#bethan evans

[femftbllvr]

[ariesmusingz]

૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა ╱ WELSH NAMES MASTERLIST ( below the cut is #293 welsh first names. they are a mixture of feminine, masculine and neutral names, but please use as you see fit. please like / reblog if you found useful. )

feminine ;

addien

aderyn

adwen

aelwen

aeres

aerfen

aerona

aeronwen

aethwy

afanen

amser

anchoret

angharad

annwyl

anwen

aranrhod

arianrhod

arianwen

arlais

awen

awena

bethan

bethwyn

betrys

blodwedd

blodwen

blodwyn

braith

branwen

briallen

bronwen

bronwyn

brynn

buddug

caraf

cari

caron

carys

catrin

ceinwen

ceridewn

cerys

delyth

dilys

eilir

eira

eirlys

eirwen

eleri

eluned

enfys

enid

ffan

ffion

gaenor

gaynor

gladys

glain

glenda

glenys

glynis

glynnis

guenevere

guinevak

guinevere

gwawr

gwen

gwendolyn

gwenhwyfar

gwenifer

gwenllian

gwennan

gwenno

gwaldus

gwylan

gwyneria

gwyneth

haf

hafwen

heulwen

igraine

iorwen

kiah

lleucu

llinos

llywelya

lowri

lunet

mabli

maybn

madrona

madwen

mair

mairwen

mared

marged

medi

megan

meghan

melangell

menna

mererid

merlyn

morgana

morgause

morwen

myfanwy

nia

non

olwen

owena

raewyn

rhian

rhianna

rhiannon

rhianu

rhonda

rhoswen

seren

sian

sioned

siriol

sulwyn

talaith

tanwen

tegan

teleri

telyn

terrwyn

masculine ;

adda

aeron

aled

alun

andras

aneirin

arawn

arthur

baeddan

bedivere

bedwyr

berwyn

bevan

beynon

bleddyn

bowen

bran

broderick

brychan

brynmor

cadell

cadfael

cadfan

cadogan

caradoc

carwyn

ceron

cledwyn

collen

dafydd

dai

derwyn

dewey

dewi

dillan

dillon

dilwyn

eirwyn

elisedd

emrys

ercwlff

euros

gaerwn

gareth

geraint

gerallt

gethin

griffin

grittith

gruffudd

grugwyn

guto

gwalchmai

gwaltney

gwern

gwil

gwilym

gwydion

gwyn

hedd

heddwyn

howell

hywel

ianto

idwal

ieuan

ifan

ifor

illtyd

ioan

iolo

iorwerth

islwyn

kynan

lleu

llewellyn

lloyd

llyr

llywelyn

mabon

macsen

maddock

madoc

madog

meilyr

merewyn

meriadoc

mervin

mervyn

meurig

mihangel

mordred

myrddid

nye

owain

pasgen

peredur

powell

pritchard

pryderi

pwyll

rhodri

rhun

rhydian

rhys

romney

siarl

taffy

talan

taliesin

taran

trefor

tremain

trevelian

tudor

twm

urian

vaughn

yestin

ynyr

neutral ;

afon

avalon

avon

bricen

cadewyn

cadwalader

caerwyn

cai

cambrie

cariad

celyn

ceri

colwyn

crwys

dwyn

dylan

ebrill

eirian

elwyn

emlyn

evan

gaiwan

garan

glyn

glynn

gryffon

llar

meredith

morgan

mostyn

nesta

ninian

parry

pembroke

pugh

ragle

reese

rhoslyn

rice

sianai

tristan

uther

wynn

wynne

[healerqueen]

Tag Game: How Cuddleable Are Your OCs?

Rules: Answer the above question using a scale from 1-10 and include context!

Thanks for the tag, @freenarnian! It's taken me forever, but I didn't forget. This should be interesting to explore.

Arienna, 7/10: She's affectionate with the right people, but she can be a little aloof and distant. She's very sweet, and she is willing to give and receive affection with her family, especially her father, Roger, and a few other people. But often she puts up walls when she's feeling vulnerable, instead of seeking out affection. Sometimes people perceive her as existing in another world, a little bit remote and inaccessible. When she's in that sort of mood, she's less huggable.

Thalia, 6/10: She's very affectionate with a very small number of people--the few family members with whom she acknowledges love and loyalty. But to everyone else, she would be extremely prickly, wild, and easily angered. Later in the series, she changes and becomes a healthier person who is very physically and emotionally affectionate. She's more well-adjusted and happy all-around, in that season.

Roger, 7/10: He can be very affectionate and warm, even though he outwardly appears to be a tough, unemotional type. In fact, physical affection is the only way he feels comfortable giving and receiving affection and warmth--though now that he's a veteran father, he pushes himself to do it in other ways as well, for the sake of his family. He would probably initiate affection only when it seems like it's needed and welcomed, but when people need it, he gives affection.

Luke, 10/10: He's at the top of the cuddle scale. Luke is the big brother who is always ready with a hug, a grin, a joke, and a kind word. And he gives the best hugs.

Bran, 8/10: Bran has been alone in the world for much of his life, but when he has people in his life to be affectionate with, he can be very affectionate. He tends to be reserved in public and warm in private.

Jason, 1/10 -> 9/10: Jason begins the series in a dark place, surrounded by a cold and hostile environment. It's been years since he was loved or had anyone to love. He's tried to become emotionless and cold to avoid pain. He's definitely not cuddly. (Besides, hugs are uncool.) But deep down he needs healing and love. Later, he grows and heals, and he slowly warms up and begins to receive love. At first, love and affection surprise him, and he doesn't know what to do. He reacts awkwardly, and he's stiff and uncomfortable. But he learns to receive affection and re-learns to give affection as well. He becomes very affectionate and even happy. A healthy Jason is very affectionate. Bethan, 9/10: The soft, warm, wise surrogate mother everyone needs. Not everyone has a hugging relationship with her, but she'd welcome anyone with affection if they needed and wanted it.

Marcus, 2/10: He's the tough, crusty type who is usually not affectionate. However, his papa wolf tendencies include a fierce love and affection for his family. He is affectionate with his wife Merryth and his children, Thalia and Luke.

Merryth, 3/10: Merryth can be harsh and prickly, but she might be affectionate if she was in the right mood. She values efficiency and perfection, and she probably doesn't make time to give and receive affection most days. She can be affectionate with her husband if she's in the right mood, but she's not a very affectionate mother most of the time.

Bonus - Daeren and Evan, 1/10: The last two members of my main characters' family are prickly, standoff-ish, awkward and unhuggable--each in a very different way. Tagging @oldfashionedbooklove @lover-of-the-starkindler @e-louise-bates @eddis-not-eeddis and anyone who wants to do it.

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen Reveals How The Pandemic Shaped His New BBC Drama With Adam Curtis & James Graham, And Why It Shifted From Middle England To His South Wales Hometown

Michael Sheen, Adam Curtis and James Graham‘s BBC drama The Way has been gestating for almost a decade but, for Good Omens star Sheen, the wait has been a necessary one.

As the BBC prepares to launch the drama set in Sheen’s hometown of Port Talbot, he told Deadline the pandemic and other recent events played an important role in shaping the script and believability of the three-part series, which is one of the broadcaster’s most anticipated of the year, bringing together three of the nation’s supreme creative talents.

Starring Sheen, who is making his directorial debut, Luke Evans (The Hobbit), Callum Scott Howells (It’s a Sin) and a wealth of talented Welsh actors, The Way tells the story of an ordinary family caught up in an extraordinary chain of events that ripple out from their home town. Driven by celebrated documentary maker Curtis, the drama takes an experimental approach by imagining a civil uprising in a small industrial Welsh town. Fleeing unrest, the Driscolls are forced to escape the country they’ve always called home and the certainties of their old lives, but will they be overwhelmed by their memories of the past or lay their ghosts to rest and take the risk of an unknown future?

Sheen said the idea had always been to make a story about an “explosion of unrest” as “believable” as possible. Before the pandemic, the team initially dismissed ideas around making an entire population remain indoors, or placing a hard border around Wales.

“Lockdown gave the story a whole new lease of life,” he told Deadline. “When it ended we revisited the story and it allowed us to be bolder, particularly around ideas of conspiracies and Covid. We knew it was ‘of the moment’ and didn’t want something to feel dated, but we didn’t ever imagine it would be quite as timely as it has turned out to be.”

Producer Bethan Jones, who runs The Way co-producer Red Seam with Sheen, said commissioners in the early days were worried it would be “a bit too dystopian” and were querying: “Haven’t we seen [shows like] this before?” “But now the audience have experienced some of these things themselves and are watching with all the knowledge of what that means,” added Jones.

As the episodes develop, Sheen said that “paradoxically the absurd nature of it all starts to come to the fore.” He said he wanted his first directing experience and Red Seam’s debut commission (it is co-produced with Little Door) to act as a mini guide to living in the UK over the past decade.

“That is a reflection of trying to capture what it has felt like to be living in our culture over the last 10 years, where you are never sure if you’re living in a sitcom or horror film,” added the four-time BAFTA-nominated Frost/Nixon star, who attended The Way’s screening last night.

The industrial Welsh location plays a crucial part in setting the tone and symbolism behind The Way. It was initially forged with a middle-class English family in mind, Sheen revealed, before being shifted to his hometown of Port Talbot, an industrial town that has been in the news recently due to the much-criticized closure of part of the legacy Tata steelworks.

“We knew we needed it to take place somewhere with a history of unrest,” he said. “It needed to feel like there was unfinished business there. That led me to thinking about my hometown and the steelworks, and the past then became more important to us in the story.”

Sheen moved back to Port Talbot around the time The Way was first developing. He subsequently sold his houses, gave the proceeds to charity and declared himself a “not for profit actor.”

He said his town is “full of interesting contradictions.” “It has a beautiful area by the sea and then there is the heavy industry in the middle of it. It has an extraordinary mixture of things and using that in the telling of this story was exciting.”

Working with the community was integral to the show’s authenticity and Jones explained that numerous local extras were used in protest scenes around the town hall and steelworks. “It’s that thing of people being stuck in the past and finding a new way forward,” she added.

Four-time BAFTA-winning documentary-maker Curtis is cutting his scripted teeth with The Way and Sheen celebrated his influence both stylistically – including use of archive and CCTV footage – and on the development of the story.

“He has always been a fantastic provocateur and is good at thinking about where the power lies and what is under the surface” said Sheen. “And I wanted us to have a dream-like quality. By the end of our first chat I knew that even though [having Curtis involved] would make things more complicated, it was such an interesting possibility and I wanted him involved.”

Sherwood scribe Graham, meanwhile, who worked with Sheen on hit ITV drama Quiz, was the perfect choice to pen something “not typically dystopian and not overly serious.” “He brings a brilliant combination of big ‘state of the nation’ ideas with character, humor, warmth and the everyday,” added Sheen.

Together, the trio have forged something Sheen hopes will tap into the “strong British tradition” of filmmaking led by trailblazers such as Ken Loach, Alan Clarke and Jimmy McGovern, coming at a time when ITV’s post office drama has led to much excited chatter about the power of traditional broadcasting to deliver change.

“[The post office drama] took an issue that had been in the public eye for a long time but never really connected and made something fantastic out of it,” he said. “Long may that continue because it would be a terrible, terrible thing if we stopped making that stuff.”

[gemsofthegalaxy]

ahhh... today is a good day to finally watch almond moms and the cult of generational diet culture i think, after spending 2 hours looking at fat studies in the uk and falling down a Dr. Bethan Evans rabbithole lol.. Rowan may just have to leads for uk-based fat activists and researchers

[uniqueeval]

WXV2: Hannah Jones returns to captain Wales in South Africa

Wales WXV squad Forwards: Gwenllian Pyrs, Abbey Constable, Maisie Davies, Carys Phillips, Molly Reardon, Rosie Carr, Sisilia Tuipulotu, Donna Rose, Jenni Scoble, Abbie Fleming, Natalia John, Georgia Evans, Alaw Pyrs, Alisha Butchers, Bryonie King, Alex Callender, Kate Williams, Bethan Lewis. Backs: Jenny Hesketh, Jasmine Joyce, Courtney Keight, Nel Metcalfe, Hannah Jones (capt), Hannah Bluck,…

[donkeytonk]

Midwinter

I wrote this in a headlong dash with very little editing. Toast belongs to @weretoad-writer who I wish had written this instead of me so I could have the pleasure of reading all his thoughts. If only we could combine our brains somehow!

Bethan apologized again and again for disturbing the healer so late at night, but as she explained at great length, little Chance would not stop crying, couldn’t sleep, wouldn’t take a pickled egg or even his favorite fish biscuit, he’d had his brandy and she feared to give him more, and what else could a baby need? Toast listened to her rambling with half of his sleepy attention, the more alert half expended on examining the boy. Her narrative continued.

“Maybe it’s a bean. Did he swallow a bean? Could that be the problem? He knocked over a crock of red beans, dry ones. Maker knows he gets into everything. Talking of which, what’s your Susan lass doing walking about?”

“Who?”

“Not Susan, that mage lass. You know.”

She meant Sula. He looked back through the dispensary door, but he could not see her or anyone else who was stirring at all. Everyone out in the infirmary’s main room appeared to be sleeping, and Sula was nowhere to be seen. She had her own little room in the corner, and he could see that the door was shut. “What do you mean?” he asked, sleep still fogging his thoughts. “She’s sleeping.”

“No, not in there. I saw her walking outside.”

Now he was wide awake, and he immediately handed the child back to his mother who continued her chatter in a whisper, even as he strode out of the dispensary and through the makeshift dormitory full of sleeping patients.

“She was outside walking in a bit of a hurry, and I saw it was her, but I didn’t get close on account of she’s a mage, begging your pardon, but some of them mages still make me nervous. I thought she was ill?”

By now they were in Sula’s little chamber, and they could see that the rumpled bedclothes were hiding only a pillow. Without another word Crispin rushed out of the building, ignoring Bethan’s entreaty to “put on a cloak, Mister Toast, it’s freezing.” Even without casting a light, it was easy to guess where Sula was heading and to follow her footprints lit by the moon. Plenty of tracks led to and from the infirmary, but only one trail in the new snow led toward the south road. That was where they had entered the town, himself and the party that had brought Sula as a prisoner.

He should have anticipated this possibility. He had reassured her several times that she was no longer a prisoner, that no one was going to send her back to the cells, that neither Chantry nor Templars had any cause to interfere, and that the Inquisition had no desire to harm her. He had observed her attempts at secrecy in hoarding food, but he had pretended not to notice; he remembered that compulsion only too well. But a few knots of bread and wedges of cheese would not sustain her for a long journey through the mountains in winter; she would freeze before she starved.

She had not had a long head start, (thank the maker for Bethan Evans and baby Chance) and she was still weak from her illness and walking slowly. Eventually he spotted her dark figure up ahead, and he hurried to close the distance before she noticed him. A frightening thought occurred to him then; Maker help them both if she encountered a scout. He cast a shield around himself in anticipation, and then he called out to her, gently as possible. “Sula.”

He saw her entire body flinch. She ducked as she spun around, raising her hand to ward him off, but her blast was ineffectual against his shield.

“Sula, stop, it’s all right! It’s me, Toast.”

“Go away!” she screamed, casting a shield of her own. She was protecting herself against an attack from him.

“It’s all right,” he repeated, his voice almost pleading as he cautiously approached. “I’m not here to hurt you. But keep your voice down. The guards - ”

“Get away from me! You said I wasn’t a prisoner!”

“You’re not, shh, you’re not! We’ve got to keep quiet, Sula. You’re not a prisoner. But you can’t go out like this. You’re ill and it’s the middle of winter. Where are you going in the dead of night?”

“I’m going back to my Circle!”

Toast shook his head helplessly. “You can’t go back to Markham.”

“Not Markham!” She was flustered now. “I mean I’ll go back to the outpost.”

“But it’s an Inquisition outpost,” he reminded her gently. “Remember? Your friends aren’t there.”

“Then I’ll find them!”

“But that’s five days’ march for a healthy man, much longer for the state you’re in. Please, come back. You’ve been ill and you’re weak and you’re not thinking straight. Give yourself time to recover. Then if you still want to go when you’re better, I’ll take you. Please!”  By now he was close enough to hear her sniffling, but he could not tell if it was due to crying or the cold. He could see that her kit was completely inadequate; a simple satchel over her shoulders, a blanket tied around her shoulders as a cape, and her little boots already swamped by the depth of the snow.

“No, you’re a liar. You’re always only telling me lies.”

The accusation stung because it was close to the truth, but he did not have time to answer before he heard a sound behind him. He spun around to see a scout approaching them, a big fellow who hailed them loudly. No. Toast was quicker than Sula, and he cast a protective arc around the man as he rushed to shield him bodily.

“Whoa, what’s goin’ on here? Mister Toast, that you?” It was Rennick, a soldier that he knew from frequent injuries and infirmary visits; thank the Maker for small mercies at least.

“Rennick, it’s fine, just please get out of here.”

“Thought I heard shouting. Who’s that yonder?”

“Just a patient, it’s fine.”

After her first impulse to attack the soldier, Sula now turned to run away. But Rennick was doggedly persistent in his duty. “Oi, you there, halt!”

“Rennick – “

“I said halt!”

“Rennick, stop! I’m sorry.” With a soft flash from Toast’s hand, the soldier collapsed into the snow. He would be fine once he returned to himself, though it would do nothing to increase his trust of mages.

It was not difficult to find Sula again. She knew she was not able to outrun them, and so she had attempted to hide. Toast called out to her from a cautious distance.

“Sula, I can see you behind that tree. Please come out. It’s only me and I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Slowly she emerged, still shielding herself against him. “Just let me go,” she pleaded. It was an echo of the first words that she had spoken to him when he had found her injured and alone, burned by the fire that he had created. “Please. Just let me go.”

“But you’ll freeze. You’ll die out there on your own.”

She knew that. Her feet were wet and growing numb already, and she knew nothing of the wilderness. But she shook her head. “I’d rather freeze to death free out there than die a prisoner here.”

“You’re not a prisoner!”

He had said those words before, and he had lied. “No. That woman, that Chantry woman, that friend of yours, she’ll send me back to those cells as soon as I’m well. You’ll send me back to her and those Templars, that commander of yours, your friends - and I can’t. I won’t. I won’t go back.”

“And no one will make you go back there! I swear! Please Sula, I swear on my life. I won’t let anyone harm you.” He spread his hands helplessly, imploringly, and she noticed for the first time that he was no longer shielding himself. And she wanted to believe him; Maker knew that she wanted to trust him. She wanted to accept that he was telling the truth. She desperately wanted an ally, an advocate, a friend.

“I don’t know how to trust you.” Her voice sounded small and childish in her own ears, but she was exhausted and wanted to weep.

Then he sat down in the snow. “You can drain my mana.”

“What?”

“You can drain my mana, like I drained yours on the march.”

She stared at him. He was not armed as far as she could see; he was not even wearing a cloak, just a thin linen shirt and woolen trousers, now getting soaked through by the snow. Like herself, he was shivering against the bitter wind. He would be completely defenseless. She stretched out her hand, slowly, feeling the bond of energy for only a moment before she jerked her arm away and took a step back, closing her fist against her chest. “I don’t want to!” 

“I won’t hurt you. I won’t fight you.” He looked up at her and she shook her head.

“No, get up. I don’t want to.” 

He hesitated and then pushed himself to his feet. “Will you come back with me?”

“I’m afraid!”

“I know.”

“I want to go home.”

“I know.”

Her voice had grown smaller, and she seemed to shrink with it. “I’m cold.”

He smiled and held out a hand to her. Somehow his hand was still warmer than her own.

[fangrl-esque]

A WIP sketch for the awesome RP I’ve been doing with @tenwhiteapricots and @mydonkeyfeet (Crispin and Bethan owned, respectively) Such great characters and writers, they deserved some fanart ^^

This is there first meeting in Haven <3

[inferlo712]

Skulptur Projekte Münster

Skulptur Projekte, el encuentro de escultura contemporánea que cada 10 años se propone desarrollar obras con y para el espacio público. La historia del Skulptur Projekte Münster se remonta a la década de 1970 cuando George Rickey colocó su escultura cinética, ”Drei rotierende Quadrate” en la ciudad alemana de Münster. En ese momento hubo una protesta pública significativa contra la colocación de…

[abloodycrow]

[scphiesimnett]

DON’T MIND ME CRYING BECAUSE I’M 99,9% SURE WE FIRST SAW BENIELLE KISS AT THE EXACT SAME LOCATION WHERE BEN SANG IT’S ALWAYS BEEN YOU AFTER HE GOT OUT OF THE CAVE AFTER HE GOT STUCK IN WITH DANIELLE

I mean...

OKAY so the boathouse (is that was Josh calls it??) is now property of Benielle and Ben sang It’s Always Been You about Danielle. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules  🤷🏻‍♀️

[metamorphesque]

Can you give me some LGBTQ+ book recommendations? Thanks x

Books that I have read: (some of these books are circled around a LGBTQ+ romance, while the others only contain certain elements)

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (100/10 recommend, this one was an otherworldly experience)

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara (100/10 recommend, but pay attention to trigger warnings)

Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami (100/10 recommend, i perceived the main character as an asexual)

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz (1000/10, everything that's wonderful about being alive)

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong (1000/10, cannot recommend this book enough)

Night Sky with Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong (1000/10, "the seventh circle of Earth" has my heart and refuses to give it back)

Maurice - E. M. Forster (1000/10, love love love)

Call Me By Your Name - André Aciman (7/10 recommend, some parts made me feel uncomfortable, but overall I liked it)

Find Me - André Aciman (9/10, sequel to Call me by your name, I liked this far better than the first one)

The Secret History - Donna Tartt (8/10 recommend, only certain elements)

If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio (10/10 recommend, "James, I love you")

Swimming in the Dark - Tomasz Jedrowski (9/10)

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (100/10)

Crush - Richard Siken (100/10 recommend, one of my favourite poetry books)

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin (100/10 recommend, can't rave enough about this book)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab (8.5/10 recommend, slightly problematic, but overall i loved it)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (10/10 recommend, my 15-year-old self feels validated)

Lie With Me - Philippe Besson (6/10)

My Policeman - Bethan Roberts (9/10, if you like E.M. Forster, i highly recommend reading this one)

Autobiography of Red - Anne Carson (10/10)

Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu (8/10)

Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado (10/10 hell to the yes)

The Parting Gift - Evan Fallenberg (6.8/10, some parts made me feel uncomfortable, but overall not a horrible experience)

Apricot Jam - Imogen Markwell-Tweed (3/10, if you're in need of something light and sweet)

Books I haven't read

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

An Orphan World by Giuseppe Caputo

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Loveless by Alice Oseman

Memorial by Bryan Washington

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

[thomasadohertys]

Blue Skies - The Lodge Cast

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (February 9th, 2021)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know! ___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

As Far As You’ll Take Me by Phil Stamper

Game Changer by Neal Shusterman

A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold 

We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire by Joy McCullough

The Iron Raven by Julie Kagawa

The Girl From Shadow Spring by Ellie Cypher 

Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann

Hot British Boyfriend by Kristy Boyce

Necropolis by Bethan Evans

In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race by Amy Cherrix

New Sequels: 

Curse of the Divine (Ink in The Blood #2) by Kim Smejkal

Stormbreak (Seafire #3) by Natalie C. Parker

___

Happy reading! 

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen: ‘I find it very hard to accept actors playing Welsh characters when they aren’t Welsh’

Has he taken the concept of authentic casting to a whole new level? Ahead of his latest BBC drama Best Interests, the star explains all

Michael Sheen has had it with the Prince of Wales. Not the man, but the title. “I think it’s ridiculous,” he says. “It’s just silly. I see no reason why the title should continue. Certainly not with someone who’s not Welsh.” 

“That’s not the majority view,” he adds, with resignation. “So, whatever the majority of people want, I’m sure will continue.” 

The star of Frost/Nixon and proud son of Port Talbot is chatting via video from a bucolic spot close to his hometown (a deer has just wandered into view), but even at a distance, it’s not hard to see that Sheen is a man ofstrong convictions.

He has spoken in the past about the opportunity to retire the title after the death of Elizabeth II, as a gesture to “put some of the wrongs of the past right”. In 2020, he returned the OBE he was “honoured” to have received in 2009 when he felt it would make him a hypocrite to give a lecture about how the English king Edward I “put a stranglehold on Wales” at the turn of the 14th century. 

When we chat, he’s about to begin shooting his TV directing debut The Way – co-created with playwright James Graham and documentary-maker Adam Curtis, about a family caught in a civil uprising, set in and around Port Talbot. The BBC project is the first from the production company that he set up with Sherlock producer Bethan Jones to focus on telling Welsh stories because, “You can shout about how bad it is, but if you want to see something be different then do it, you know?”

The 54-year-old is one of the actors of his generation, a stage star in his twenties (The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer called him “outrageously charismatic”) who went on to create unforgettable screen portraits of Tony Blair (The Queen, The Deal), Chris Tarrant (Quiz) and Brian Clough (The Damned United), alongside his David Frost in Peter Morgan’s play and film about the 1977 interviews that brought down the US president. Recently, Sheen has gained a whole new tranche of fans playing a very arch angel opposite David Tennant’s insouciant demon in Amazon’s Good Omens – not technically gay characters according to the Terry Pratchett-Neil Gaiman source novel, but seemingly in love.

Tennant and he have a natural chemistry on and off screen, Sheen says, adding that “he stops me being too grumpy”. He is a little on the grumpy side. In one exchange, in which I suggest he is a supporter of Welsh independence, he responds hotly: “Show me where it says that. I don’t believe I’ve ever said that.” Sam Mendes compared Sheen to fellow Welsh stars Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton – “fiery, mercurial, unpredictable”. 

But he shares a warm screen chemistry with Sharon Horgan in Jack Thorne’s moving new four-part drama Best Interests. They play the parents of a child with cerebral palsy, the adorable Marnie (played by Dublin actor Niamh Moriarty), who suffers a seizure that leaves her without brain function. The couple find themselves on opposite sides of an unbearable decision: whether or not to switch off their daughter’s life support. Very few will make it through the drama without tears, but the issues it raises will be familiar to all who have followed recent legal battles over 12-year-old Archie Battersbee and baby Alfie Evans. 

Best Interests is “heartbreaking” at times, he admits, which makes the humour that he and Horgan bring to it all the more important. They hadn’t worked together before. “That relationship had to do a lot of heavy lifting. Sharon and I didn’t know each other very well … but straight from the off, we had a very similar sense of humour and made each other laugh.” Moriarty’s is a break-out performance – one scene involving make-up beautifully captures the parent-child relationship. She has cerebral palsy that affects her legs, a condition called spastic diplegia, but she’s not the only disabled actor in the piece. 

Bafta-winner Lenny Rush, 14, who in real-life has a condition that affects his growth, is brilliant as George, who sets his cap at Marnie. Mat Fraser, who plays a legal advocate in Best Interests and portrayed Shakespeare’s Richard III in 2017, has a thalidomide impairment, which likely gave him an insight into Richard’s sense of “my deformity”. 

Thorne, who experienced a chronic medical condition in his twenties, has said in the past that disabled people have been “utterly and totally” failed by the TV industry. In Best Interests, one parent of a child with a disability states baldly that people “hate” disabled people. “I think people can feel very uncomfortable around people with disabilities,” Sheen says. “A lot of the time it’s just to do with ignorance about, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t know, what should I do?’ It can make interaction quite awkward at times, and it can bring out people’s fears.”

The fact that there were several people with disabilities working on the project, he says, was striking because it brought home how rarely he had seen it before. It leads into a discussion of how far actors can credibly play identities they don’t personally inhabit. Sheen has thought about it: “You know, seeing people playing Welsh characters who are not Welsh, I find, it’s very hard for me to accept that. Not particularly on a point of principle, but just knowing that that’s not the case.

“That’s a very different end of the spectrum, but a part like Richard III is such a great character to play, it would be sad to think that that character, you know, is no longer available or appropriate for actors to play who don’t have disabilities, but that’s because I’m just not used to it yet, I suppose. Because I fully accept that I’m  not going to be playing Othello any time soon.

“Again, it’s not particularly a point of principle, but personally, I haven’t seen many actors who have come from quite privileged backgrounds being particularly compelling as people from working-class backgrounds. If you haven’t experienced something, you know, the extreme example is, well, if you haven’t murdered someone, can you play a murderer?”

In 2021, it was reported that Sheen intended to be a “not-for-profit” actor, after selling his own properties to ensure the Homeless World Cup that he had organised in Cardiff in 2019 went ahead when funders withdrew. So, what is a not-for-profit actor?

“There’s no such thing,” he says. “In that interview, I talked about how the ideal I was aiming towards was working like a not-for-profit company. When I put the money into the Homeless World Cup, since then I only owe money, so in terms of profits, there are no profits. I put as much of the money I make as I possibly can into either funding and supporting what other people are doing that I believe in, or starting up projects myself.” 

It’s a measure of Sheen’s confidence that he knows the parts will keep coming. He has become a father again in his 50s; he and his partner, 28-year-old Swedish actor Anna Lundberg, have two young daughters. “My knees creak a lot more,” he says. “It’s a lot harder to get up and down off the floor when you’re playing with the baby.” 

Sheen also has a grown-up daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, 24, from an earlier relationship with British actress Kate Beckinsale. “When my eldest daughter was born, I was still trying to make my way in my career and having to make harder choices about whether to work away from home and how much time to be away and all that stuff,” he says. “This time around, that’s not as difficult as I’m more established as an actor. Physically, it’s hard. But the one thing that is always the same is, you know, poo doesn’t smell any better.”

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