Forget the poetry and the dissolute behaviour, mention Dylan Thomas to anyone who is the slightest bit interested in literature, in literary biography or literary history and the chances are they will respond with ‘Under Milk Wood’ or ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’.

The quality of Dylan’s play for voices is well known but, increasingly, ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ is being seen as a wonderful piece of writing. Because of its ability to conjure a time and a place when, as someone once said ‘All the world was young’, it is seen by many readers as the modern day equivalent of Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Since its first appearance back in the 1940s, ‘A Child’s Christmas’ has grown in popularity and has become something of a symbol for the way Christmas and the Christmas season used to be celebrated – and maybe will be again – not just in Wales but across the whole world.

Dylan Thomas had been writing radio scripts for some years when, in 1945, Lorraine Davies, producer of Children’s Hour in Wales, suggested he might like to come up with something on Christmas memories. Dylan duly wrote his essay; it was recorded in advance because producer Derek McCullough - Uncle Mac as children knew him - did not trust the unreliable Welsh poet, and it went out on the radio in time for the Christmas festivities. It was also published in ‘The Listener’.

Some time later Dylan revised and enlarged the piece, using parts of another essay he’d written for ‘Picture Post’ to fill out space and ‘pad’ it a little. In 1950 he sold it to the American magazine ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ for $300. During Dylan’s 1952 reading tour of America he recorded it for Caedmon Records, mainly because the poems he was going to recite did not fill the required space. He was paid $500 with royalties to be paid once sales had passed 1,000. Since then ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ has gone on to sell in the thousands.

The piece has been published in book form and has been adapted for the stage, for animation and for television. Being relatively short it lends itself to good quality illustrations by people like Fritz Eichenberg and Edward Ardizzone – all part of building the icon that ‘A Child’s Christmas’ has now become.

There is no single and clearly defined narrative structure to the story; Dylan relies on short cameos and character sketches to build an evocative picture of life in Swansea during the 1920s. He uses powerful descriptions and images so that when he writes about ‘fish-freezing waves’ or ‘the crackling sea’, the reader (or listener) is immediately transported back in time.

This is a romantic and sentimental picture of the Christmases we all had – or would like to have had – in the past and one that leaves us with a warm glow of contentment. Yet, even as we read the story, part of us knows that Christmas was never like this - not Dylan’s nor ours. The ability to suspend disbelief is the mark of a quality piece of writing and we believe Dylan’s version of Swansea Christmases partly because of the power of his prose and partly because we actually want to believe him.

So although Dylan writes “It was always snowing at Christmas” the reality is that it wasn’t, not in Swansea during the 1920s at least. Maybe it did snow in Dylan’s memory or imagination but not in Swansea. However, so powerful is the image and so effective is the picture the writer draws that we believe them implicitly and bring them happily into our own lives. Most of us will swear that we can remember white Christmases with snow up to the letter box and all traffic suspended. “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” is, quite simply, a picture of that world and of the childhood we all wanted.

When Caedmon first released the story on record back in 1952 it sold modestly – now it is probably second only to “Under Milk Wood' in terms of popularity and market sales. It is read and listened to all over the world but in Wales, in particular, the story has a special relevance. For the Welsh, “A Child’s Christmas” has become almost part of a ritual.

The story is read each Christmas, much as Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ or Clement Moore’s ‘The Night Before Christmas’ are read in the weeks and days leading up to 25 December. Just as most families have their traditions – decorating the house, listening to the Queen’s Speech, chestnuts roasting by the fire – reading ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ has become part of the ritual in many homes.

Most Welsh writers have tried their hand at their own version of ‘A Child’s Christmas’, notably Richard Burton with his ‘A Christmas Story’. Dylan’s is a difficult act to follow, however, and no-one has really ever succeeded in emulating what is actually a unique and memorable achievement. We all want a Christmas like Dylan had – or didn’t have, except in his imagination – and we are willing to put aside our doubts and cynicism in the face of his images and the power of his words.

‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ has become an integral part of the Christmas experience, just like Clement Moore’s poem or Dickens’s ghost story. Beyond its Welsh context, it speaks to all mankind. This, then, is the ultimate tribute to a remarkable writer.

 

On Sunday night, we’re broadcasting a live performance of Under Milk Wood from that stage at the 92^nd Street Y where it all started. Michael Sheen will direct and star in the performance along with Kate Burton, Mark Lewis Jones, Francine Morgan, Matthew Aubrey and Karl Johnson.

Carolyn Hitt will present our coverage from New York from 6pm, starting with a backstage preview featuring the US Poet Laureate, Charles Wright. The performance is due to start at 7pm, and you’ll be able to listen to Under Milk Wood for 30 days after the broadcast on the BBC Radio Wales website.

To whet your appetite for all things Dylan, we’re building up to the main event with a repeat of The Outing at 5pm – Matthew Rhys’ reading of Dylan’s seaside story, interspersed with real-life recollections of trips to the Gower. And at 3.45, an omnibus of 21^st Century Dylan: Short Plays from New Voices. inspired by the poet’s legacy, we’re broadcasting five plays from new writers all this week at 10pm.  Plus there are behind-the-scenes videos and galleries on the website.  

Tomorrow is Family Heroes Day on the station – part of our contribution to BBC Wales’ Real Families Season. Throughout Jason and Eleri’s programmes we’ll be hearing the stories of the people who make their families tick. Also on tomorrow’s show, Eleri will be speaking to someone who may have inspired many a family teatime, Paul Hollywood.

The stars keep on coming later in the week with Eleri speaking to Chris de Burgh and Griff Rhys Jones on Thursday. And on Wednesday, she’s joined by the Radio Wales Artist of the Week, The Vestals. The Newport four-piece’s new song, Life Without Love, can be heard across the station all this week.      

Back to Sunday to finish: Roy puts on his captain’s hat as he boards the HMS Somerset for an outside broadcast marking the launch of the 2014 Poppy Appeal. And there’s a new captain at the helm of Eye on Wales – good luck to Charlotte Dubenskij and the team at their new time of 12.30. 

 

It’s been a wonderful experience, working with writers new to the medium and unlocking the possibilities of radio drama to fresh young talent. What’s been most striking to me is how totally different the five short plays are – in tone, topic and style. There is surreal comedy, lyrical romance, poetic fantasy, atmospheric drama and more. Each writer has grasped the opportunity to let their own unique voice shine through their work and has embraced the medium wholeheartedly in their own individual way.

As a radio drama producer that’s been extremely exciting for me. You see, writing is a craft. Certain elements of it can be learnt. Skills can be developed and tools of the trade sharpened. Writers can learn how to structure their plots so that they have a satisfying beginning, middle and end. Writers can learn how to dig deeper into their characters to give them flaws, strengths, fears and idiosyncrasies.

Writers can learn how to clarify their tone and genre and find a focussed way into their story. They can learn about pace, about starting late in a story and leaving early so that every narrative beat moves forward with dramatic propulsion. They can learn how to make conflict the heart of their story and how to hook their audience’s attention from the start. Mostly writing isn’t glamorous. It’s using those tools to re-write, to get rid of the old versions of a story in order to find the best way of telling a tale. It’s hard work. It’s slog and toil.

 

But what I’m not sure can be learnt - and this is clearly up for debate! – is a distinctive voice. Writing that is born from an inner-passion has originality. Writing that can’t be written by any other writer…

I want there to be more writers like Dylan – artists who are going to break rules and do it their way regardless of what’s gone before. Writers that channel their inner ‘beast, angel and madman,’ to create work that’s uniquely their own.

There is no magic formula that guarantees success. Try not to second guess what people want. Instead enjoy creating a world and characters that are unique to you. It’s great to look to people like Dylan Thomas for inspiration. But it’s more important that you trust in yourself and enjoy being the writer only you can be.

 

21^st-Century Dylan: Short Plays from New Voices starts Mon 20 October at 10pm on Radio Wales.

Find out more about Dylan Thomas and his work, archive readings and interviews.

We had great fun in the studios building rockeries, underground dens and ponds as well as filming plants and people at high frame rates. Lots of people, from our studio cleaner to dancer friends, donated their time and skills. Every day, for a week and a half, the DOP, camera assistant and I zoomed around Bristol with the company van to film plants, trees, sky and more. We even found ourselves racing against the elements to film at night, both fun and exhausting.

Back in the studio we made environments with computers and the practical elements we had assembled. We then populated them with ethereal figures and even created a hunched stop-frame figure, constructed entirely from twigs gathered in nearby woods.

The result of all this is a kind of living collage that hopefully compliments the amazing reading given by Michael Sheen.

When we were approached about the project I was wondering about the possibilities of conveying multiple narratives by the use of double exposures. Double-exposed images have many qualities, not least a sense of half-remembering something.

Amazingly, this project allowed me to try out some of these notions because the source material has such a multi-layered quality. The words and the technique seemed a perfect marriage.

Composer John Hardy and BBC NOW Director Michael Garvey talk about composing and performing the music behind the animation of this Dylan Thomas poem. 

Watch 'The Hunchback in the Park' exclusively on BBC iPlayer until 31 October.

During all the celebrations so far I've heard much debate about the merits of Dylan Thomas' work. Some good, while some honest academics are not so glowing, and yet, the whole season on radio and TV has had me gripped.

As an avid reader I was surprised, and a little ashamed, of how little I knew of his work beyond the obvious, highly celebrated work. Having listened to Dylan reading his own work, it's taken me totally by surprise: the comedy, the wonderful colourful language, the accessibility of the work, and the pure joy of hearing it through his voice.

It's also been fun to discover his influence over some of my musical heroes. For example, Patti Smith, such a strong female icon accepted as a poet in the rock 'n' roll world, while being such a unique creative person. Her spoken word style over music has always had a strange hold over me. Recently, I've really enjoyed her biography Kids, and some of it talks about living in the room that Dylan wrote in at the Chelsea Hotel in New York.

In preparation for the special show for Laugharne Live, I asked Twitter to help me build a playlist of artists based on Dylan, and the musicians that he's influenced. It's a theme I hope to build on as the centenary year continues through to a big music celebration in Laugharne in September.

Here's some great Dylan-influenced musical tips. Note the contribution by Lemonhead's Evan Dando at the bottom!

• Dylan Thomas News ‏@DylanThomasNews - "Polly" by The Kinks (inspired by Polly Garter from UMW).
  
  
• The Shamoncies @thes‏hamoncies - "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds mentions Dylan Thomas, along other poets.
  
  
• Andy Roberts @jazzy_‏andy - not a rock song but Starless and Bible Black from Stan Tracey's Under Milk Wood jazz suite might work - with some DT narration?
  
  
• Brigyn @br‏igyn - Paid A Mynd I'r Nos Heb Ofyn, addasiad Cymraeg o 'Do not go gentle...' Y Prifardd T James Jones biau'r geiriau. Sbardun biaur alaw.
  
  
• Mari Elin Jones @MariE‏linM - Stwff gan Fern Hill neu Fersiwn o do not go gentle gan Donovan ar yr album Beat Cafe.
  
  
• Kieran Owen ‏@Keezus_ - Maybe take liberty with the fact he appears on the front cover of Sgt Peppers. A favourite of Lennon I believe. Village Green Preservation Society was meant to be inspired by Under Milk Wood.
  
  
• Dan Allsobrook ‏@eggynewydd - John Cale has set a lot of Dylan Thomas' stuff to music.
  
  
• Kieran Owen ‏@Keezus_ - Apparently St Vincent named herself after the hospital he died in, in New York. 
  
  
• Rhodri Jones ‏@rhodrielisjones - John Cale 'Child's Christmas in Wales'?
  
  
• Country Mile ‏@country_mile - And of course anything by Bob Dylan (took his surname from Thomas) or Norwegian Wood by Beatles.
  
  
• Stuart Taylor ‏@stuartctaylor - Have you got Under Dubwood … or Boo Radleys' C'mon Kids.
  
  
• David Owens @asoun‏dreaction - Try this lot - Eggs Laid By Tigers - a Danish band who set Thomas' words to music. 
  
  
• Evan Dando ‏@Evan_Dando - @adamwalton yes I have Welsh roots and I got to read some DT short stories on BBC 1 once. Big fun!

Discover more about the life, work and legacy of Dylan Thomas with BBC Cymru Wales, plus watch programming on BBC Four on Sunday 1 June. 

The tour parties were given a copy of Roy's map (which had been altered by Voyce) and presented with a plethora of installations and interventions that gave an insight into Dylan's fascination with the town and its people.

Voyce believed that if Dylan was alive today he could still pen Under Milk Wood as the characters - or those just as colourful - are still there. Voyce was a pilferer, a poacher and a pirate and using raw material 'gathered' around the township, as well as local people and their stories, he created a unique immersive experience for the audience.

Along the route the audience saw multiple sheds, live owls, stuffed birds, a phantom carnival float, salt lace, a pendulum buoy, a canvas 1950s replica, a mirrored graveyard, singing web-footed cockle women, a ship-shaped shed, a corrugated tin terrace, the real-life Willy Nilly postman, a condemned sail, a slow-motion film of chattering jackdaws, school-kids rapping Dylan, knitted Under Milk Wood figures, OSB coffin lids, a guardian heron, brassiere bunting, Tom Jones as Captain Cat, bosom bread, a bloody livestock crime scene, bible black beer, golden cockleshells, sampled Stravinsky, a suspended swinging black canoe and a Rolls Royce fish and chip van.

Quite a trip for them and for me making it! As I write this from my very own bed in Cardiff I can't believe that it's over. It has been an extraordinary experience. My intention was to explore the underbelly of Laugharne - well, I certainly did that! Jon describes it as, 'Not a town nor a village but a magical town-ship tethered by a frayed rope to the shire of Carmarthen'.

During the funeral procession down King Street, a wonderful impulsive intervention took place where a group of children selling books outside a house lined up all their toys along the pavement to show their respect as the cortège passed by.

For me these moments make it all worthwhile. Another of these was watching the screening of the BBC Wales re-imaging of Under Milk Wood in Browns' bar and hearing the Laugharne Players (fuelled by much ale from the post-show party at Tin Shed) merrily quote along with Tom, Bryn, Jonathan, Charlotte and all. It was glorious.

And finally, overnight the 'statue' of Butcher Beynon, which we made from multiple mannequin parts, was butchered and dismembered, with only the torso and head left! I imagined his remains scattered around the township, shelved in sheds or hung as strange trophies above mantle dogs.

Later, as I walked towards the wooden sculpture of Dylan to retrieve the knitted tank-top that Voyce placed upon on him, I noticed a bunch of flowers at the base, held aloft by a plastic arm and hand, a spontaneous shrine made from 'found' material, raw and hugely poignant and simply wonderful!

You can catch up with the one-off television production of Dylan Thomas' famous 'play for voices' and intercut with part of National Theatre Wales' live event until 12 May here.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas

In pictures: Raw Material: Llareggub Revisited

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to catch the Peter Blake exhibition on Under Milk Wood at the National Museum in Cardiff. I was utterly captivated by the incredibly intricate little collages, pencil drawings, and watercolours that not only told the story of Under Milk Wood, but also illustrated the story's dream sequences and gave form to the faces of its characters.

The exhibition introduced me to what is arguably one of Thomas' best known, and certainly most loved works, and I have been rather obsessed by the play ever since.

It is no surprise that Dylan Thomas was, and continues to be, an inspiration and influence to artists and musicians. His wordcraft is highly evocative, visceral, frequently emotionally super-charged stuff, and really does have a music of its very own.

On Monday afternoon, the Orchestra will perform on Radio 3, live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, as part of the BBC's Dylan Thomas Season, in a concert full of music inspired by this great Welsh poet.

The concert features music by Alun Hoddinott, Aaron Copland, and Daniel Jones, who was a member of Thomas' infamous Kardomah Set. We will also perform a commission from the Welsh Music Information Centre, Tŷ Cerdd, by Mervyn Burtch, entitled Four Portraits of Dylan Thomas.

The work explores Thomas against the backdrop of locations linked intrinsically to his name, notably the Kardomah Cafe, Swansea, The Boathouse, Laugharne, and Brown’s Hotel, one of Thomas’ favoured watering holes in Laugharne.

My highlight of the concert is a work by one of my favourite composers - Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky was a big Dylan Thomas fan, and I was rather geekily delighted/disappointed to find out that, for many years, Stravinsky had been very keen on collaborating with Thomas on an opera. Can you imagine what that would have been like?! Sadly, Thomas' sudden death in 1953 extinguished the possibility of this collaboration - undoubtedly, I feel, a great shame.

Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (Dirge Canons & Song) is, I believe, a beautifully conceived work. The trombone has long had associations with funereal music and this work opens with four trombones, in canon, playing a dirge.

The music then gives way to a setting of Thomas’ great exhortation to struggle, 'Do not go gentle into that good night' - a fitting tribute perhaps for one who lived so madly, brilliantly, but alas, so briefly. This is unfolded by string quartet and solo tenor (here, my fellow countryman, the lovely Robin Tritschler), before the trombones return with their dirge.

I think it's a beautiful work, and although it is based on the twelve-tone principle (the use of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale often in a prescribed order, thus creating atonal music, that is, music without a key), it is extremely accessible.

I think it an exceptionally moving work; one gets a sense not only of the profound admiration Stravinsky felt for this incredible talent from Swansea, but also of the great sorrow he felt that his light was gone too soon.

The Orchestra’s Dylan Thomas concert is at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay on Monday 5 May, 7.30pm. It will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as part of Dylan Thomas Day.

We were lucky to have the support of the Phoenix Centre, the hub of the community run by Mike Durke, himself a Dylan Thomas fan.  Mike introduced us to Townhill born and bred Ricky Simpson who is the Captain Cat of the estate; Ricky’s help was invaluable.  Many hours were spent distributing leaflets and gaining the trust of the local residents.

We invited everybody to come along to Benjamin Zephaniah’s performance at the West End Social Club.  Although we had done our best to connect with as many people as possible, we had no idea whether we would get five or five hundred through the door.  The event was a success, Benjamin wowed a packed club with his own poetry as well as a heartfelt performance of Do Not Go Gentle.  It was an evening that had people laughing, crying and on their feet applauding.  The people of Townhill were onboard.

The auditions took place the following night and from there we had a core of 22 people aged between five and 81 who wanted to take part.  We had our cast.

Antic Theatre’s Nikki Neale and Michael Waters, with the help of poet Rhian Edwards, got started on the rehearsals.  The cast were asked to come along every Saturday to rehearse over a six week period as well as occasional weekday evenings.  It was a big commitment for people who have complex lives to lead, children to care for and jobs to hold down.

In the early weeks, I felt huge relief when everyone arrived at the church hall and nobody had pulled out, but as the weeks went by I realised that they had become gripped by the process and were beginning to feel an ownership and a responsibility for what they were taking part in. They wanted it to be a success as much as we did.

It took time to get to know the individual characters within the cast but as we filmed with them, they revealed a humour and a humility that made us roar with laughter at times and moved us to tears at others. 

Co-ordinating a cast of 22 strong-minded individuals to put on a theatre performance wasn’t the easiest task but it was great fun.  The credit goes to the people of Townhill who threw themselves into it and gave it their all.  I think they will agree that it was an unforgettable experience.

The challenge of wrestling the footage into a coherent programme narrative fell to Martyn Ingram and series producer, Ian Durham.  With its modern language and colourful characters I think Dylan Thomas would be pleased with the outcome.

Ugly, Lovely Swansea: A Poet on the Estate is next on Sunday 4 May, at 10.25pm on BBC One Wales.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.

Unlike many theatre productions, rather than a group of actors gathering together for a few weeks to rehearse the show, Raw Material involves a very unusual range of collaborators working in many different ways. 

Marc himself has been in Laugharne on and off for many months – researching the life of the town and how it all relates to Dylan Thomas’s famous play Under Milk Wood, which is said to be based on Laugharne and its residents. His collaborator Jon Tregenna actually works in Laugharne - as well as being a professional writer and director he is manager of Brown’s Hotel, where Dylan used to drink. 

Between them they have developed a great relationship with the people of the town and its owls!  Our production – exploring Laugharne today as well as through Under Milk Wood – incorporates everything from a guest appearance by the local school pupils to a display of bras, gathered from Laugharne residents as part of the first ever ‘Bramnesty’ (think police knife amnesty but for bras…).

There are a lot of professional actors involved in the show too. When I arrive in Laugharne I see Russell Gomer wandering up the high street with a script muttering to himself.  Russel plays ‘Voyce’ a character who guides the audience into the underbelly of Laugharne (he’s a kind of cross between First Voice in Under Milk Wood and James Joyce’s stream of consciousness characters). Many of Russell’s lines involve interacting directly with the audience – who, of course, won’t arrive until the show opens – hence him wandering up and down the street muttering!  Charles Drake plays the other main character – Roy – a tour guide who is trying to keep the whole event on the straight and narrow.

Of course, Raw Material will also feature a lot of other very well known actors – the stars of the BBC’s new version of Under Milk Wood, to be broadcast on BBC Wales.  NTW has been working with the BBC on this project since day one, with the idea that these actors, each presenting their reading of one of the Under Milk Wood characters from a long way away, will, during the performances be transported back to Laugharne.  A unique short edit of the footage features at the heart of Raw Material. 

And then there’s the Laugharne Players.  One of the main reasons I’m in Laugharne is to meet the intrepid troupe of local actors who usually get together annually to perform their version of Under Milk Wood, but this year are part of Raw Material.  At a rehearsal in an abandoned bus garage, I meet everyone and get a sneak preview of some of the elements they will bring to our production.  One of the extraordinary things about the Players is that many of them have very intriguing links to the characters in Under Milk Wood. For example, Butcher Beynon is played by a police forensic scientist whose family owns the shop where the Laugharne butchers used to be!  If you are at Raw Material (or watch it online) you will see how a lot of these connections play out.

Anyway, the meeting with the Laugharne players was great – they will certainly bring an authenticity and local flavour to our production.  Let’s just hope they don’t get upstaged by the owls!

You can watch Under Milk Wood on BBC One Wales, 5 May at 7pm.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.

This was a big project in subject and scale. As a production secretary you’re really there to make sure everyone else on the crew is happy and can do their jobs properly. It’s a broad remit but most of the time that means getting people to and from set, making sure everyone’s supplied with the equipment they need, or updating spreadsheets so the accounts department can keep on top of the budget… and there can be a lot of spreadsheets.

The story is largely set in two locations - New York City and Laugharne – and as far as two locations go they don’t come much more different than that. Because of this our three-week shoot was split in two, with two weeks’ filming in New York and one week in Laugharne.

First up was New York City (and when I say New York City, I mean Cardiff and the Vale) as little pieces of 1950s Manhattan began popping up all over the place; the White Horse Tavern, the Chelsea Hotel, St Vincent’s Hospital. The art department and construction team would be on site preparing sets days and weeks in advance, leaving momentarily for the camera crew to come in and film before returning in a flash to tear everything down and restore each location back to 21st century Cardiff. Blink and you might have missed it.

However, whilst 1950s New York can (as it turns out) be built in a few days, the view from Dylan’s writing shed overlooking the River Taf estuary was something that could not be rebuilt, recreated or replaced. And so, once we finished filming in Cardiff, it was time for everyone to up-sticks and go west, bound for Dylan Thomas’s beloved Boathouse in Laugharne.

After visiting Laugharne it’s as though you come to understand Dylan’s work a little better. He may have died a poetic rock-star, surrounded by the bright lights of Manhattan, but Dylan always belonged in west Wales. Much of his poetry draws directly from the places he lived and the land that surrounded him, and so to have that very landscape and Dylan’s very own home available to us brought incredible value to the production.

The scenery created an unbeatable backdrop for the cast and crew to work with, but our move to this tiny town in west Wales also created a small problem for the production team. Where do the cast and crew sleep?!

With over 50 people to accommodate, finding room for everyone in Laugharne was a bit like over-packing a suitcase for a holiday - somehow we managed to get everyone in but there wasn’t an inch to spare once we had. A wedding party had already booked up several of the town’s hotels when we came to reserve rooms, and so we found ourselves calling first dibs if the bride suddenly got cold feet. Thankfully, everyone was housed without anyone being jilted.

I spent my week with a lot of the crew in Pendine Sands Caravan Park (a massive site just down the road from Laugharne), and before we arrived I spent two weeks trying to work out on the site map where each person’s caravan was. That might sound like I’m being over-dramatic but with an entire crew all arriving late at night after a long day’s filming my orienteering skills were going to be crucial - and I never got that badge as a boy-scout.

Production secretaries don’t technically have a reason to be on set very often, and so it’s important that if you do manage to get out of the office and visit a location you try to look as busy as possible.

It’s a common cliché that film sets are magical places, but most of the time they’re more like a magician’s workshop. People are bustling about, setting up lights, altering angles and changing lenses; all in order to pull off the trick convincingly. There’s always the danger of course that once you know how a trick works it won’t seem like magic anymore, but this wasn’t the case on A Poet in New York.

There were several moments during this shoot when the tragedy of Dylan Thomas’ final days hit you right in the gut - just like the rich, booming voice of the great poet himself – and you realised the importance and literary genius of his life and work. Throughout 2014, Wales and the world beyond will be awash with anniversary tributes and celebrations, hopefully this film can lead the way.

As a production secretary you might not have the most glamorous of tasks at times, but a small role in a project like this is still a pretty special privilege.

A Poet in New York is on BBC One Wales, Wednesday 30 April at 21:00.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.

The same photographer took photographs of Dylan rehearsing in New York that autumn with the cast of Under Milk Wood. This is a different Dylan. He looks older. Something in his face tells us he’s struggling. He’s smoking heavily. In these black and white images you get a real sense of Dylan as he must have been. The 39-year-old poet at the height of his fame. You can see how he interacted with people. How he walked. How he smiled. He’s cheeky. Solemn. You can see how he’s dressed. I showed these pictures to lead actor Tom Hollander on our first meeting and we agreed that we would try and get as close to that Dylan as we could.

We both listened to Dylan’s recordings as he read his poetry and short stories and of course the famous first recording of Under Milk Wood. As we met over the weeks before filming Tom slowly started to inhabit the role. He put on weight. Grew his hair. He changed the way he walked. He wanted to transform himself utterly if he could. We had both agreed that the role required that.

Not long before filming started we went to Laugharne together. I wanted Tom to see it. In the small sitting room in the Boathouse with no one else around, Tom quietly closed the door and spoke to me in Dylan for the first time. He wanted me to hear him. I sat and listened, amazed. Later as we walked back towards the village together I dropped behind and watched Tom, heavier now, as he walked reciting Fern Hill aloud. He really had transformed himself into our Dylan Thomas.

A Poet in New York is on BBC One Wales, Wednesday 30 April at 21:00.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.

I thought of this title before I wrote a word of this piece. Some time ago I just threw Dylan Thomas in with all the other dead, white, male poets that grown-ups tried to force us to like. There’s nothing wrong with being dead, male or white, the problem was that when you’re an angry young black kid, seeking justice, and trying to find art that expresses your struggles and your pain, you just get angrier when you’re told to go away and read a poem about daffodils. I have nothing against daffodils. Some of my best friends are daffodils, but it was about priorities. My contemporaries and me went off and created Dub-Poetry, a modern form of performance poetry, and we were happy not to be associated with those dead guys.

But then two things happened to me. A friend of mine sat me down and read Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night to me, telling me what led up to the writing of the poem, and then I heard a relative of Dylan Thomas saying that he once used to have a writing shed and she would often hear him reading his poems out aloud.

So Dylan Thomas was a real bloke I thought, not an elitist, he had love and passion, that’s why he wrote Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and he was a performance poet. He wrote with the voice in mind. He is no dead, white, male poet. He lives. I have proof. He turned me on.

Ugly, Lovely Swansea: A Poet on the Estate starts 28 April, 20:30 on BBC One Wales.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.

So to tell Dylan’s story we took a different tack.  We were lucky to talk to a number of people who knew him first-hand, among them Vernon Davies.  Now aged 100, Vernon knew Dylan as a boy and remembered him as "a happy chap, who got on well with everybody.  Everyone liked Dylan."  The two were fellow-sixth formers at Swansea Grammar School, where they worked together on the school magazine.  Vernon happily recalled editorial sessions spent composing dirty limericks which, as an ordained minister, he's spent the last eighty years trying to forget. 

We also talked to Gwen Watkins, widow of Vernon Watkins, a poet and close friend of Dylan’s.  Gwen‘s first encounter with Dylan should have been at her wedding, where Dylan was due to be best man.  He never turned up. 

As Gwen told me, “We found out after that he’d been at some publishers trying to borrow some money.   He said he’d forgotten the name of the church, but in fact the publisher’s secretary told us she’d put him in a taxi and said ‘to the Charing Cross Hotel’ which is where we were having lunch.  So, as usual, it wasn’t true”. 

But despite that unpromising start to their relationship, Gwen spoke of Dylan with great warmth.  The affection he inspired in the friends who talked to us, regardless of his failings or indiscretions, spoke volumes about the power of Dylan’s personal charisma.

Elaine Kidwell, a one-time librarian at Swansea Museum, also remembered Dylan as a “beautifully mannered” man.  She told us how, in the late 1930s, after the pubs closed for the afternoon, he liked to call in at the museum. He had an understanding with library staff, who’d let him go down to the basement, where he’d promptly fall asleep in a comfy chair in the Gents.  At closing time it was Elaine's job to wake Dylan up and usher him out of the building to make sure he wasn't locked in overnight.

These stories from first-hand witnesses, along with interviews with biographers, experts and family, have helped us put together a portrait of Dylan the man.  Too often we see Dylan through the prism of his death, but I hope our programme offers an appreciation of Dylan in life, as a human being whose flaws and whose need for love we can all relate to.

Welsh Greats: Dylan Thomas is on BBC One Wales, 10.35pm on 24 April.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.

I have realised that there is so much more to Dylan Thomas than I had thought and I have been able to immerse myself in places where Dylan lived and worked. Sea views, picture postcard towns and landscapes that feed the imagination. I’ve visited many of the places that meant so much to him. We all know about Laugharne and his beautiful Boathouse - where I sat at his desk looking at the stunning views over the estuary but I also went to lesser-known places to find out about their connections with Dylan. I went to New Quay where I walked up through the town and down to the wild beach below all the way to Llanina Point. I even found out more about Swansea - Dylan’s ‘ugly, lovely town’ - which left its stamp on him.

Walking in Dylan’s footsteps has really shown me a very different side to the man I thought I knew. I already knew about his reputation for drinking and I did pop into some of his favourite watering holes along the way to try to imagine what his life would have been like. But I also met the people who are passionate about Dylan - Dylan’s granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, and Jeff Towns, a Dylan Thomas encyclopedia, known as the ‘Dylan Thomas guy’. They had so much passion and enthusiasm for Dylan, it was very contagious. It’s given me a renewed enthusiasm for his work. He was, and still is, one of our nation’s greatest poets.

I’ve really enjoyed roaming around Dylan’s Wales and the places that left their mark not only on him but on the pages of some of his greatest works. The landscape of Wales gives meaning and texture to the work of Dylan Thomas and that rich landscape is still here today with all those magical places still to enjoy on our doorstep.

Weatherman Walking: Dylan's Walks begins Friday 25 April at 19:30 on BBC One Wales.

Dylan Thomas was also, however, a poet whose life continually threatened to subsume his work. With his death the myth of Dylan the hell-raiser, the womaniser, the drinker, crystallised about him, until it became all too easy to forget the startling poems that first caught the world’s imagination.

On the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth, I want to get back to what makes Dylan Thomas extraordinary - those poems. I want to ask why his work, despite its challenging nature, continues to have such enduring popular appeal. How did he create the seductive effects of his verse? And why, exactly, did his writing have the impact it did when it first appeared in print?

Focusing on five key poems from the different stages of Dylan’s artistic development, I’ll excavate his worksheets to illustrate the rigorous craft that went into the poetry.

I’ll also travel to the places at the source of his poems: suburban Swansea, the London of the Blitz, and the remote rural beauty of Laugharne. In doing so, via this poetic map, I hope to sketch out the biography behind the writing, and to explore the events that fed into Dylan’s work.

Along the way I’ll be meeting contemporary poets and writers, to learn something of the nature of Dylan’s legacy, and to gather their views on his poetry.

By the end of the programme I hope viewers will have had an accessible but in-depth look at a writer who, for too long, has been more famous for his life than for his work. And I hope, too, that the poems that first began Dylan’s story will have been placed centre stage in the re-telling of it 100 years after his birth.

Dylan Thomas: A Poet's Guide is on BBC Two Wales, Saturday 26 April at 20:30.

To discover more about the life, work and legacy of Welsh poet and broadcaster Dylan Thomas go to bbc.co.uk/dylanthomas.