Caerphilly Castle. Note the leaning tower, on the right, a result of Parliamentary gunpowder during the mid-17th Century English Civil War.
Marsha and I have begun our filming in Wales. On Sunday, June 14th, we drove from the south of England up to Welshpool, which is a border town in North Central Wales. There are three million Welsh people and 10 million Welsh sheep. Most of the people are on the south coast around Cardiff; most of the sheep are in this more northerly area. We took our first pictures at Powis Castle and then moved westward to a place called Foel (pronounced Voil) where we stayed three days on a 600 acre sheep and cattle farm owned by an amazing woman named Annie Ellis. The female Ben Cartwright of Central Wales.
Monty watching Annie Ellis work.
We got a great start on "Wales: Land of Song", meeting a male-voice choir in rehearsal, a famous Welsh harpist folk singer named Sian James, and a teenage singer of Welsh songs (Annie's niece) all in one fell swoop. All these people speak Welsh to one another. Turns out it's the most live Celtic language today, more alive than Irish, Cornish, Scottish or Breton. Well, we're not sure about Irish, but Welsh is certainly alive and well.
We filmed Border Collies at work in the beautiful hills of Central Wales, and learned a bit about life on the farm. Yesterday we went off to Portmeirion and then Harlech Castle on the coast. Portmeirion is the private folly built by an architect who loved Italian villages on the Mediterranean. It served as the setting for the 1960's cult TV series, "The Prisoner," starring Patrick McGoohan. And I was on a BBC film crew doing a program called "Vendetta," also in the 1960's.
Harlech Castle was one of a string built by Edward I in his campaign to control the Welsh about 800 years ago. Marsha took some pictures: the first two are me at Portmeirion and the third is me at Harlech.
