As the Welsh government champions the revitalization of its mother tongue, the country's television industry is doing its part toward language immersion.
"Bang," premiering Monday, Oct. 15, on the streaming service Acorn TV, is the latest in a recent spate of Welsh-language thrillers, this one threaded with English and subtitles for Welsh, also called Cymraeg, for those who can't untangle its knotty cadences.
Set in the steel town of Port Talbot - the childhood home of the actors Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen - "Bang" rises from a less bucolic Wales than shows like "Keeping Faith" and "Hidden," its moody shoreline juxtaposed against a backdrop of blast furnaces and smokestacks. And the story of "Bang" is as grimy as its setting, with a shabby menagerie of tough guys, stolen-car dealers and loan sharks shredding the local fabric while Gina (Catrin Stewart), an ambitious young police officer, tries to the return the streets to safety.
But mostly it's the story of her brother, Sam (Jacob Ifan) - a hapless warehouse grunt who, as a 5-year-old, witnessed the shooting death of their father - and the seeming invincibility ignited within him once he finds himself in possession of a gun.
"Bang," premiering Monday, Oct. 15, on the streaming service Acorn TV, is the latest in a recent spate of Welsh-language thrillers, this one threaded with English and subtitles for Welsh, also called Cymraeg, for those who can't untangle its knotty cadences.
Set in the steel town of Port Talbot - the childhood home of the actors Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen - "Bang" rises from a less bucolic Wales than shows like "Keeping Faith" and "Hidden," its moody shoreline juxtaposed against a backdrop of blast furnaces and smokestacks. And the story of "Bang" is as grimy as its setting, with a shabby menagerie of tough guys, stolen-car dealers and loan sharks shredding the local fabric while Gina (Catrin Stewart), an ambitious young police officer, tries to the return the streets to safety.
But mostly it's the story of her brother, Sam (Jacob Ifan) - a hapless warehouse grunt who, as a 5-year-old, witnessed the shooting death of their father - and the seeming invincibility ignited within him once he finds himself in possession of a gun.