Sorry Vera and Les Mis. There’s a
spanking brand new exciting Welsh language kid on the block to occupy our
Sunday nights. Set in a bland courtroom and an eerie hotel in Bridgend County, 35 Awr (35 Hours,
8x60’, S4C) works its way back following the trials (boom! boom!) and tribulations
of a jury thrown together to decide the fate of a troubled young man accused of
killing his neighbour. Personally, the case itself plays second fiddle to the
delicious mixture of members of the jury - an OCD librarian, randy
accountant, scarily silent fireman, gay travel agent, a student with a fuck y’all attitude -
who wouldn’t normally look twice at each other, but who are forced to cooperate
in Her Maj’s name. Here’s
hoping that the wonderfully blunt Val (Gillian Elisa) Taz (Iestyn Arwel) and Moira (the
evergreen Christine Pritchard) get their own
spin-off show. Fflur Dafydd’s dialogue is
utterly believable, flows like the Taff after a storm, and peppered with
knowingly cultural references and jokes (Glan-llyn! Dodoma!) that only Cymry Cymraeg would
appreciate. A rare series that isn’t constrained by the recent de rigueur in
Anglo-Welsh collaboration, where English scripts are translated into Welsh and
therefore more awkward and less natural to native speakers. But more about that
in the future.
The beauty
of 35 Awr is its
format. We open with a body and rewind our way with the ticking clock to the
dirty bloody deed, weaving our way through a myriad murderers-elect. This is
the fourth instalment of the hugely original and popular series, with minor
amendment this time, as all the action happens within 35 hours, whereas
previous series were set over 35 days. The first (and best in my humble ol' opinion) 35 Diwrnod was set in a
swank cul-de-sac in Anywheresville, the second (less
successful – I jibbed quarter way through) in a Cardiff high rise office block of an insurance firm, and the third (starring Siân Reese
Williams of Craith/Hidden amongst others) surrounds a feuding farming
clan in Carmarthenshire.
The humour is as dark as
the set’s diffused lighting, the characters intriguing and utterly believable, flaws and all,
and it also has a fantastically atmospheric opening music and credits – a
rarity in modern dramas. Another hit from the author of Parch, easily my best TV drama of 2018 in any lingo. Beat that, Bodyguard!
Cymru Noir is on a roll
and its high time S4C sells this Welsh language only drama and more to other
nations, Walter Presents et al.
After all, bendigedig subtitled dramas knows no bounds.
Sundays 9pm, S4C - catch up on S4C Clic or iPlayer with English subtitles
