Callum Buglass, 12, of Mendip Road, Llanrumney, caught scarlet fever while playing for England recently in the 50th Quebec International Pee-Wee ice hockey tournament in Canada.

Callum, who usually plays for the Cardiff Devils under-14s, was out of action for the last two days of the tournament, which attracts around 2,300 young hockey players from 16 countries around the world. More than 200,000 spectators were expected to have watched the 10-day competition which took place between February 11-22.

Callum, whose favourite subject is sport at Llanrumney High School, has had a history of bad luck over the last few tournaments. When representing England at a hockey competition in Holland last March, he got concussion after hitting his head during a match. He went to hospital for three days and missed the rest of the four-day series of matches.

The following regional conference in Hull last May ended with Callum suffering from food poisoning. That time, Callum missed out on representing the South West in the last day of the weekend finals, including the key deciding match which would have given them a shot at the winning title. They drew 1-1 in the decider, and the team ended up coming third overall, by which time Callum was already on his way back to Wales nursing an upset stomach.

“Callum complained: ‘Why is it always me,’” said father Scott Buglass, who runs Crwys Shoe Repairs on Crwys Road, Cathays.

This is Callum’s fifth season of ice hockey since he started playing at seven-years-old. By the age of nine, he was captain of his team.

His commitment has seen Callum travel to Sheffield every weekend for training with the England squad as well as regular Cardiff Devils’ sessions.

The dedicated player was back on the ice on the following Sunday’s match where Cardiff under-14s played Bracknell, despite being weak from scarlet fever after losing a stone in weight and still on antibiotics.

“I started watching ice hockey when I was younger, and my grandfather asked if I wanted to try it for my birthday, so I did,” said Callum, whose grandfather Bill Buglass is a Cardiff Devils fan. “What I love most about ice hockey is having fun and skating around.”
Ice hockey is Callum’s favourite sport, which he plays all year round by ice skating and shooting nets in the summer.

“He never misses a Cardiff Devils match,” said dad Scott, who went to Canada with Callum along with mum Tracey, sister Amy, 9, and grandfather Bill. “When he’s not playing ice hockey, he’s watching it. He always had a passion for watching it from a young age, and I think he pays attention to how people skate and their techniques, and then he copies it. He’s very good at moving into the spaces.”

While staying in Quebec City, where it reached temperatures of -15C, Callum got to try out different rinks and fell in love with the country.

“He would go back to Canada tomorrow if he could,” said his dad. “He hopes to become a professional hockey player and one day move to Canada.

“Callum could make it as a British player but it’s harder to make it professionally in the UK. Unless you’re one of the top British players, you would need a second job because it won’t pay enough.”

For Callum, becoming a top ice hockey player is his ultimate goal.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.

His next big tournament will see Callum representing the South West in Hull over the Bank Holiday weekend between May 2-4. Needless to say, he’s hoping it will be injury-free this time.

This article appeared in the South Wales Echo on 11 March 2009.

Dafydd Wyn in action

What does a Star Wars-loving, comic book-worshipping, self-confessed “total geek” dream of doing for a living? Directing sci-fi films of course, and Bafta Cymru winner Dafydd Wyn appears to be living that dream.

A TV director by trade, Wyn, 43, relished the opportunity to work on a film and put his experience writing comics to good use.

“I’ve had some comic stories published by DC worldwide, including in Batman, Wildcats and Stormwatch,” said Wyn. “But unfortunately the real work got in the way of writing and I let this slip.

“So being a total geek, I jumped at the chance to do a sci-fi project, and having written comics back in the day, I was given the opportunity to re-imagine an old Welsh language radio character called Gari Tryfan.”

Wyn, who works for Welsh TV company Boomerang, describes Gari Tryfan as a Dick Barton 1950s detective-type character who is sent through time and stranded in the present-day. Currently working on the second Gari Tryfan film, Wyn is crossing his fingers for a series.

For the young Wyn, who recalls seeing Star Wars 11 times when he was 11 years old, sci-fi seems to have been a constant in a childhood spent on the move. Born in Pontypridd, Wyn went to primary school in Bangor before moving to Aberystwyth for secondary school. He went to Cardiff University to study English and Classical Studies, and has stayed in the city ever since.

Aside from a fondness for all things sci-fi, Wyn’s other great passion is music. He spent his first year after university working as a session musician.

“I thought I was Wales’s answer to Mark King of 80s band Level 42”, he confesses. “I was about to move down to London with my band when HTV offered me a job as a researcher on a Welsh music series. When they told me what the wage was, my rock and roll aspirations went straight out of the window.”

After a couple of years as a researcher at HTV, Wyn got the chance to start directing. His love for music inspired him to start a series promoting new bands.

“Having played in both Welsh and English language bands and been amazed at the lack of TV coverage for the English language groups, I managed to con HTV into letting me start a series where we made videos for unsigned and new bands,” explained Wyn. “I’ve managed to keep on doing this off and on under different titles – The Electric Chair, Shotgun Slideshow, Unsigned – since about 1995.

“Stereophonics, Bullet for My Valentine, Funeral for a Friend and many others all got their first TV appearance with us.”

HTV’s Unsigned was a huge success and last year it won a Bafta Cymru for Best Music Programme for Wyn and fellow director Bethan Arwel.

Wyn’s career has run the whole gamut of TV, from quiz shows and arts documentaries to drama and extreme sports, and he is positive about the current Welsh film and TV industry.

“I think things are pretty healthy at the moment and the micro movie initiative has been successful in developing new ideas and people,” said Wyn, whose wife produces children’s programmes for S4C, and has two daughters, Anna, 13, and Maia, 10. “It’s given relatively old people like me an opportunity to do stuff they’ve always dreamed of doing.

“I’m very grateful to have been given the chance to make some films and hope I get to do some more. What is also great at the moment is the effort that is being put into developing new writers – without them we’d have nothing to point a camera at!”

Aside from working on TV projects and Gari Tryfan, Wyn can be found in between the shelves of his favourite comic store.

“I still feel like the 11-year-old who went to see Star Wars,” he laughs. “You can find me in Forbidden Planet buying comics every Saturday morning.”

This was published in the Cardiff Evening News, Cardiff Journalism School’s training newspaper

“You’ll never make it outside the valleys” was what Sean James Cameron grew up hearing. Now a director, author, producer, and all-round entrepreneur, Cameron has more than proved them wrong, and wants to help others do the same.

Valleys-born Cameron defied those who said he wouldn’t make it beyond the Rhondda

For a Jack of all trades, Cameron is doing pretty well at mastering most of them. His career has included forays into journalism, teaching, theatre and of course film-making. All this and still only 34, but Cameron’s ambition is far from satisfied.

“I don’t think I’ve done enough,” said Cameron. “There’s so many things I still want to do.”

Born in Treherbert in the Rhondda Valley, Cameron set his sights far beyond the hills from an early age. Since the age of eight, he was fascinated with film and theatre. Cameron did his first theatre production at 12 years old after being inspired by Rhondda-born playwright Frank Vickery.

“I suppose you could say getting involved in the arts helped me escape from the reality of growing up bisexual in the valleys“, said Cameron. “There was also the attitude that you’re never going to go anywhere. London was seen as so far away that you’d never make it there. Even Cardiff was a massive leap.”

Cameron is keen to nurture talent in the valleys and give people the support he feels he never had starting his career.

Cameron said: “I remember being asked what work experience I wanted to do when I was at school and I said I wanted to do it with a film company in Cardiff. People said forget about it and told me to do it at the local photo cuts shop instead. It’s quite hard for people to break out of that mould. I still don’t think that’s changed.”

An early brush with fame came when a 16-year-old Cameron got involved in the production side of a music video the Australian 80s pop band Crowded House were shooting in his village. But a lack of a passport prevented Cameron from continuing his work with the band.

Cameron moved to Cardiff at 21 intending to work for the BBC, but became a reporter for the Rhondda Leader when they suggested he work for a local paper instead. After working there for four or five years, a period of career tangents ensued.

“Whenever people ask me what I’ve done so far, it’s hard to put things in a time line because it has not happened in order,” he explains.

After dabbling as a director and producer, he became a lecturer on film production techniques at Manchester University after completing his BSc in the same subject, something he fell into after criticising the course.

“They asked me if I could do any better, so I did!” said Cameron triumphantly.

Cameron’s career has traversed film, TV, theatre, teaching and writing

He went on to produce and direct for the BBC and Channel 4, and dabbled in feature films, mostly recently as location manager for Daddy’s Girl starring Jamie Winston.

He also found time to write two history books, as you do.

“In 1999 a few friends of mine discussed what we would do to mark the millennium,” Cameron recalls. “I said I would like to write a book. On the second of January 2000, one of the first publishers I’d contacted offered me a book deal. My friends couldn’t believe it!”

His latest venture is setting up an international theatre news service, What’s on in Theatre, which will be shown on British Airways flights, and he recently launched the accompanying website, whatsonintheatre.com. This has entailed jetting back and forth between Broadway and other parts of the world from his London base, where he moved four years ago. But Cameron visits Cardiff and the valleys every couple of months, where he still has family.

For the moment, he’s happy with what’s he’s doing.

“It’s quite a diverse job I have right now, but I always felt that if I got to the point where I was bored or things were going wrong, I would do something else.

“My goal one day is to work counting turtles on a beach. That would be a great way of life, I think.”

This was published in the Cardiff Evening News, Cardiff Journalism School’s training newspaper

The report published recently by Consumer Focus suggested Ofwat, which is responsible for holding water companies to account in England and Wales, was neglecting the needs of its Welsh customers.

Ofwat is letting down Welsh water customers, according to a report

Although the report praised Ofwat’s regular contact with the Welsh Assembly and the Welsh expertise of one of its board members, it condemned the regulatory body’s lack of projects specifically related to Welsh consumers.

This is the first report to investigate regulators on behalf of consumers, and it assessed six regulators who oversee the food, water, energy, money, communications and postal sectors, and who absorb millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

The report stated: “Ofwat has a mixed performance with respect to working in a devolved setting. It appears to follow the lead set by its statutes of treating Wales as a super-region, rather than operating in a way that would allow it to capture and respond to the possible differences in the needs of Welsh consumers.”

It went on to criticise Ofwat’s lack of information available in the Welsh language on their website.

It said: “A serious omission is that, at the time of writing, none of Ofwat’s publications are yet available on its website in the Welsh language. It is important that Ofwat embraces a culture that will deliver a genuinely transnational organisation, rather than one organisation based in England with a policy of outreach to Wales.”

A spokesperson for Ofwat said: “We recognise Consumer Focus’ concerns and are developing a dedicated Welsh section for our website. We are working closely with the Welsh Language Board and have agreed an action plan with them to address the information needs of Welsh consumers.

“We work closely with the Welsh Assembly Government and have strong relationships with water and sewerage companies serving the people of Wales through our company advisers and Board Lead Contacts. This helps ensure that we fully consider the issues affecting consumers across Wales. Our consumer surveys look specifically at the views of Welsh consumers.”

Ofwat is independent of the Government and the water companies, but is accountable to Parliament and the Welsh Assembly Government.

A Welsh Assembly Government spokesman said: “The Welsh Assembly Government regularly meet Ofwat to discuss matters which release to water in Wales. We will discuss the Consumer Focus Study at our next meeting.

“We urge Ofwat to comply with the commitments in its own Welsh language scheme. The Welsh Language Board has the statutory responsibility for approving Welsh language schemes and dealing with non-compliance.”

Photo courtesy of taken by… Aymi at Flickr

This was published in the Cardiff Evening News, Cardiff Journalism School’s training newspaper

Wales has the second slowest internet speed in the UK according to recent findings, despite Cardiff having one of the highest broadband speeds nationally.

Broadband think tank Point Topic found 26.9 per cent of homes in Wales are unable to reach internet speeds of 2Mbps or above, compared with London, where only 1.2 per cent cannot reach that speed.

West Wales has struggled to keep up with Cardiff’s internet speeds

Wales was beaten only by Northern Ireland, where 32.2 per cent of people are out of range of 2Mbps. This is despite the Government’s pledge that all homes will have broadband by 2012.

Ian Wood, marketing manager of the Cardiff branch of Epitiro, a broadband communications company, said: “There are three ways of getting broadband, cable, mobile and through your telephone line. In rural areas, cable services don’t run and mobile reception is patchy, so they only have telephone lines.

“It is up to who is providing the telephone service to get the internet up and running to speed. But in Wales there are a lot of small remote rural sites, which makes it difficult to improve connectivity, as there are financial obstacles, and it may not be economically viable to invest heavily in improving communications there.”

Mr Wood thinks the government’s 2012 broadband pledge is feasible because of the growth of mobile broadband.

“If an area can get mobile coverage, then they can get broadband, apart from the odd exception where there’s a house up a mountain. But for 99 per cent of the population, this is doable,” he said.

Although Wales may have one of the lowest internet speeds on average, Cardiff was the first trial city of BT’s 21st Century Network in 2006, its next generation internet network, promising speeds of up to 24Mbps.

Cole Whitelaw, 28, digital marketing manager for Future Publishing, also believes the idea of broadband in every house by 2012 is realistic, although he acknowledges West Wales web users have had to endure patchy internet service.

Mr Whitelaw said: “I have first-hand experience of a community in West Wales really struggling to get the infrastructure brought up to a standard that allows broadband. That said, after almost two years of waiting they are likely to be on broadband very soon, and so three years is a realistic undertaking.

“Without a decent broadband connection, Welsh web surfers will miss out.”

Mr Whitelaw, who was based in Cardiff before moving to Bath to join Future Publishing, said support for internet start-ups in South Wales is excellent.

“I think education and computing ability are the main areas the Welsh Assembly can focus on to help the general populous enjoy more online time,” he said. “A higher profile presence for those innovators seeking funding would reward those Welsh entrepreneurs who are struggling to find their audience in Wales.”

This was published in the Cardiff Evening News, Cardiff Journalism School’s training newspaper

Filming Torchwood in Cardiff Bay

Judging from the figures, the industry at least appears to be in rude health. In 2007, the film industry brought £32m to the Welsh economy, a massive jump from £8m five years ago. And now a new movie festival held for the first time last November, the Soundtrack International Film and Music Festival for Wales, intends to put Cardiff firmly on the international film festival circuit. Replacing the annual Cardiff Film Festival, which ended in 2006, Soundtrack aims to bring together film and music with a decidedly international flavour.

Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire

The festival’s director Pablo Janczur, from events company Push4 which developed Soundtrack’s concept, said: “Although there is an element that celebrates the best that is coming out of Wales, and a lot of the Welsh film industry will participate in it, we want it to be international.

“I think if you just name it after a city then you’re regionalising it immediately and you’re saying it’s only for the people of that area and that’s exactly what we didn’t want to do.”

Video: Soundtrack International Film and Music Festival
Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, who starred in Brazil, Tomorrow Never Dies and Pirates of the Caribbean, gives his thoughts on the Welsh film industry



Attracting interest outside of Wales is precisely what the film industry is hoping to encourage, said Penny Skuse, Film Officer for the Wales Screen Commission. Hollywood films such as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and The Libertine starring Johnny Depp have filmed scenes in Wales, which Skuse says has plenty to offer filmmakers.

“The locations, the crews, the facilities, we’ve got it all here, which we’re finally now proving to the world because of things like Dr Who and Torchwood,” said Skuse. “They have definitely put us on the map as a location, and people take us more seriously now they know that productions can happen here.”

But more than just filming in Wales, Skuse is keen for movies to be wholly produced here, from shooting right through to editing and post-production. For her, that is the next step for the Welsh film industry and the key to boosting investment and interest.


John Barrowman and Eve Myles film Torchwood

“It’s exciting when big-budget projects come in but we just need to keep them here. Our dream is for big films to do their studio work here as well as their post-production, rather than have them disappear off to London to complete their films.”

But the collapse of the £330m film studio project looks set to crush those dreams. The plans for the studio complex in Llanilid, Llanharan, dubbed ‘Valleywood’, initially included 12 studios, and would have created nearly 2000 jobs and attracted filmmakers from all over the world. But seven years on, the unfinished studios lie vacant, the companies behind it have gone into administration and the finances are in tatters.

Movies filmed in Wales


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But does Wales really need a massive film studio complex? Considering the size of the industry, is there a genuine demand for it, and how much further is the Welsh film industry realistically likely to grow?

Like that famous film quote ‘If you build it, they will come’, Skuse believes Valleywood is the lynchpin to bolstering Wales’ film industry.

“The film studios are definitely not an extravagance,” said Skuse. “We as a film commission are always getting enquiries for films studios. It’s essential that we get studio space, and then we can progress forward and hopefully help more productions come to Wales.”

Audio: Backstory



There have also been concerns over the amount of resources and funding available to filmmakers, as well as the justification of the Welsh Assembly financing an industry which isn’t reaping any significant financial results. Even if a film succeeds in being made, the chances of finding a distributor are slim, and most will never even make it onto DVD. As one industry source said, this reality raises the question of whether it’s worth these films being made in the first place.

Matthew Redd, co-producer of Avoiding Christian Bale which is currently in post-production, is doubtful about how significant the Welsh film industry really is.

“I don’t know if there really is a Welsh industry as in an industry that people make a living from, because TV is what pays most people’s wages, like BBC or S4C,” Redd commented. “There is only a handful of independent film producers based in Wales, and I don’t really know if you can call it an industry, it depends on who you speak to.”

Despite having to overcome major financial hurdles, independent films continue to be made. Tom Betts, the Cardiff-based writer and director of Secrecy, also in post-production, said: “there’s a healthy and growing amount of filmmaking here at the grassroots level.”

Adrian Walsh and Kristen Richards in Secrecy

Although Betts hasn’t had any trouble finding cast or crew in Wales, he felt there’s too little money in the industry: “I do think we have the ingredients for a healthy, sustainable industry in the region. There’s certainly enough talent – we just need the infrastructure to develop a bit more.”

And having a thriving film industry can only be a good thing for Cardiff, according to Keith Potter, Head of Talent at the Film Agency for Wales.

“I think that any kind of vibrant arts scene is positive to the viewpoint of the city,” said Potter, “and the more Cardiff gets recognised as a cultural place, where art can thrive and especially film and TV, industry talent will be attracted to being based here.”

Cardiff’s film industry is arguably still in its infancy, and although finance is a problem, that goes for the rest of the UK as well as Wales. But as Cardiff has proved, it has the potential to grow and develop. Although only time will tell how much further this expansion can grow, Cardiff has decidedly made its mark on the film map, and it’s ready for its close up.

Audio: Three views on Cardiff’s screen scene

The Actress: Amy Morgan, Avoiding Christian Bale



The Financer: Keith Potter, Film Agency for Wales

The Location and Resources Scout: Penny Skuse

All photos taken by myself, apart from:

Torchwood set photos courtesy of Penny Skuse from the Wales Screen Commission
Photo still from Secrecy courtesy of Tom Betts
Danny Boyle at Soundtrack courtesy of the Soundtrack website
Audio backstory image courtesy of cardiffcats.com