Putting Wales on the TV map

Cardiff will once again take centre stage in the national TV industry conversation in May, with the second Wales Screen Summit.

Last year’s inaugural event brought 230 delegates to the city centre’s Parkgate Hotel to network and hear from senior figures from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, S4C, Amazon, Pact, Creative Wales and indies like Little Door, Bad Wolf and Five Mile Films.

In establishing the event as an annual fixture, Emyr Afan, chief executive of Afanti Media and director of the summit, believes it will soon stand alongside other established events, from Sheffield Doc/Fest to the Edinburgh TV Festival, and increasingly reflect and celebrate how Wales has become the UK’s third-largest media powerhouse behind London and Manchester.

The creative industry in Wales generates a £1.7bn turnover, 14% growth over the past five years, and employs more than 35,000 people. Meanwhile, Creative Wales, established three years ago, has supported 30 projects, generating more than £177m for the Welsh economy.

Wales is home to more than 3,400 creative businesses, including the producers behind dramas like S4C and C4’s Y Golau (The Light In The Hall) and BBC1’s The Pact, BBC3’s Bafta-winning comedy-drama In My Skin and international hits such as Netflix’s Sex Education and BBC/HBO co-pro His Dark Materials.

Port Talbot is becoming a particularly popular destination, with cameras soon to roll on BBC1’s The Way, directed by Michael Sheen and written by James Graham with Adam Curtis.

It is one of six BBC dramas coming out of Wales this year, including the dual-language S4C/BBC Cymru Wales comic thriller Pren ar y Bryn (Tree On A Hill) and Men Up, Quay Street/Boom Wales’ single drama for BBC1 about Swansea hosting the world’s first Viagra trials in 1994.

STUDIO DEVELOPMENT

Wales’ studio space is expanding to meet the demand, with Rondo Media and S4C’s commercial arm, S4C Digital Media Limited, teaming up with Creative Wales to help put Anglesey on the map with the establishment of the 20,000 sq ft, two-stage Aria Studios.

And then, of course, there’s the little matter of Disney joining forces with the BBC to supersize Doctor Who, with returning showrunner Russell T Davies teasing new spin-offs from the evergreen sci-fi show.

“Wales needs to own the narrative more and celebrate its successes”
Emyr Afan, Afanti Media

“Last year’s success wasn’t a fluke – it proved that if you build it, people will come,” says Afan. “Broadcasters can now demonstrate that it’s not just drama that’s in rude health – unscripted, particularly daytime, is commissioning in volume too. This year’s event is about Wales coming of age. Wales needs to own the narrative more and celebrate its successes.

“We’ve had a bit of a scary time, with the challenges facing the BBC and C4, and we’ve got a voice in that. For me, the defining moment last year was C4’s Ian Katz delivering a keynote at 12pm and seeing it in the Evening Standard at 5pm. This is a Wales-based national conference: Welsh issues, with a UK-wide agenda.”

Afan is thinking bigger this year, hoping to attract 350 delegates. The event now lasts three days and will include a VIP dinner. Headliners include Paramount UK chief content officer Ben Frow, BBC Wales director Rhuanedd Richards, S4C chief executive Siân Doyle and a returning Katz.

Highlighting C4’s own hits from The Light In The Hall to The Great House Giveaway to Aldi’s Next Big Thing, Katz says: “It’s obvious that the Welsh production sector is humming.”

Richards’ notes: “There’s a wealth of brilliant content currently in production in Wales and the Screen Summit gives us the perfect opportunity to discuss not only the current slate but future productions too. It’s going to be a fantastic year of drama on the BBC from Wales.”

Gerwyn Evans, deputy director, Creative Wales, says: “The Welsh government, through its internal agency Creative Wales, is proud to be the key sponsor of the second year of the Screen Summit. It is an opportunity to show the strength of the sector in Wales while talking about key opportunities for future growth. We look forward to listening to the great range of speakers lined up for the event.”

The agenda will be announced soon, but we’re promised a look at Severn Screen’s upcoming BBC1 drama Steeltown Murders, which explores the true story of how advances in DNA evidence helped police catch the killer of three women in Port Talbot in the 1970s.

Global opportunities will be covered in a session that Afan refers to as “make money while you sleep”, while others will explore indie investment, digital commissions, co-productions and skills development.

Threaded throughout are the themes of sustainable production, with contributors invited to share what they are doing to make their productions environmentally friendly. Afan wants to see the creative industry as a whole staying, investing and growing in Wales rather than a fleeting visit of ‘eat, shoot and leave’.

“It’s great having the streamers like Netflix and Amazon come here, but we want to keep making a sustainable range of indigenous productions,” he says.

INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCES

One welcome development is Netflix’s acquisition of S4C heist thriller Dal Y Mellt, its first Welshlanguage drama. S4C’S Doyle also points to sales of Y Golau to Scandinavia and BBC2’s adaptation of S4C fact-ent format Gwesty Aduniad (as Reunion Hotel) as encouraging signs of the opportunity for indigenous shows to travel.

Meanwhile, Wildflame’s S4C doc DRYCH: Fi, Rhyw ac Anabledd was named Best Multichannel Programme at this year’s Broadcast Awards, with the broadcaster also backing Welsh-language political movie Y Swn.

“Language is no longer a barrier for today’s audiences,” Doyle says, pointing to the success of German-language movie All Quiet On The Western Front and The Quiet Girl, the first Irish-language film to be Oscar-nominated.

Doyle says not to underestimate the effect of Hollywood royalty, with film star Ryan Reynolds’ co-ownership of Wrexham AFC bringing “an exciting focus” to the nation – S4C made a Welsh-language doc to accompany the Disney+ series.

She says the Wales Screen Summit demonstrates an openness from the Welsh creative sector to collaborate and engage with each other to scale up shows. “It’s a buoyant sector right now and it’s great to have the spotlight shone on Wales. We’re a small country, but we’re building a legacy and in terms of talent and opportunity, it has really never been better.”