Aberystwyth supermarket gives staff free Welsh lessons
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Advertiser
2 hours ago
- The Advertiser
This modest and well-meaning story has impeccable historical detail
Inspirational teachers enjoy a well-deserved niche at the movies. To Sir, With Love, with Sidney Poitier, was a landmark in the sixties, while The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is a recent entry in the Spanish language. The late Robin Williams was unforgettable as one of these special, brilliantly motivational people in Dead Poets Society. While Mr Burton charts the success of a teacher who was indispensable to the development of one of the great movie stars, it also reveals the early life of an actor who seemed destined for the same life as his alcoholic father, a rough Welsh coal miner. The hardship Richard Burton endured in his early life may come as a shock, but it also serves as an insight into the destructive personal struggles in his later life, when it seemed he had everything. A classic film about an inspirational teacher, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, was running in cinemas in 1939, around the time that 17-year-old Richard Burton (Harry Lawtey) was nearing his last year at school in a mining town in Wales. Life with his beloved elder sister Cis (Aimee Ffion-Edwards) would be alright, were it not for her coalminer husband, Elfed (Aneurin Barnard), who had no interest in letting him finish his schooling. However, his gifted literature teacher, who also delved in theatre and radio, somehow saw the potential that his sulky, wilful student had to be a great actor. And the rest is history. Philip Burton (Toby Jones) assumed guardianship of the young man, Richard Jenkins, who then adopted his name. Their mentoring relationship became as close as father and son, with Richard able to finish his schooling, consider a place at university, and make his way through rounds of auditions until he triumphed on stage in Shakespeare's Henry IV at Stratford-Upon-Avon in the early 1950s. It was a truly remarkable transformation. There had been so many obstacles to a life beyond Port Talbot, let alone to achieving international success on stage and screen. Richard was the 12th of 13 children, had lost his mother at the age of two and seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dic (Steffan Rodhri), a pugnacious coal miner who spent his time outside the pits at the pub downing pints. How could young Richard imagine a future beyond the daily grind? The answer is, of course, through the arts. Mr Burton is a Welsh production. It is told as a period drama, modestly mounted with impeccable historical detail, effectively capturing the ambience of gloomy mid-century Welsh mining towns and the kind of characters that they produced. In this modest, well-meaning story directed by Marc Hyams and based on a screenplay written by Josh Hyams and Tom Bullough, we leave off at the start of Richard Burton's brilliant career. A little abruptly, perhaps, even though his life and career were soon to become public property. Before the final fade, there is no hint at all of the glamorous world in which he would become a famous player, critically acclaimed and able to command a huge fee for his Hollywood performances. And then there was the uniquely beautiful actor he married, twice, Elizabeth Taylor. What makes a great actor? It is always a question worth asking. Richard Burton's teacher had his work cut out. The accent would need modulating, and the anger and frustration would need tempering, but how did he come by that special something with which an actor makes a connection with audiences? his touching tale of success against the odds at least reveals the vulnerability that can lie behind mesmerising performance. Inspirational teachers enjoy a well-deserved niche at the movies. To Sir, With Love, with Sidney Poitier, was a landmark in the sixties, while The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is a recent entry in the Spanish language. The late Robin Williams was unforgettable as one of these special, brilliantly motivational people in Dead Poets Society. While Mr Burton charts the success of a teacher who was indispensable to the development of one of the great movie stars, it also reveals the early life of an actor who seemed destined for the same life as his alcoholic father, a rough Welsh coal miner. The hardship Richard Burton endured in his early life may come as a shock, but it also serves as an insight into the destructive personal struggles in his later life, when it seemed he had everything. A classic film about an inspirational teacher, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, was running in cinemas in 1939, around the time that 17-year-old Richard Burton (Harry Lawtey) was nearing his last year at school in a mining town in Wales. Life with his beloved elder sister Cis (Aimee Ffion-Edwards) would be alright, were it not for her coalminer husband, Elfed (Aneurin Barnard), who had no interest in letting him finish his schooling. However, his gifted literature teacher, who also delved in theatre and radio, somehow saw the potential that his sulky, wilful student had to be a great actor. And the rest is history. Philip Burton (Toby Jones) assumed guardianship of the young man, Richard Jenkins, who then adopted his name. Their mentoring relationship became as close as father and son, with Richard able to finish his schooling, consider a place at university, and make his way through rounds of auditions until he triumphed on stage in Shakespeare's Henry IV at Stratford-Upon-Avon in the early 1950s. It was a truly remarkable transformation. There had been so many obstacles to a life beyond Port Talbot, let alone to achieving international success on stage and screen. Richard was the 12th of 13 children, had lost his mother at the age of two and seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dic (Steffan Rodhri), a pugnacious coal miner who spent his time outside the pits at the pub downing pints. How could young Richard imagine a future beyond the daily grind? The answer is, of course, through the arts. Mr Burton is a Welsh production. It is told as a period drama, modestly mounted with impeccable historical detail, effectively capturing the ambience of gloomy mid-century Welsh mining towns and the kind of characters that they produced. In this modest, well-meaning story directed by Marc Hyams and based on a screenplay written by Josh Hyams and Tom Bullough, we leave off at the start of Richard Burton's brilliant career. A little abruptly, perhaps, even though his life and career were soon to become public property. Before the final fade, there is no hint at all of the glamorous world in which he would become a famous player, critically acclaimed and able to command a huge fee for his Hollywood performances. And then there was the uniquely beautiful actor he married, twice, Elizabeth Taylor. What makes a great actor? It is always a question worth asking. Richard Burton's teacher had his work cut out. The accent would need modulating, and the anger and frustration would need tempering, but how did he come by that special something with which an actor makes a connection with audiences? his touching tale of success against the odds at least reveals the vulnerability that can lie behind mesmerising performance. Inspirational teachers enjoy a well-deserved niche at the movies. To Sir, With Love, with Sidney Poitier, was a landmark in the sixties, while The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is a recent entry in the Spanish language. The late Robin Williams was unforgettable as one of these special, brilliantly motivational people in Dead Poets Society. While Mr Burton charts the success of a teacher who was indispensable to the development of one of the great movie stars, it also reveals the early life of an actor who seemed destined for the same life as his alcoholic father, a rough Welsh coal miner. The hardship Richard Burton endured in his early life may come as a shock, but it also serves as an insight into the destructive personal struggles in his later life, when it seemed he had everything. A classic film about an inspirational teacher, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, was running in cinemas in 1939, around the time that 17-year-old Richard Burton (Harry Lawtey) was nearing his last year at school in a mining town in Wales. Life with his beloved elder sister Cis (Aimee Ffion-Edwards) would be alright, were it not for her coalminer husband, Elfed (Aneurin Barnard), who had no interest in letting him finish his schooling. However, his gifted literature teacher, who also delved in theatre and radio, somehow saw the potential that his sulky, wilful student had to be a great actor. And the rest is history. Philip Burton (Toby Jones) assumed guardianship of the young man, Richard Jenkins, who then adopted his name. Their mentoring relationship became as close as father and son, with Richard able to finish his schooling, consider a place at university, and make his way through rounds of auditions until he triumphed on stage in Shakespeare's Henry IV at Stratford-Upon-Avon in the early 1950s. It was a truly remarkable transformation. There had been so many obstacles to a life beyond Port Talbot, let alone to achieving international success on stage and screen. Richard was the 12th of 13 children, had lost his mother at the age of two and seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dic (Steffan Rodhri), a pugnacious coal miner who spent his time outside the pits at the pub downing pints. How could young Richard imagine a future beyond the daily grind? The answer is, of course, through the arts. Mr Burton is a Welsh production. It is told as a period drama, modestly mounted with impeccable historical detail, effectively capturing the ambience of gloomy mid-century Welsh mining towns and the kind of characters that they produced. In this modest, well-meaning story directed by Marc Hyams and based on a screenplay written by Josh Hyams and Tom Bullough, we leave off at the start of Richard Burton's brilliant career. A little abruptly, perhaps, even though his life and career were soon to become public property. Before the final fade, there is no hint at all of the glamorous world in which he would become a famous player, critically acclaimed and able to command a huge fee for his Hollywood performances. And then there was the uniquely beautiful actor he married, twice, Elizabeth Taylor. What makes a great actor? It is always a question worth asking. Richard Burton's teacher had his work cut out. The accent would need modulating, and the anger and frustration would need tempering, but how did he come by that special something with which an actor makes a connection with audiences? his touching tale of success against the odds at least reveals the vulnerability that can lie behind mesmerising performance. Inspirational teachers enjoy a well-deserved niche at the movies. To Sir, With Love, with Sidney Poitier, was a landmark in the sixties, while The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is a recent entry in the Spanish language. The late Robin Williams was unforgettable as one of these special, brilliantly motivational people in Dead Poets Society. While Mr Burton charts the success of a teacher who was indispensable to the development of one of the great movie stars, it also reveals the early life of an actor who seemed destined for the same life as his alcoholic father, a rough Welsh coal miner. The hardship Richard Burton endured in his early life may come as a shock, but it also serves as an insight into the destructive personal struggles in his later life, when it seemed he had everything. A classic film about an inspirational teacher, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, was running in cinemas in 1939, around the time that 17-year-old Richard Burton (Harry Lawtey) was nearing his last year at school in a mining town in Wales. Life with his beloved elder sister Cis (Aimee Ffion-Edwards) would be alright, were it not for her coalminer husband, Elfed (Aneurin Barnard), who had no interest in letting him finish his schooling. However, his gifted literature teacher, who also delved in theatre and radio, somehow saw the potential that his sulky, wilful student had to be a great actor. And the rest is history. Philip Burton (Toby Jones) assumed guardianship of the young man, Richard Jenkins, who then adopted his name. Their mentoring relationship became as close as father and son, with Richard able to finish his schooling, consider a place at university, and make his way through rounds of auditions until he triumphed on stage in Shakespeare's Henry IV at Stratford-Upon-Avon in the early 1950s. It was a truly remarkable transformation. There had been so many obstacles to a life beyond Port Talbot, let alone to achieving international success on stage and screen. Richard was the 12th of 13 children, had lost his mother at the age of two and seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dic (Steffan Rodhri), a pugnacious coal miner who spent his time outside the pits at the pub downing pints. How could young Richard imagine a future beyond the daily grind? The answer is, of course, through the arts. Mr Burton is a Welsh production. It is told as a period drama, modestly mounted with impeccable historical detail, effectively capturing the ambience of gloomy mid-century Welsh mining towns and the kind of characters that they produced. In this modest, well-meaning story directed by Marc Hyams and based on a screenplay written by Josh Hyams and Tom Bullough, we leave off at the start of Richard Burton's brilliant career. A little abruptly, perhaps, even though his life and career were soon to become public property. Before the final fade, there is no hint at all of the glamorous world in which he would become a famous player, critically acclaimed and able to command a huge fee for his Hollywood performances. And then there was the uniquely beautiful actor he married, twice, Elizabeth Taylor. What makes a great actor? It is always a question worth asking. Richard Burton's teacher had his work cut out. The accent would need modulating, and the anger and frustration would need tempering, but how did he come by that special something with which an actor makes a connection with audiences? his touching tale of success against the odds at least reveals the vulnerability that can lie behind mesmerising performance.
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
‘Old Times' review: Harold Pinter classic manipulates power with ease — and terror — at Soulpepper
In rehearsal for a revival of 'Old Times' in 1984, the Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins asked Harold Pinter to explain the show's ambiguous ending. The playwright's flippant nonresponse, in his posh British accent: 'I don't know. Just do it.'
Wales Online
3 hours ago
- Wales Online
'Severe and frequent' wildfires threat sparked by multiple UK heatwaves
'Severe and frequent' wildfires threat sparked by multiple UK heatwaves Firefighters union raise alarm after Welsh staff diverted to tackle huge blaze in Dorset more than 100 miles away Wildfires in Spain and Portugal will be effecting the sky in the UK (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images) As Wales heats up during the fourth heatwave of this year so far, the Met Office have warned that it may not be blue skies for some as fire services deal with scorching wildfires. Wales is set to reach temperatures of up to 29C this weekend - August, 16 - in areas such as Cardiff and Monmouth, Cardigan, Chepstow, and Newport just behind. Wildfires grappling Spain and Portugal due to the rising temperature may be the reason for the lack of blue skies in your area as the smoke, plus Saharan dust, drifts across the UK, according to the Met Office. Wales has had an increase in temperature this week once again with Cardiff being the hottest city across the UK. The Met Office also advised people to be camera ready as we can "expect enhanced sunsets and sunrises in the coming days — deeper reds and oranges thanks to light scattering". Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice Elsewhere, the South Wales Fire Service have helped tackle the major wildfire at Holt Heath, Dorset that is believed to have been deliberately started on August, 9 lasting six days. Article continues below South Wales firefighters joined crews from across the UK to aid fire crews in Dorset due to "a critical lack of resources", according to Fire Brigades Union. Ben Selby, Fire Brigades Union assistant general secretary said: "Fourteen years of austerity have led to incidents such as the wildfire at Holt Health becoming national emergencies. The loss of 1 in 5 firefighter posts to cuts, with fire engines taken off the run and fire stations closed up and down the country, means that there is no resilience left. "Wildfires are intensive incidents, requiring a large number of firefighters and specialist resources. They are becoming increasingly severe and frequent as a result of the climate emergency. Article continues below "The government must face this reality and ensure that the UK is equipped to face these increasing threats by providing the investment the fire and rescue service needs." As well as south Wales crews travelled from Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Surrey, Lincolnshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Avon, Essex and Kent among others, to assist local emergency services.
