logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2023
9m 52s

'The bad boy of Welsh politics'

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In the 1960s, the singer Dafydd Iwan started campaigning for the Welsh language to gain official status in Wales.

For years, Dafydd received little support. In January 1969 he decided to up the pressure, defacing a police station sign written in English with paint.

He ended up in prison, but soon young people across the country were picking up paint pots and taking up the cause.

Today, the Welsh language is found in schools, on documents and on police station signs. Dafydd tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty about his activism and singing.

(Photo: Dafydd after his release from Cardiff prison. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

Up next
Apr 2025
The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ... Show More
9m 43s
Aug 28
The hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73
On the 5 September 1986, hijackers took over a Pan-American Airways flight during a stop-over at Karachi Airport in Pakistan. The armed Palestinian terrorists wanted to fly the plane to Cyprus and Israel, to free members of their organisation who were jailed there. But, after the ... Show More
10m 45s
Apr 2026
The world's first perfume archive
On 26 April 1990, the world's first perfume archive opened in Versailles, France.The idea behind L'Osmothèque was to create a collection of scents and preserve their memory.Perfumer Jean Claude Ellena was one of the team who created it.He speaks to Jen Dale about how L'Osmothèque ... Show More
10m 6s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2011
Nationalism and Welsh language
Charlotte Davies draws connections between Nationalism and the Welsh language 
10m 10s
Mar 2011
Work and difference in Wales
Dave Adamson looks at occupations in Wales. 
8m 8s
Oct 2024
Welsh Nationalism: Cymru am byth
What does it mean to be Welsh? The writer Jan Morris said Wales was ‘a distinctly separate and often vehement idea’. But what is that idea? Do you need to understand Welsh to grasp it? How is Wales … different? And is it going to become even more unlike England? Ros Taylor talks ... Show More
44m 11s
Mar 2022
#153 All About Wales with Dafydd Morse
Dafydd Morse kindly joined me on the show this week to introduce us to Wales - his home country on the west side of Britain. I feel like the Welsh culture (people, language, etc.) is often overlooked on a global scale, and perhaps some of you are hearing about it for the first ti ... Show More
49m 13s
Mar 2011
Gender and race in Welsh society
Sandra Betts and Neil Evans discuss the issues of gender and race in Welsh society. 
9m 6s
Dec 2023
Scams and poetry in Moscow’s underbelly
Eric Ngalle is now a poet and academic in the Welsh capital of Cardiff, but it's his experiences as a people-trafficked teenager that inspire much of his work. When he was 17, he found himself broke and alone in Moscow, freezing cold and unable to speak a word of Russian. To surv ... Show More
37m 30s
Mar 2011
Place and belonging in Wales
Graham Day connects place, with the notion of difference in contemporary Wales. 
8m 56s
Mar 2011
The issue of class in Wales
How class relates to the notion of difference in contemporary Wales. 
7m 18s
Oct 2021
Owain Glyndŵr
Greg Jenner is joined by comedian Elis James and historian Dr Kathryn Hurlock to explore the life and political career of medieval Welsh rebel Owain Glyndŵr, the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales, who led an uprising against English rule. It’s an extraordinary tale of war, vengeanc ... Show More
52m 39s