think like the, the lazy description of it is always, it's the Welsh train spotting. Yeah.

[00:56:13] Which I think all they really mean by that is train spotting is really Scottish. Yeah. And, but like, but it's, it's Welsh in a way where it's not the butt of the joke is that it's Welsh, which a lot of, a lot of characters like that. This just feels like, Oh, you're clearly, cause I think, so the, the guy who wrote and direct it's Kevin Allen, who I think was from around there. And it's the type of film where if you've got,

[00:56:43] family in West Wales, you can watch it and go, right. Well, I know that person. Yeah. I know someone like that. I know someone like that. Me and Franks were texting about this before when we were sort of deciding on who our characters would be. And it's quite hard in film to find a Welsh character that is, um, like the Welshness is a part of the character for one, but also that it isn't just like a piss take. It isn't like a punch in line. It isn't a punchline. The Welshness is a punchline, you know, um,

[00:57:13] like I, to touch on Reece Evans' other work, you know, when he's, um, he plays Spike in Notting Hill. Yeah. That's just when it came to mind. He is made fun of in that basically for being Welsh. Like his Welshness in that is like a, uh, it's, it's a, uh, it's, it's a punchline to the stuff in there. You know, his Welshness in that isn't like an endearing character trait. It's like, Oh, look how thick he is basically. Or like, look how stupid he sounds when he says certain things. It's all bywood for thicko. It's normally just like,

[00:57:43] it was just like a, but like you said, if you know anyone from that part of Wales, or if you like Welsh rugby, like grassroots level, you could get a lot from a twin town. Cause you know, you've met people like that. You know what I mean? If you've ever been around those areas. It's, I know it's a huge, there was a, God, it would be a, I'm not sure if it's the 20th anniversary of it, but, uh, Alan Wynne-Jones did a tour of Swansea for a small sea. I just visited,

[00:58:12] because I think it was his old rugby club. Yeah. That they drive the cobra around. Yeah. When they're trying to deliver him his sausages. But like, it is so just silly and stupid, but there's a lot of heart to it. It's also just like, there are, there are legitimate like laugh out, like it's so stupidly quotable. Um, and it's just great, isn't it?

[00:58:42] Swansea is shit as well. So I kind of, you know, yeah, Doug Ray Scott in it, isn't it? Yes. He's a police, a police officer. So he's a, he's a, he's a bent copper, bent copper. Um, uh, is in town trying to do basically a Coke deal. Doug Ray Scott most famous for not being Wolverine. Cause he got in like a motorcycle accident with Tom Cruise. That's crazy. Was that on? Was that on mission impossible too? Yeah.

[00:59:08] Which meant he had to turn down Wolverine and then this Hugh Jackman guy swept out from the wings. It, you, you know, you said like Swansea's a shit hole, um, which I would agree. I think principal Codd if we'd heart, heartily agree with that in the film. Um, Dylan Thomas is from Swansea and when it, outside the train station, there's like a thing on the floor that says, uh, there's a quote from him that says Swansea, an ugly, lovely town. And the, the Terry, the,

[00:59:38] the bent copper says, I'd rename it a pretty shitty city. Yeah. I've, I've been to Swansea once, which was before Ian's wedding, which was in the Gower. And it just so happened that Ian planned his wedding perfectly. The Watford, which is the team I support, we're playing Swansea two days before his wedding. So I just went down, wow. Staying the premier in, in a like, uh, trading estate basically. I think,

[01:00:07] I think the, I, I, I'm, I'm just going to say this as if this makes sense to people, but the final scene, I think of twin town takes place just down the road from the pub where a friend of ours got accused of being a ketchup guy. Yeah. So I'm sure the final scene of it is mumbles. Yeah. Nice. Must be. It's all filmed on there as well. And it's not even like beautifully filmed, but it's just something, it's very like a nostalgic.

[01:00:37] Even at the time, you just feel like I, cause you, most people from South Wales valleys, they know all of those people. And it's, it's really heartwarming, even though they're two scummy drug addict, little idiot brothers. He's still very charming. I also like this ways, like maybe not Port Talbot, but there are ways to film some of that area and make it look, beautiful. Yeah. Like mumbles, like with all the different colored houses, things like that.

[01:01:05] There are parts of Swansea and they just make it look so gray and bleak the whole time. And it's just like, yeah, I get it. I get it. I think you made a good point about it being like, people say it's, it's like the Welsh version of, the Scottish one. but you were right. It's not like, it's not because it's like horrifically harrowing. It's like, it's quite jovial, isn't it? It's quite like a fun, silly film. And I think that kind of captures a bit of that kind of attitude down there. But like, it's, it's very,

[01:01:35] very Welsh. Yeah. In the best possible way. Yeah. Like it, so my, my dad, all his family are Clethley. And then my mother, father-in-law are out in Camarthur. So everyone west of Swansea is just exactly like the people. I would say my two favorite places, I think Clethley is a, it's a breeding ground. Scott Quinnell for rugby fans.

[01:02:01] His whole family are so funny and so effortlessly charming and mad and over the top. But that sums up that area. Scott, Scott Quinnell Graham. I think I've sent you an interview with him and I dubbed him the Welshest man ever. He is. He really is. Yeah. I think his son is a drag queen now. He is. His son works at my gym, my old gym. And he's a, the son is about six foot eight. He is so, so tall. And they are the most broad-shouldered hench people ever.

[01:02:30] And he's a bodybuilder. Like a, he does, he works at the gym as like a masseuse and all this stuff to like get you really fit. And on the weekend, he's this really glammed up drag queen. It's like a beautiful mixture of worlds. When we went to see, we went to see the social distance podcast live. Yeah. Was it Scott, Scott Quinnell? Yeah, Scott Quinnell. They had him come on and recite, Ich bin ein Berliner. And it was fucking hilarious. It was so funny. Because his voice is beautiful. He does the voice of,

[01:03:00] I don't, do they have it in England? The postcode lottery? Yes. Yeah. He goes, it's a postcode lottery. It's a postcode lottery. And he's like famous from a very over the top voice. They had him do, yeah, they had him do, or fight them on the beaches. Yeah. It's a joke. It's been nine billion. They just made him read like loads of intense poetry out. I think he did an Nazi salute at the end of the. Yeah, which was a bad outline. And it was like, that's the opposite of what you should be doing. Yeah, damn it, Scott. He got it too far.

[01:03:31] But yeah, he was, I think it was the socially distant sports bar he was on, where he talks about how he's never stretched before a game of rugby. I was just like, well, you just don't have to. I actually agree. I've never, I've never, I've never stretched before any sports I've ever done. Before boxing, rugby football. That's why you're not on the same level as Scott Quinell, mate. We are built on the same cloth. Okay. I just don't believe in it. You don't need to. It's fine. If, if, if Scott Quinell doesn't stretch, why should we?

[01:04:01] very true. But yeah, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot to say about twin town. Like I said, you can, you can watch it for free now. And I think just the, the Lewis twins are a proper celebration of just Welshness and Welsh without it being the butt of jokes. And that, that for me is very nice. Always valuable. We always take a bit of value in that. So that is,

[01:04:27] that is the end of part one of our collaborative. I was shitting myself then. I was thinking, how are we going to fit this into 10 minutes? The rest of it. That's the end. I'll see you guys later. But that's the end of part one. To listen to part two, you can head over to, uh, tales for Wales, a Welsh history podcast where we will, we will continue our choices and figure out what the top are, the official top three Welsh film characters are.

[01:04:57] Um, Graham, I believe you requested. I did. That we end on a cliffhanger. How would you like to do that? Uh, you put me on the spot. Um, Ian, I'm pregnant. I've got a very good base section, mine,

[01:05:28] but no top teners. That's for sure. This podcast is part of Podomity, the UK's podcast comedy network. Why not laugh at what else we've got? Visit Podomity.com.