Episode 1 Ugly Lovely Swansea: A Poet On the Estate

"Do not go gentle unto that good night..."

I think he's dead.

He's buried. And should be left alone to lie in peace.

Dylan Thomas, world-famous Welsh poet, playwright

and legendary bon viveur, would have been 100 years old this year.

But so what? Who actually cares

about celebrating the long-gone life of another dead, white poet?

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Well, actually, this living, breathing,

celebrated black poet does.

I have always thought of him as the Bob Marley of Wales.

Benjamin Zephaniah has come to Swansea, the ugly,

lovely town of Dylan Thomas's birth on a mission improbable.

I think Dylan Thomas has been hijacked,

and I want to give him back to the people.

But do the people want him back?

-Dylan Thomas.

-Dylan Thomas?

It's not looking good.

So, can he really recruit an army of converts from one of Swansea's

toughest estates

and reclaim Dylan Thomas as the people's poet of Wales?

In a house not right in the head.

Oh, mush.

To begin near the beginning.

And to end with their own performance of their own version

-of Dylan Thomas.

-Here we go.

-Poets on the Hill!

Well, it's not going to be easy.

-SHE RAPS:

-Home comes Dorian, knapsack on his back.

Hiya, mam, dirty grundies in my sack.

You're allowed to be emotional - this is about expressing yourself

-and telling your story.

-Yeah.

-It's not show business, it's serious.

And with only six weeks to get their performance to the stage,

will the Poets on the Hill be ready to break a leg?

The Poets on the Hill performance of Lovely Ugly.

Or hearts?

Just nail it to the fence.

"To begin at the beginning.

"I was born in a large Welsh town at the beginning of the Great War,

"an ugly, lovely town, or so it was and is to me.

"Crawling, sprawling..."

Ugly, lovely Swansea. January 2014.

100 years after the birth of its most famous, controversial,

eccentric, bombastic, but frequently brilliant son.

Wales and the world are preparing to celebrate the great

sage of Swansea's centenary.

But what does Dylan Thomas mean to the men,

women and children living and loving in today's ugly, lovely city?

Does his poetry still trip from every Swansea lip?

Or is he reduced to scrawls on gourmet pub walls?

Well, this man is here to find out.

This poetry is like a rhythm that dropped.

The tongue brings a rhythm that shoots like a shot.

This poetry is designed for ranting, dance hall style, big mouth chanting.

Benjamin Zephaniah, internationally renowned poet, author,

playwright and social radical.

No matter if you're black or if you are white, no apartheid,

no apartheid, no apartheid.

For the last 35 years, he has been using the spoken word to awaken...

Well, I might be black My people were once slaves

But time comes on and love comes in So no, you must be here...

..provoke...

The ghetto people The best that you can find

Don't let the media confuse you and make you change your mind...

..and inspire people.

What is more important to me

is that it inspires other people to get up and say what they want to say.

And in 2014, Benjamin has come to Swansea on a simple

but improbable mission,

to inspire everyday Swansea people to write and perform their own

tributes to Dylan Thomas's most famous work, Under Milk Wood.

But why?

I think Dylan Thomas has been hijacked by a kind of literary

elite, and I want to give him back to the people.

I have always thought of him as the Bob Marley of Wales.

"Crawling, sprawling by a long and splendid curving shore..."

He uses words, everyday words, that everyone can understand.

"Threw stones into the sea for the barking outcast dogs... "

So, he is somebody who speaks from a kind of grassroots level.

"Made castles and forts and harbours and racetracks in the sand

"This sea town was my world... "

I don't want to be an outsider coming in and saying,

"You should know what's good for you."

I want to say, "I am coming from the same place as you and I got turned

"on by him, and we can claim him back, make him ours, make him yours."

# This is my message to you-hoo-hoo... #

Well, Dylan Thomas might turn Benjamin on,

but what about the people of Swansea?

To begin at the beginning.

In order to find out,

Benjamin heads down to the Liberty Stadium, home of Swansea City

Football Club, whose motto is one of Thomas's most famous lines.

Do not go gentle.

-Dylan Thomas.

-OK.

-Great local poet, as you know.

-Yes.

-How much do you know about him?

-Not a lot.

-Not a lot.

-Dylan Thomas.

-Dylan Thomas?

I just know that he is a well-known playwright, a writer,

a naughty man, very naughty man.

Can you decipher that?

Yeah, do not go gentle, Swans. I do, yeah.

-Can you quote any Dylan Thomas poetry?

-No.

-Can you quote any?

-No.

-Can you quote any Dylan Thomas?

-Go on, you can do it.

Only "Swansea is a lovely, ugly town."

You can't quote any of his poetry?

That puts us on the spot, no, I'm sorry.

Brilliant, fabulous! Can't buy it!

FOOTBALL CROWD ROARING

They are not going gentle.

It is a scoreless draw at the football, so Benjamin heads to

Swansea's other city temple, the market, in hope of a better results.

-The great, wonderful Dylan Thomas. Can you quote any of his poetry?

-No.

-No.

-No.

-No?

The lady on the bacon stall, have you spoken to her?

We are told you know so much about Dylan Thomas.

You must be joking. Whoever told you that is telling you a fib.

The whole market says you are an expert on Dylan Thomas.

I tell you what, your nose is growing.

If you were related to Pinocchio, it would be out here by now.

Go on, you must be able to quote us a Dylan Thomas line.

No.

I wasn't much of a fan of his music.

No, that was Bob Dylan.

Well, after talking to the people,

I am a little bit nervous about this project,

because...everybody seems to know the name,

and so many people, the first thing they said was "drink".

So that is a little bit depressing. It's not looking good.

Half a day into his crusade and Benjamin's dreams

of an Under Milk Wood inspired people's performance

might have already run aground.

But Under Milk Wood was famously set

in the fictional community of Llareggub,

so perhaps what Benjamin needs is a real-life Swansea community.

My old friend Captain Cat.

Full of the colour, the comedy and the characters of Llareggub.

Which is why Benjamin's next port of call is a world

away from the art and artifice of Swansea's catamaran bobbing marina.

Townhill is the much maligned estate that looks down,

not only on the ugly, lovely city, but is also within spitting

distance of the house where Dylan Thomas was born.

And Townhill and Thomas have previous.

As a boy, Thomas hated the scabby-kneed Townhill kids,

who mocked his grammar school pretentions.

But he grew to love the rich,

earthy comic characters that Townhill produced,

recognisable in the No-good Boyos, Polly Garters and Captain Cats that populate the work that

Benjamin wants to recreate - Under Milk Wood.

And coincidentally, this year,

Townhill is also celebrating its 100th birthday.

And in very different ways, its life has been as troubled,

colourful and controversial as Dylan's.

Not so long ago, Townhill was notorious as the car crime capital of Europe,

and developed a reputation as a place where no-one would want

to visit, let alone live.

But these are different times.

The people here are moving on from that past.

The colourful characters are still here, but just how is

Benjamin going to persuade them that putting on a performance inspired

by a dead bloke from down the road has any relevance to their lives?

I have just arrived.

I have no real gameplan,

I just want to hang out with them and see where it takes us.

I want to get people turned onto Dylan Thomas and his poetry.

Benjamin climbs the hill to meet Ricky.

Townhill born and Townhill bred.

Now a respected community worker, but once a No-good Boyo himself.

-Hi!

-Morning.

-Are you Ricky?

-Yes.

-I hope so. Are you well?

-Yeah.

-Very, very good. So this is Townhill?

-I'm going to show you around.

Very good. You've lived here most of your life.

I've lived here for 34 years.

-It's a great community.

-You must've seen it change over the years.

Massively, it's changed, massively, over the years.

From when I was a kid, it was the joyriding capital of Britain.

This is rather strange, barriers right in the middle of the road.

These barriers were put in place 20 years ago.

It was that bad they had to put barriers like this?

Yes, they were put in place to stop the joyriders.

Let's hope they soon get taken away.

A long time ago, when that sort of bad stuff was going on,

what side of the fence where you on?

I was a bit of a boy, growing up.

I was never into joyriding, because I never agreed

with it, to be honest, but I used to have little fights here and there.

What changed for you?

I was 18 years of age and it was either one way or another way,

it was either the biggest B and B in Swansea or on the right route

-and I chose the right route.

-I have a similar story.

I can remember a night, I can remember a night

when I lay in bed and I thought, "I don't want any more of this."

I saw a couple of my friends die,

a couple of them get long prison sentences

and I just literally got out of bed that day and changed my life.

In one sense, I can understand something that

a lot of people here might have started with.

In my case, I had run-ins with the law, problems at home, and not so

long ago, people were saying to me, "Lock him up and throw away the key."

Whilst Benjamin found salvation in poetry, here on Townhill,

it's pugilism that keeps the youth on the straight and narrow.

The way we work is to keep them out of court and keep them out of prison.

When somebody can box, it puts a bit of character in them

and not very often you get a boxer turning into a bully.

-It's about self-control.

-Yes, discipline.

And that's what a lot of the kids haven't had, is discipline.

And they get discipline here.

I'm a southpaw.

What do you think of the one and only, the great Dylan Thomas?

I think he's dead. He is buried and he should left to lie in peace.

But Bob Marley is dead, but his music lives on,

his words live on and inspire millions of people.

He don't inspire me. I'm not interested in the past.

Great poetry and great music lives on.

When Muhammad Ali is dead, people will still talk about him.

People will be talking about me when I am dead.

You're contradicting yourself now!

But they won't be saying very nice things!

When you're dead, I think you should be left to rest, end of story.

I'm not going to argue with you, you're a boxing instructor!

If Benjamin can't interest the adults,

maybe he can get somewhere with the kids.

The local comp is called the Dylan Thomas Community School.

-Surely they know who he is here.

-How much do you know about Dylan Thomas?

-A little bit, but not loads.

-But not loads.

-He's old.

-He's dead, by the way.

-He died in a pub.

-He wrote Under Milk Wood.

-Yes.

Over to you, Simon.

Every school has their challenges. What are the challenges here?

I suppose the biggest challenge we have is helping

youngsters have the confidence to see just how capable they are.

Even the brighter ones don't often see themselves as being that.

And part of it is saying, there are opportunities out there

and you should go and grab those opportunities.

Last port of call on Benjamin's whistle-stop tour is

the Phoenix Centre, built on the grounds where 20 years ago,

joyriders regularly burnt out their stolen cars.

-Mike, Benjamin.

-Hello! Nice to meet you.

The man who runs the centre, Mike Durke, loves the area,

but doesn't underestimate the challenge.

I know it is a bit of a cliche, but is there a community spirit here?

Massively so. Fantastic. Everybody knows everybody.

We've got a lot of issues to do with drink and drugs, the unemployment

level is double the Swansea average, you know, so we've got these issues.

There are issues to do with aspiration and ambition.

You know, if your mum is involved in drugs and your dad is

an alcoholic, you know, you're not having a very positive start.

We've got those issues, but we've got people,

and that is the biggest resource we've got.

Number 11.

Has anybody here got time for poetry?

No, people are more concerned about earning some money,

getting a job and feeding the kids

than they are about reading Dylan Thomas poetry.

I'm going to try and turn some of the local people on to Dylan Thomas

and poetry generally.

Do you think I'm going to have a hard job?

No, because you're Benjamin Zephaniah.

BENJAMIN LAUGHS

That's going to help, innit?

A real big library.

So if Benjamin's going to succeed,

he can't rely on Townhill having a passion for poetry.

Instead, he needs to tap into their community spirit.

But does the Hill have one?

Benjamin's going to put it to the test

by putting on a free performance of Dylan's work, and his own,

in the West End.

No, not that one, but Townhill's very own premier night spot,

the West End Social Club.

Usually home to bingo, discos and drag acts

and certainly not poncey poetry.

But having attracted a full house,

if Benjamin now fails to win them over,

his mission will end tonight.

Everything rests on the next few minutes on stage.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Evening, ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the West End Sports and Social Club.

He is a dub poet, a vegan, an actor,

a self-confessed troublemaker.

He's also a dyslexic former criminal

who left school at 13.

He is a man who turned down an OBE.

CHEERING

Benjamin Zephaniah.

APPLAUSE

What a welcome.

This is a very, very serious mission.

One of the greatest creative minds came from this city.

And, I have to tell you - I'm going to be really honest now,

and some people may not like me for saying this, but it's the truth -

sometimes, I think he's not really appreciated here.

I want to try and do my bit,

get people here to appreciate his importance

AND to get you guys writing your own poetry and expressing yourself.

I see thousands of muscular black men on Hampstead Heath

walking their poodles

And hundreds of black and Asian female Formula 1 drivers

Racing around Birmingham in pursuit of a truly British way of life.

I have a dream

That one day from all the churches of this land

we will hear the sound of that great old spiritual

"Here we go, here we go, here we go."

"Oggy, oggy, oggy, oi, oi, oi!"

APPLAUSE

All of you, at some point in your life, will find poetry useful,

and somebody introduced me to a poem by Dylan Thomas.

It was his most famous poem, Do Not Go Gentle.

I remember, at the time...

I just thought, "What a beautiful, powerful piece of writing."

In the last few days, this poem has meant even more to me,

because I lost my father, and he did not go gentle.

I'm going to perform the poem now.

And I must tell you, this is the first time I've ever really

stood in front of an audience and performed anybody else's poem.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave against the close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage...

Rage...

..against the dying of the light.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

At the end of an amazing and emotional night down the West End,

local Townhill resident and character Christopher Dolphin,

aka Dolly, speaks for the Hill

when he moves a vote of thanks for their famous guest.

Thank you, Benjamin - absolute legend. Awesome poetry.

He was a poet and he didn't know it. What a nice guy.

Great, fantastic turnout, guys. Absolutely amazing.

Oh, here we are, here's a mouth in the corner - yeah, yeah...

That's the way, that's the way.

Kick a man when he's down and he was due a win.

But...no, in fairness, basically, great personality, guys.

Like I say, give yourselves a round of applause,

cos you've all been amazing.

That's what we want...

Born and bred, Townhill lads, this is what we're about, right?

And Dolly's not the only one who's got the Benjamin bug.

I've listened to poetry before,

and...I've never heard something more inspirational than that.

I really just want to go home now and just write some raps.

-Come on - cool.

-Thanks so much.

-All right. Take care.

When he spoke, I got shivers,

like...when you feel excited about something,

them kind of shivers.

It was so passionate, the way he talked about stuff,

the way he was engaged into what he was saying.

That was fantastic.

I lost my dad two years ago,

and hearing him recite "Do not go gentle into that good night",

um...was difficult and wonderful.

I think I've just realised that you recite poems in your own voice,

and not in the voice you've heard it recited a hundred times before.

It went good as a gig.

Um...there was a lot of enthusiasm here.

I just want them to take that enthusiasm further.

It's the day after the incredible night before on Townhill.

Benjamin has invited anyone

who wants to be part of this mission improbable

to come to a very different sort of audition.

A unique "Swansea's Got Talent."

And he's enlisted the support

of a local poet, writer and theatre director

to give him an expert reality check.

The challenge to the people is to come and tell their stories

in any way they choose.

Benjamin's understandably nervous.

The whole project hangs on the amount of people that come tonight.

The atmosphere that was in the room last night, you know,

I hope they went to bed with that atmosphere,

they woke up with it, that enthusiasm

and that it'll just carry on.

But come audition time, will anyone turn up?

There are already some promising signs,

and first through the door is a familiar face - Dolly.

It was uncanny to see you down the football.

-Oh, yeah.

-I honestly thought,

"Oh, this is Swan's new player."

LAUGHTER

Transfer window. I was thinking...

There's a lot of speculation, a lot of talk, blah-blah-blah.

"Oh, my God, Benjamin!" It's mental!

I was going to the boys, "This is Swan's new striker."

-It was funny, that.

-Brilliant.

-I'm good, but I'm not that good.

LAUGHTER

-You've got an awesome touch.

-Take care.

-Hello!

-Hello.

-Oh, hello.

-Hello.

-We remember you.

-Ha-ha!

I just went home and I thought,

"Well, I've got so many ideas in my head,

"I've got to write them down."

-I wrote a poem.

-Wow.

The hundred steps - where do we start?

Probably from the bottom, and end with a thumping heart.

Step one, let's go, ascend.

But hold on - where does it end?

I wrote about the hundred steps,

and I thought, well, it's such a pain, walking up them.

I might as well put it into words.

Will I go on for ever and ever?

Or will I end up with a successful endeavour?

-Oh, fantastic!

-Well done.

-Well done. Brilliant.

-Hello!

-And people of all ages and talents are continuing to arrive.

-Hello, what's your name?

-Keira Marshall.

-Keira.

-And how old are you, Keira?

-I'm 15, nearly 16.

-15 - fab.

I'm going to play and sing a song. I was going to do one I wrote.

Perfect. Let's do it.

SLOW ACOUSTIC GUITAR MELODY

# I'm basically 15

# But him, he would say

# "Girl, you're only 14

# "Got your whole little life to do these things... #

My name is Charlene. I'm 26.

I've got five children

and I'm not having any more.

LAUGHTER

Definitely not.

-You've come here and you're speaking about yourself...

-Yeah.

-..to us.

-Could you do it on stage?

-I don't mind.

If it helps somebody out there somewhere, then fair enough, innit?

-That's the attitude.

-Yeah.

# Funny how little words mean

# When they're a little too late. #

-That's...very beautiful.

-Thank you.

-Is that English? Can you say that?

-You can.

-You can, can't you?

-And you've got a lovely voice.

-It's quite bizarre when you walk in,

the guitar's almost bigger than you.

-Thank you.

-Bye.

I'm a bit nervous now, don't get me wrong.

I'm probably not at my best today because I am hung-over, but...

I've got hundreds of stories to tell.

You could write one out and formulate one, or...

Well, I'd be able to...

-I'm dyslexic. I can read...

-Yes.

..But I can't spell stuff I can read, so...

I could read off something,

but I couldn't write it down, if that makes sense.

-Don't let dyslexia hold you back. I'm a poet.

-Yeah.

I'm a professor of literature and I'm very dyslexic.

It's weird, innit?

Let me tell you, brother, dyslexia has nothing to do with your ideas

or the level of your intelligence.

-Don't let that hold you back.

-Yeah.

-We're going to give you something to do.

-Top man.

-Brilliant.

-Hello.

-What's your name?

-I'm Zoe.

I had two young children,

personal things happened with family bereavements

and I stopped writing.

In the last six months or so,

I've started trying to do it again, and from last night,

it did inspire me further to...yeah...

I did go home and I did write a couple of things on my phone,

which is really terrible, I'm betraying the pen.

When I went home last night, from your performance,

I actually wrote some stuff on my phone.

That's what we want, it's what the performance is for,

-to inspire people.

-I've had two young children

and I've been bereaved twice in the last four years,

so my writing stopped.

-TEARFULLY:

-Sorry, I didn't really expect this.

-No, no.

-My writing stopped, I just...

-Right.

Confidence, and...grief and stuff.

-Sorry, I really didn't expect this, sorry.

-It's all right.

I feel terrible, that's shaming!

Oh! Sorry.

I want to hug you, too!

-We didn't mean to upset you.

-I didn't even expect it!

-Really sorry.

-Don't worry.

-So embarrassing.

-Don't worry.

-Yeah...

-That's what writing's about.

Sometimes, you get emotional. That's the thing with what we do.

You're allowed to be emotional.

This is not coming on, singing a pop song,

-getting off and collecting the cheque outside.

-Yeah.

This is about expressing yourself and telling your story.

-Ah, you're coming in together.

-Hello, there.

And the oldest person to come to the audition, 81-year-old Josephine,

is to give everyone the biggest surprise.

-My son's a rapper.

-Mm-hm.

And one day, I thought,

"Oh...I wonder if I can do a little bit of rapping?"

So I did.

-You wrote the lyrics yourself?

-Oh, yes, because it's true.

Can we hear it? OK - four-beat intro? What type of speed?

I don't know, darling, I don't understand.

Just put me into a bit beat.

I'll give you four beat...

HE BEATBOXES

# Home comes Dorian, knapsack on his back

# "Hiya, Mam, dirty grundies in my sack"

# "Put them in the sink and you give them a twirl

# "I'm going out tonight to find me a girl"

# Comes home late, says "I didn't strike lucky"

# "Not to worry, Mam, I've brought us home a curry"

# Early next morning, there's a pong in the loo

# "Sorry, Mam, I've done a stinky poo"

# "Not to worry, son, that's all right

# "Because you are the diamond in my life"

# All you mums out there, darling little Billy

# Things get to change when they get an active willy... #

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

A long and somewhat unexpected night,

but for Benjamin, mission improbable is starting to feel almost possible.

LAUGHTER

I remember, when I spoke about this a couple of days ago,

I thought, "I don't know where it's going to go.

"It could all fall flat."

And we're not sitting here, going, "Nobody turned up, nobody turned up!

"Nobody loves us."

Such a diverse group of people,

and...we've probably unearthed more talent

than we thought we were going to unearth,

more stories than we thought we were going to unearth.

-We've got a five-year-old poet...

-Five, wasn't he?

Up to 81, 82 - Josephine, our rapping grandmother.

What struck me is everybody really wants to be involved.

Hey, look, they've showed us what they can do.

Now we've got to do what we can do.

-LAUGHING:

-Fantastic.

Good luck - see you, bye!

Bye!

Next time, Benjamin's 21st century Under Milk Wood is still on track

and the first challenge is to get his army to get to know

the work of Dylan Thomas...

A Child's Christmas in Wales.

I'm a bit of a Dylan Thomas virgin, to be quite honest.

If my mates knew I had a day off, I went to the library,

"All right? Can I have four books of Dylan Thomas, please?

"I'm going sit in my van and recite Dylan Thomas."

"Are you serious? Are you serious?"

..and then, to encourage them to connect to their own stories...

I didn't think he was that young dying,

to be honest with you.

It's a waste, isn't it? I know what it's like to lose people

and it's just a cruel world we live in.

..and finally, to take the stage at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Theatre.

Julia - Townhill's answer to Carol Vorderman.

# Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo, boo! #