S4C — Sianel Pedwar Cymru, Channel Four Wales — has been broadcasting in Welsh since 1982, the result of a sustained political campaign that included the hunger strike threatened by Gwynfor Evans, president of Plaid Cymru. An evening of Welsh-language television — the news, a drama, a documentary about the mountains you walked today — grounds the language in its contemporary, living reality. This is Experience #75 of the Snowdonia 100.
The Channel
| Available on | Freeview channel 4 (Wales), Sky, Virgin, and online at s4c.cymru |
| News | Y Byd ar Bedwar and Newyddion — Welsh-language news programmes |
| Drama | Pobol y Cwm — Wales's longest-running soap opera (since 1974) |
| Subtitles | English subtitles available on most programmes |
The History
S4C was established following the Conservative government's 1979 decision to go back on its election promise of a Welsh-language television channel — a decision that provoked Gwynfor Evans to announce he would fast to the death unless the channel was established. The government reversed its position days before the fast was due to begin. S4C launched on 1 November 1982. The channel has since produced Welsh-language drama, documentary, news, and children's programming of significant quality, and its existence has been central to the vitality of Welsh-language culture in the decades since.
Watching Without Welsh
S4C programmes are available with English subtitles on the app and website, making them accessible to non-Welsh speakers. An hour of Welsh-language television — even with subtitles — gives a more immediate sense of the language as a living medium than any amount of studying vocabulary. The rhythm of spoken Welsh, the cadences of the news reader, the sound of a drama in the language of the landscape outside: these are the things that guidebooks cannot provide.
Experience #75 of 100 — Language and Culture category.
Independently written — Snowdon.com