Dylan Thomas at the BBC in 1948
Part of the pleasure of pulling together a celebration of the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas is the feeling that comes from doing a job for one of our own.
There’s no doubt now that Dylan Thomas was a great poet. Often a big anniversary will bring about some reappraisal of their subject, and in the case of Dylan Thomas and 2014 it might well be that his work finally starts to poke its head up above the formidable parapet erected by his colourful personal life.
But Thomas was also a colleague in a way, a BBC man. In the first full year after the end of the Second World War Dylan Thomas made over 50 broadcasts for the BBC. He wasn’t just a booming intoner of his own poetry – poetry that owes so much to the fact that he wrote it to be read out. He was an all-rounder, able to turn his voice and hand to chat shows, essays, drama, discussion, literary analysis and stories. Think of him perhaps as a precursor to those precious characters we all know and love in broadcasting to this day who can pop up on news programmes, comedy shows, documentaries and much else, pitching their contribution perfectly for each audience and yet remaining very naturally themselves.
Like many natural broadcasters, he was good to produce. The poet, producer and later cricket commentator John Arlott worked with Thomas many times and stressed in later years that he had always delivered what was asked of him and never turned up the worse for drink. When the BBC commissioned what would become Under Milk Wood from Dylan Thomas there were a few raised eyebrows as he began to ask for advances during a near decade-long wait for a manuscript. But as the BBC Written Archives records show, his producer Douglas Cleverdon trusted the poet enough to guarantee the advance from his own pocket.
BBC producers still have a soft spot for Dylan Thomas. In BBC Wales we quickly put together a group of enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff to turn ideas into action, and soon leading academics, the Welsh Government, Welsh acting talent and Dylan Thomas enthusiasts from all over the place were shaping what has become a landmark season of programmes and events across many networks and platforms. On television alone there is a spread of programming which seems capable of invigorating debate on the writer and his legacy well into the next centenary, from the Andrew Davies drama Poet in New York with a stunning performance from Tom Hollander, to an entertaining and insightful documentary following Benjamin Zephaniah onto the Townhill estate in Swansea with a book of Dylan’s poetry in hand.
But beware the old-school charm of Dylan Thomas. When we began to think about the season we were very aware that Dylan Thomas was a media innovator and contemporary of MacLuhan, pushing the boundaries of poetry and drama, unlocking the potential of broadcasting and shaking up a cosy post-war cultural world so defiantly as to ensure that he’ll always be known as the rock and roll poet, a catalyst for the beats, the Beatles and Bob Dylan.
So our season very consciously puts tradition and innovation side by side. We are bringing the great recordings of the poetry to our audiences as they were recorded, but we’re also creating a digital offering which radically alters the online landscape for those wishing to discover Dylan Thomas. We’ve moved away from the old black and white photos to new graphics, designed in-house, which give the old image a contemporary twist and connect the season as it spreads over our platforms. And our drama department have worked with the National Theatre Wales to put Under Milk Wood into a 21st century theatrical context which sits comfortably alongside the best in site-specific and community theatre today, and capture it for our audiences. BBC iPlayer – the latest technology of our own day – will anchor the whole season and allow UK audiences to follow all the programmes.
That performance of the play for voices is part of a weekend of celebrations in Laugharne, where Dylan Thomas lived in the boathouse and wrote in the writing shed. Led by BBC Radio Wales and by Radio 3, the weekend welcomes many other networks to the sleepy village, hopefully reawakening our connection to one of our finest writers in the process. I hope that Dylan the innovator would have been pleased.
Martin Smith is Executive Producer, Dylan Thomas Season
The Dylan Thomas Season is produced by BBC Cymru Wales.
- Broadcast details can be found on the BBC Dylan Thomas season website
- Apply for free tickets to attend recordings of Dylan Thomas programmes at Laugharne Live