From Cwm Gwendraeth to Cwmderi... twice! - 17 November 2008
The actress Buddug Williams doesn’t claim to be the first or the last actor to play more than one character in Pobol y Cwm, but she does like to remind us that she was the first to die...and be resurrected! Now, she is familiar to us as Auntie Marian, the nosy pensioner who runs the shop with her nephew Denzil. But she first appeared as the mother of Wayne, Sabrina and Reg Harries back in 1974.
Although it is as one of the cast of Pobol y Cwm that most of us recognise her these days, it is in another ‘cwm’ that Buddug’s autobiography Merch o’r Cwm (A Girl from the Valley) begins. Buddug takes us back to the coal mines of her youth, and presents the warm characters of her close community. Her stories of Cefneithin, Cwm Gwendraeth create a vivid picture of the era, and the locals who hold such an important place in her heart. From Carwyn James to Ronnie Williams, she has a story about each of them...
"My memory’s quite good, so far. I’m getting older, so maybe I’ll start to forget things, but it all came back quite easily!" she jokes.
Though she spent a short period in Brimingham as a teacher, Buddug Williams soon returned to her beloved Cefneithin, and there she remains, living in the very same house she grew up in. It was in this house that she was introduced to the world of drama, and she performed on local stages from a young age. Acting became her passion very early on, and she was admired and encouraged by the famous author and drama producer Norah Isaac and dramatist Gwynne D. Evans. She became a member of the Swansea Welsh Drama Company, and here learning lines became second nature:
"We did two three-act dramas a year, and usually I’d have a lead part. There was a lot to learn...ao learning lines come quite easily for me, but I do read them quite a lot, I have to admit!" she laughs.
She created a good impression with the drama producers at the BBC and was offered a part in the new drama series Pobol y Cwm. She was released by the Teaching Committee for three months, and though she loved every moment of it, all too soon she had to return to her duties as a teacher. That’s when Bet Harries died - the very first character on Pobol y Cwm to do so. Twenty-five years later, Buddug was invited back to the series, and stayed - this time to play one of the most popular and likeable characters on the channel today. Lyn Ebenezer, who co-wrote the book, explains:
"For me there’s no competition, she IS the best character on the series! I think there’s quite a lot of Auntie Marian in Buddug. Although Auntie Marian doesn’t dress very fashionably, and Buddug is always like a queen."
The respect the two authors have for each other is obvious, and indeed it’s unlikely Buddug Williams would have agreed to write an autobiography at all when she was invited to do so, except for Lyn Ebenezer:
"I got a phone call from the publishers Dref Wen, saying they’d have someone come and help me with it. When they mentioned Lyn Ebenezer, I was really happy! He came over to our house on Sundays, and we just sat in the conservatory, me going on and on, and him typing away."
The two of them had been friends for many years, having worked together on productions such as Under Milk Wood. And Lyn has fond memories of that period at the tail end of the sixties:
"The first time I met her, jiw we had fun. She’s a very special lady, very kind. As she says, I went to her home on a Sunday and of course there had to be tea, and cake, and she always made me take a jar of chutney or jam home with me, just like Auntie Marian!"
Undoubtedly this relaxed way of working, Buddug chatting away and Lyn typing, is the reason why the book is so readable. The autobiography reads like a chat with the actress, the memories flowing easily and naturally.
"When you meet her for the first time, you go from there thinking ‘I feel like I’ve known her forever’. That’s the feeling you get with her," says Lyn. And that’s also how the book reads; warm and intimate as we get to know the community and the valley which means so much to her.
The reader is led through the small and the big events in her life, from Cefneithin to Birmingham and from Twin Town to Israel, and all in an interesting and sometimes very humorous way,
"It’s her humour I most admire," explains Lyn. "There’s more laughing than talking on the tape, to tell you the truth!"
Of all the character Buddug has played, her favourite character, apart from the nosy parker Mrs Willy Nilly in Under Milk Wood, has been Wales’ other famous gossip, Auntie Marian!
"I like playing Auntie Marian," she says. "As my son Rhodri would say, ‘you’re not acting, that’s what you’re like!’ Maybe he’s right; I am sharp, and I tell it like it is, but I’m not as nosy as her!"
There’s no doubt though that the most colourful character of all is Buddug Williams herself...and that particular drama is worth reading!
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