What lies beneath
The follow-up to Welsh drama Y Golau (The Light in the Hall) revisits the same community for a new mystery. Stars Nia Roberts, Mark Lewis-Jones and Robert Glenister tell DQ about the complex relationships at the heart of Dŵr (Still Waters) and filming in English and Welsh.
Welsh drama Y Golau (The Light in the Hall) first transported viewers to the town of Llanemlyn in 2022, telling the story of a journalist who returns home to investigate the truth behind the murder of her friend, just as her supposed killer is set to be released.
Filmed in both Welsh and English, the six-part psychological thriller debuted in Welsh on S4C before the English version was picked up by Channel 4 in the UK and Sundance Now for North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Now a follow-up has launched, Y Golau: Dŵr (The Light in the Hall: Still Waters), which returns to Llanemlyn but follows a fresh mystery involving a new group of characters, except one – Siân Reese-Williams’s aspiring journalist Caryl, who was also seen in the first season.
When a controversial redevelopment plan to expand the reservoir reignites old tensions, the story captivates Caryl, who becomes entangled in a complex web of personal betrayal, familial secrets and dark mysteries, which raise doubts about the imprisonment of Rhys Owen for the murder of his cousin Llŷr during a protest against the expansion in 1995.
Mark Lewis-Jones plays Rhys, who returns to town for the first time since leaving prison to care for his father; Nia Roberts is Eve Davies, who has personal connections to both Rhys and Llŷr; and Robert Glenister plays Eve’s father Robert Davies, who is leading plans to redevelop the reservoir, despite his granddaughter Mabli (Maeve Courtier-Lilley) being among the leading protesters.
A Triongl, Long Story TV and APC production for S4C, made in collaboration with AMC+ and Channel 4, the Welsh version of Still Waters debuted last night on S4C. All six episodes are available on streamer S4C Clic and with English subtitles on BBC iPlayer.
With connections to both the historic murder and the quarry expansion, Eve finds herself in the middle of numerous strands of the story, while she is also having an affair with Hari Breckon (Tom Rhys Harries), Mabli’s best friend.
“She was also very heavily involved in making sure Rhys Owen was banged up for as long as he was, so as our story begins as he’s leaving prison, the implications of that for Eve are massive,” Roberts tells DQ. “She’s terrified that he might blow her cover. And also, there’s the small thing that she’s not quite sure who the father of her child is. She’s terrified she’s going to lose her daughter.”
Roberts found a personal connection to the story in its political aspect, which relates to the procurement of land at the expense of local residents and communities that are moved aside to make way for the reservoir expansion.
One real-life example is the flooding of the Trywweryn valley to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir in 1965 at the expense of the community of Capel Celyn. Roberts’ own grandmother lost her home on Epynt during the Second World War when it was acquired for the war effort.
“So it is a story we’re really familiar with,” she says. “Anyone in my generation has uncles and aunts who probably spent a couple of nights in prison over land. It is something we feel very passionate about. To tell a story along those themes, it’s very easy to tap into that emotionally as actors, if you’re Welsh.”
She could also relate to Eve’s desire to protect her daughter, being a mother herself, and understands the lengths to which people might go to protect their community.
“Sometimes I find it hard to understand why she behaves in the way she does as the story unfolds,” she says. But the actor “loves” that she could play a character involved in a romantic relationship with a younger man.
“More and more, we’re seeing these sort of middle-aged, complex women on screen, and they are having affairs with younger men,” says Roberts, who previously portrayed a character in a similar situation in Yr Amgueddfa (The Museum). “Finally, we’re seeing women like that on screen, and it’s really important to see women having fun and still enjoying sex in midlife, because these women exist, so I’m more than happy to play them.”
Early in the series, Lewis-Jones is a quiet, observant presence in Llanemlyn as Rhys reacquaints himself with his hometown – and a few familiar faces who are less than happy to see he has returned. To play the character, the actor tried to imagine what it would be like to have been in prison for so long and how he might behave in society after being released.
“He is a kind of loner, but we don’t really know how he would have been as an adult if he hadn’t been in jail, so we have to just deal with what we have,” he says. “There’s this depth to him – there are so many layers to Rhys – from his relationship with his ex and his dad and also the big thing that hangs over it – has there been a miscarriage of justice? That’s the question we try to resolve over the six hours.”
Rhys builds an “interesting and quite complex” friendship with Caryl, who wades deeper into the background of Rhys’s conviction, which some people aren’t too happy about. And there are further complications relating to his past with Eve – and the fact he might be Mabli’s father.
“I always think this drama is like peeling an onion. Each episode, you peel a bit more off and reveal more about what the history was, how people feel, who knows what and who’s been keeping secrets for 20 years,” Lewis-Jones says. “Among it all is this man who has spent most of his life either in jail or on licence.”
Over the six episodes, questions are raised about the legitimacy of Rhys’s conviction for Llŷr’s murder, while his combustible relationship with his dad reaches new lows. “He’s allowed back into this community to look after his dad, so they have to spend a lot of time together. They really rub each other up the wrong way, and they don’t get on very well,” he adds. “As we discover, there’s a lot of history between them. That was a lot of fun to play. We’ll see how people react to it. But I loved doing it. The first series got a good response and it’s nice we can revisit the same community through the lens of different characters.”
Filming the series back-to-back in English and Welsh meant Roberts and Lewis-Jones were effectively filming 12 hours of drama, but it’s a process they are both used to. They previously worked together on 1999 feature film Solomon & Gaenor – the Welsh version was nominated for an Academy Award – and have since acted in TV series such as Steeltown Murders, Un Bore Mercher (Keeping Faith) and Craith (Hidden).
“Everyone has a different approach, but my approach is that you have to learn both versions really well, because language changes everything,” Roberts says. “It changes your character, the whole feel of something. When I’m speaking Welsh, I feel like a different person to when I’m speaking English.”
Lewis-Jones agrees that speaking a different language can significantly change a performance, despite the character being the same. “It is very different. It’s weird, isn’t it? You’re not just doing two languages; you’re almost playing two characters, because of the language difference,” he says. “It’s a lot more learning, but we’re used to it now and it happens really quickly.”
Roberts particularly loves the family conversations Eve has with her father and her daughter, as they showcase the dynamics of a typically bilingual family. Such scenes see Roberts speaking English with Glenister before switching to Welsh with Courtier-Lilley.
“That’s how we live bilingually. If you live a bilingual life, that’s how it is,” she says. “That can feel really natural when you get to do both in one scene.”
In Still Waters, Glenister plays the non-Welsh-speaking Robert, which means all his scenes were shot in English. Despite that, “I am half Welsh actually, because my mum’s Welsh. She lives down outside Swansea,” he says. As a result, he is very familiar with Wales, even if he isn’t a Welsh speaker.
“By and large, everybody was doing the English version in the scenes I was in. But I really enjoyed it,” he says. “I’ve never been so cold in my life back in October and November [when filming took place], but it was great. Ostensibly, it’s a thriller, but there is an environmental aspect to it, which is quite prevalent at the moment and quite talked about.”
His lack of Welsh marks Robert as an outsider, as do his attempts to move people from their homes as the planned reservoir expansion pushes forward. “He is well-intentioned. His approaches are not the most sensitive necessarily but, ultimately, he’s got integrity and he’s aware of the community, and is aware of how potentially this will affect the community,” Glenister says. “But he sees it in the long term, that the benefits will actually benefit everybody, but it might not happen immediately, and it’s difficult to convince people of that. He’s not necessarily a bad man. But you don’t really know, because it’s quite ambiguous, intentionally.”
Noting that Still Waters isn’t the sort of project that comes his way very often, Glenister says he was attracted by the drama’s balance of thriller and its environmental storyline, with the latter elevating the ‘whodunnit’ element that drives the series.
“That appealed to me a lot, and also the character and his relationship and being the outsider within a very close community,” he says. “Plus the fact it was down in Wales. We were in Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, which is very beautiful. When we filmed down in the reservoir, it was extraordinary because it was autumn and it was like the fall in Canada.”
He adds: “We are all vulnerable in terms of climate change. There are people who deny it, but there is stuff going on. That’s touched on in the show. Hopefully, that element of it will be as compelling as the thriller drama element of it.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Hinterland: A Welsh noir set in Aberystwyth, Wales, where troubled DCI Tom Mathias investigates complex murders while grappling with his past.
The Accident: A Welsh community devastated by tragedy confronts difficult truths amid a search for justice.
Bang: This bilingual Welsh crime drama explores family dynamics and violence after a young man comes into possession of a gun in a close-knit community.
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tagged in: APC, Dŵr, Long Story TV, Mark Lewis Jones, Nia Roberts, Robert Glenister, S4C, Still Waters, The Light in the Hall, Triongl, Welsh drama Y Golau