In the year 2000 my wife gave me the mother and father of all birthday presents:
L’etape du Tour, a stage of the Tour de France for amateur cyclists. It was a memorable event which gave me the privilege of meeting one of Wales’ greatest cycling champions, Steve Edwards, and which BBC Wales XL series recorded for posterity in a 30’ Documentary called ‘The Mountain’.
This led to a BBC Wales commission ‘KING OF THE MOUNTAINS’ based on this experience and that of my father’s who was a legendary valley cyclist with one arm. Subsequently, I wrote another play for BBC Radio 4, which summed up the experience ‘Wouldn’t it be better if he died in the end’ directed by Alison Hindell.
TORCHBEARERS was born out of a bike ride over LLanwonno mountain, past the site where Stanley Baker’s ashes were scattered and where legend has it, part of the film ZULU was shot. Here, the story of a young welsh boy and a zulu girl meeting and being torn apart by apartheid, broke cover and developed into a vast production for two hundred performers fro, Wales and South Africa.