Under Milk Wood (2014)

An unique one-off collage of famous voices and faces, inter-cut with evocative imagery inspired by the play of the same name. Broadcast to celebrate the centenary year of the birth of the poet Dylan Thomas.

Director:

Pip Broughton

Writer:

Dylan Thomas

Stars:

Michael Sheen, Tom Jones, Matthew Rhys

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Sheen	...	First Voice
Tom Jones	...	Captain Cat
Matthew Rhys	...	New York Voice
Aimee-Ffion Edwards	...	Laugharne Voice
Tom Rhys Harries	...	Drowned / Willy Nilly
Karl Johnson	...	Drowned / Voice
Iwan Rheon	...	Drowned / Evans the Death
Aneurin Barnard	...	Drowned (voice)
Nia Roberts	...	Rosie Probert
Ioan Gruffudd	...	Mog Edwards
Kimberley Nixon	...	Myfanwy Price
Steffan Rhodri	...	Mr. Waldo
Mark Lewis Jones	...	Neighbour
Richard Harrington	...	Neighbour
Sophie Evans	...	Neighbour

Storyline

An unique one-off collage of famous voices and faces, inter-cut with evocative imagery inspired by the play of the same name. Broadcast to celebrate the centenary year of the birth of the poet Dylan Thomas.

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Plot Keywords:

clergyman | small town | wales | dream | blindness | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Charlotte Church appears both in this and in another adaptation released the following year, Under Milk Wood (2015), where she plays Polly Garter.

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Connections

Remake of Under Milk Wood (1971)

User Reviews

Poetic Evocation of the Dreamlike World of Llareggub

Described as "a play for voices," UNDER MILK WOOD has had some famous interpreters, notably Dylan Thomas himself (in the first New York performance) and Richard Burton - in Douglas Cleverdon's legendary BBC broadcast, still available for commercial purchase.

Produced to celebrate the centenary of the author's birth, Pip Broughton's production for BBC Wales assembles a stellar cast from locations across the globe - Cardiff, Laugharne, New York, London and Los Angeles. They include Sir Tom Jones, Bryn Terfel, Charlotte Church, Ioan Gruffudd, Jonathan Pryce, Sian Phillips and Katherine Jenkins. Together they offer a joyful interpretation of UNDER MILK WOOD, each playing their parts direct to camera while delivering their lines with due recognition of the piece's verbal pyrotechnics. They prove beyond doubt just what a brilliant writer/poet Thomas was, possessed of the unique ability to communicate the sound as well as the sense of words, putting them together in memorable combinations.

Stylistically speaking, Broughton's production makes considerable use of dissolves, creating a dreamlike world that emphasizes the connection between life and death inherent in Thomas' piece. There is no great divide between the two: characters speak to us from the dead just as the poet himself speaks to viewers, even though it is sixty-plus years since his death at the premature age of thirty- nine. The locations are kept deliberately unspecified - although we are aware that the actors have been filmed in different parts of the globe. This is once again a deliberate strategy Broughton employs to emphasize how the piece speaks to everyone across time and space.

UNDER MILK WOOD describes a day in the life of the fictional town of Llareggub (one of Thomas' favorite jokes, as the name is actually the epithet "Bugger all" spelled backwards). Sometimes the actors in Broughton's production get the pronunciation wrong (using the BBC's less suggestive amendment "Llareggyb" instead), but this oversight does not detract from the overall effect of the production which celebrates Thomas' Welshness; he never lost his feeling for the country that nurtured him, as can be seen through his language.

Broughton's production is a memorable celebration of the work of a great poet, and deserves a wider release. I do hope that BBC Wales choose to release it on DVD or for digital download as soon as possible.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 May 2014 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Wales

Technical Specs

Runtime:

59 min

Color:

Color