Sian Phillips Coming Home

Sian Phillips - the glamorous Welsh actress of stage and screen.

Her high-profile film and theatre roles

have made her one of Hollywood's most-respected names.

She starred with former husband Peter O'Toole in many films,

but she's much-loved for the unforgettable performance

as the scheming Livia in I, Claudius.

Travelling to her birthplace

for the first time in many years,

Sian Phillips is coming home.

On this journey, Sian will learn of her family's involvement

at the Battle of Waterloo...

How extraordinary!

I'm pole-axed.

I can't tell you how astonished I am.

..finds closure to a question that has plagued her for decades...

No!

Yes.

Which has a long association with your family, of course.

Yes...

..and Sian feels the nerves as she performs a reading

at the National Eisteddfod

for the first time in almost 70 years.

APPLAUSE

Sian now lives in London's cosmopolitan East End -

a far cry from her beginnings in rural Welsh-speaking Carmarthenshire.

As a teenager she headed for the bright lights of London

to pursue a career in stage acting.

But Sian has never forgotten her roots.

I realised that I wasn't going to be able to stay in this wonderful place

when I grew up a bit, and I...

I was heartbroken.

I broke my heart quietly and secretly and...and...slowly.

Because I knew I was going to have to leave,

so I really...

I really appreciated

all of my childhood,

and all the places in Pontardawe, Brynamman, Cilmaengwyn...

all those villages. I just loved the whole neighbourhood.

Genealogist Mike Churchill-Jones has been invited to Sian's home

on Brick Lane.

Sian already knows much about her mother's family history,

so Mike is here to find out where his research should begin.

Come on in.

Thank you. Thanks very much.

This was, I think, maybe my first appearance.

I would have been about four

and it was a play at school called Mair A'r Wyau,

I think my mother may have written it - Mair And The Eggs -

and it was a little, erm...

That was my Welsh costume, of course, for St David's Day.

-Terribly cute, weren't you?

-Yes!

SHE LAUGHS

-In your little Welsh costume.

-Yes, in my Welsh costume.

I was very, very proud that.

It got lengthened and lengthened and lengthened as I got older.

Lovely.

-That is lovely.

-Sweet.

Yeah.

There's one family photograph Sian always keeps close,

but someone she knows very little about.

I always keep that with me.

You know, wherever...

In my drawing room, wherever I live.

I just love the look of Sali, we think, maybe.

Sali Wernwgan?

Sali Wernwgan. Yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

She looks great.

But this elderly women clutching a Welsh Bible

is a mystery to Sian.

Sali Wernwgan will be Mike's starting point

for his search into Sian's ancestry.

I'll get on with the research.

Oh, well, I'd be very grateful, actually.

Well, I hope I'll be very grateful. You never know, do you?

-We'll meet up again in a couple of weeks in South Wales.

-Yes.

-Hopefully, I'll have plenty to tell you.

-Well, oh, gosh...

SHE LAUGHS

I do feel a bit apprehensive, but mostly I'm looking forward to it.

I don't mind what it is, really.

I'd just like to know more. I would like to.

-I'll see what I can do.

-OK. Thank you.

A few weeks have gone by and Sian is travelling home to Carmarthenshire

for the first time in many years.

And she is still intrigued about this mystery woman with that unusual name.

It's such a great photograph.

And I've got it where I see it every day, at home.

In a frame. And people say, "Where is it? What is it, exactly?"

"Where does she live? Where was she?"

And I can never tell them.

But I say, "Well, it's Sali."

And it's supposed to be Sali... S-A-L-I...Wernwgan.

And "Wernwgan" is obviously a farm, or a little place...

I just don't know.

But I'd like to know.

Sian is now in the village of Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen,

where she and generations of her family lived.

I think, for me to get the full flavour,

I'd have to come on a very small, rattly bus.

SHE CHUCKLES

Sian's first stop is Carmel Chapel,

a place very close to her heart.

-Sian.

-Hello!

She's arranged to meet here with Mike Churchill-Jones

for the reading of her family tree,

and it's been over 70 years

since she last entered this chapel.

Well... Oh, my goodness.

Oh, it's...

It's amazing.

-Oh...

-What's it like being back here?

It's wonderful.

My earliest memories as a child are of the sort of honey-coloured varnish on the...

on the seats, and the smell of the polish they use.

I think everyone...

There must've been a huge job-lot of polish, I think, in South Wales,

because all chapels smelled of... beeswax, I suppose.

Wonderfully.

How different does it strike you?

It doesn't strike me as different, at all.

This is what I remember.

And these are the places I first performed in

when I was a child, of course.

I remember sitting waiting, on a Saturday, especially,

in chapels all around me here - and this one, too, probably -

to go up into the...erm...

Not into the pulpit, necessarily,

but into the Sedd Fawr - the Big Seat -

where there would be a dais and one would perform from there.

On a Saturday. Compete.

-Well, I've done a family tree for you.

-OK.

Would you like to come down the front and I'll do a reading for you?

Yes, I'd love to.

Sian has many unanswered questions about her genealogy,

and Mike can make a start on filling in the many blanks of her ancestry.

-This is what we have come up with.

-Oh, goodness!

Wow!

Sian can see she has deep Carmarthenshire roots

on both sides of the family.

And Glamorganshire roots, dating back to the 1600s.

Mike begins with Sian's great-great-grandfather,

one Thomas Thomas.

-Thomas started his working life as a coal miner...

-Yeah.

-..but then he worked in the tin works.

-Yes.

-..and he became a pickler.

-What is that? What's a pickler?

-I don't know.

-You don't know what it is!

SHE LAUGHS

So Thomas worked in the tin works, as did many of his children,

-and some of his siblings.

-Yes.

But Sian is here to learn more about the mystery woman in the photograph -

Sali Wernwgan.

Mike can reveal that her name began as Sarah Jones,

and that Sali was often used as a family nickname for Sarah.

-Sarah Jones...

-Yeah.

..is the lady you know

as Sali Wernwgan.

-No!

-Yeah.

-Oh, my goodness.

So...

I see.

Oh, so she was Daniel's mother?

She's your great-grandmother.

So, she is... She IS my great-grandmother?

I was never quite sure. I used to say, "This is my great-grandmother."

I was hoping. Oh, wonderful.

This is where the Wernwgan comes in.

-Oh, I see.

-The Wernwgan farm. Belonged to this man.

So, where is Gwy... Oh, it's Gwynfe!

It's Gwynfe in Llangadock.

Which is lovely. I love Gwynfe.

I didn't realise that Wernwgan was in Gwynfe.

Oh, wonderful.

Later, Sian will be visiting the farm that bore this Wernwgan name.

Thank you very much.

-Terrific. Thank you.

-Good.

Sali's father was Thomas Jones,

who lived during the Napoleonic Wars

and Sian is going to learn about his life

by visiting the beautiful Glynhir Estates

in Llandybie in Carmarthenshire.

This place is brimming with Napoleonic history,

with tales of French spies in hiding

and a weapons factory on this very site.

Thomas Jones started life as a simple farmer

but his life took a dramatic turn

as historian Gareth Glover can explain.

I want to reveal to you today a little bit of his earlier life.

You may not know that he actually fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

No...

How extraordinary.

I'm pole-axed.

I can't tell you how astonished I am.

I didn't think anybody had ever gone anywhere.

How extraordinary.

So Sian now knows that her great-great-grandfather Thomas Jones

fought alongside Wellington to defeat this man,

Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte.

And this very dovecot standing behind Sian

was built in celebration of that victory at Waterloo.

What I want to do now is talk a bit more about Thomas Jones himself.

So let's go inside and see... We've got more to show you.

Oh, that would be so interesting. Thank you.

Inside the grand mansion, Sian can read from

an autobiography written by Thomas's own granddaughter.

"Thomas Jones was a cavalryman and was active in the war.

"The relics of the war were a tricorn hat with feathers,

"Wellington boots with a yellow or red band,

"silver buckles and stirrups.

"I remember the silver buckles."

Now, that little bit of information helped us a lot

because, as you can imagine, there are lots of Thomas Joneses...

-Yes.

-..but there was only one cavalryman

who was a Thomas Jones from West Wales.

Let me just show you some papers we found in Kew, et cetera.

-Yes.

-This one here, actually shows the day he actually joined the Army.

-Gosh.

-And if you look at number two,

"Thomas Jones" joined the Army on 19th March 1805,

-which was the year of the Battle of Trafalgar.

-Yes.

So, six months before that.

And, as a major part of that, there was a bounty in those days.

They actually gave soldiers money to join - to encourage them to join -

-Yes.

-..and Thomas received £9 6s 4d,

which actually equates in modern money to about £400.

-So he got £400 for joining the Army.

-Right.

He then went into the 18th Hussars.

Now, the 18th Hussars, or Light Dragoons as they were known,

would actually wear a very, very garish

-and sort of smart uniform.

-Oh!

But that's what he would've looked like...

Oh, my goodness!

Look at that.

-..on his charger, ready for battle.

-It scarcely seems possible.

This is the type of sword that Thomas would have carried.

It is actually a real sword from the Battle of Waterloo.

It was found... As you can see, it's very rust-encrusted, et cetera.

-Yes.

-And this is exactly what he would have carried.

It was very much a slashing weapon.

-I don't know if you want to hold it?

-I'd love to.

-Please do.

-Still a little sharp on the edge, so please be careful.

-Yes... Yes.

-So you hold it...

-You hold it like that... Yeah, of course.

-Wow.

-As you can see, it was a very nasty weapon.

-Oh, yes.

Very frightening weapon to be against.

Thomas found himself at the very heart of the famous

Battle of Waterloo.

In a field in Belgium,

he fought alongside 68,000 of his allies,

well outnumbered by Napoleon's troops.

The battle was bloody, and the death toll enormous.

But Thomas's victory here,

finally halted Napoleon's march towards European domination.

And he's very lucky, from what I can see, to have actually survived

all of these battles and wars without any injury or loss to himself.

So he's been very lucky in that sense.

-A Lieutenant Colonel Malley, in 1886...

-Yes.

..actually made this large cup.

-Yes.

-Now this large cup has around it

a large number of medals.

And it is a big enough cup for that to be real medals.

-Oh.

-He collected medals from his regiment, the 18th Hussars,

because he'd written the history of the bat...of the regiment, as well.

-When we have looked at the catalogue...

-Yes.

..for that cup, we notice Corporal Thomas Jones...

Oh, my goodness!

..Waterloo medal is on the side.

-On that cup.

-And so is his bar...

-My goodness!

-..his military service and service medal with bars,

for Sahagun, Benevente, Vitoria Orthez and Toulouse.

Toulouse...

And just to show you them,

-that is actually his Waterloo medal.

-Yes.

As you can see, that's his name on the side...

-T Jones.

-Yes!

-Now, if you notice... It says "sergeant".

-Yes, it does.

-Because of sergeant at the battle.

-No, no.

-But they've backdated it.

-Yes.

-They've actually put "sergeant" on the medal.

-Right.

And there is his actual Military General Service Medal with the bars.

Look at that.

And again, his name on the side. Next to it.

-Isn't that wonderful?

-"Thomas Jones."

That is so wonderful.

-Isn't that extraordinary?

-It is fantastic, isn't it?

That's fantastic.

It's fantastic to find that!

-Where is it? There it is.

-Yes.

-I mean... That's extraordinary.

It's a huge cup, as I say, from the 1880s.

-Well, it must be big.

-It's a big punch bowl.

-Yes.

Oh, how wonderful.

What a lovely piece of research.

-That's really lovely.

-You very welcome.

Thank you so much. That is so interesting.

And I'm so glad to understand that bit of the story.

It all helps.

It certainly does. Wow, that is so interesting. Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Whilst Sian is taking in this fascinating story,

she's about to receive a surprise from her very own family.

This is her daughter Pat O'Toole

and granddaughter Jess.

Pat's father is the late actor Peter O'Toole,

and she is joining her mother

to discover what Sian has been learning on this journey

into her past.

They're travelling to Aberdulais Falls near Neath

because Sian learned earlier

that her great-great-grandfather Thomas Thomas

was a pickler at a tin works - a job she knows nothing about.

-Hello!

-Hello!

-How has it gone so far?

-Well, very good. Hello, darling.

With the family back together, Sian, Pat

and granddaughter Jess can enjoy the sunshine

and the sights of this well-preserved tin works

and hear all about Thomas's life as a pickler

from site manager Lee Freeman.

They'd have iron coming onto a site like this, like your Aberdulais tin works,

and that would have been put through rollers.

It would've gone through a hot-rolling process,

and after that process it would've been left in what we call

a black plate, and it would've been dipped into a black acid

to, basically, remove the scale from the iron plate,

ready for it to be annealed in a furnace.

So what would have happened to Thomas, then?

You said the chemicals were... It was toxic.

It must've been really dangerous.

Well, my understanding is that Thomas passed away

-at the age of 52 years old.

-Oh.

-He had tuberculosis. TB.

Oh, did he?

One thing they say about tin-plate workers - they never got colds.

-And that was because of the acidic fumes...

-Oh, I see.

..it kept them... There were other issues.

They had lots of respiratory problems, lots of...

lost fingers and lost toes from the sharp objects they worked with,

and lots of burns.

The average life expectancy at that time, working in tin plate,

was around 45 years old.

-Oh, it was a hard life.

-It was a very difficult life.

So, you said Thomas died...

Do you know what happened to Thomas's wife and children

-after he died?

-Erm... So his wife Ann, his widow -

she was left with ten children to look after.

Very sad. Terrible.

Ten children...

Sian and her family are being driven to a location on the western slopes

of Carmarthenshire's Black Mountain.

Oh, look at that! Oh, my God!

Isn't that beautiful?

You come over this very bleak mountain,

and suddenly you see it's so rich the other side.

Sian's had this photograph of her great-grandmother Sali Wernwgan,

who she discovered was actually called Sarah Jones.

Desperate to know where the name Wernwgan came from,

she's about to discover the answer here -

at this small farmhouse

in Gwynfe in the parish of Llangadock.

Here to explain more is historian Dr Eirwyn William.

Well, this is the farm, Sian, of Wernwgan...

-No!

-Yes.

..which has a long association with your family, of course.

Yes.

So this is where Sali Wernwgan lived.

Wow.

And she stood in the doorway somewhere here holding a Bible

to be photographed.

-And here you are.

-Oh, my goodness.

Well, we can trace your family back nearly 200 years, really.

-Oh, really.

-To this farm.

Erm...the earliest detail we have is about 1839...

-Yes.

-..when a William Thomas owned the farm -

no relation, we think -

but the tenant was a William Phillips.

Oh, really. Yes.

He had died by about 1850,

and his widow Ann

carried on the tenancy.

Yes.

-Erm, she lived here with her son...

-Yes.

..David, who was aged 33.

Yes.

-He was married to Sarah, only 23...

-Yes.

-..and their two little girls.

-Mm-hm.

And that Sarah, then,

when they moved from here in 1854,

entered your family history as Sali Wernwgan.

Oh, I see.

-Beautiful.

-Hm!

Oh, stunning.

So lovely.

So with a big question finally answered for Sian,

she can explore the home in which generations of her family once lived.

I'd almost come to think it wasn't real,

because I didn't know where it was.

I didn't know anything about it.

It's odd to see a place

where the name has been on your lips for a long time

and then there it is.

It actually existed,

and she lived here.

And before leaving, Sian can't resist having a few family snapshots

with Sali Wernwgan,

who she now knows was her great-grandmother

and lived in this very farm.

The National Eisteddfod is as much a part of Sian's ancestry

as her home in Carmarthenshire.

The first Eisteddfod dates back to 1176,

and has become Wales's biggest festival of music and poetry

with Welsh people travelling from all over the world

to attend the festivities.

And Sian has her own fond memories of the Eisteddfod.

And I remember mostly... I can still smell it.

It is the smell of trodden grass, of new-cut wood...

because the stage was always made of wood that had just been cut,

I would imagine, and the steps up to the stage.

Being on the stage was extraordinary, because the audience was gigantic.

For a little girl, it was enormous.

The Eisteddfod in 21st-century Wales, isn't so different -

the coming together of people of all ages to celebrate

Welsh dance, poetry and culture.

Sian has been invited to perform at this year's Eisteddfod,

in the Grand Pavilion, in front of 2,500 people.

Word is out that Sian has arrived

and the media are keen to learn more about her upcoming recital

which she last performed at the Eisteddfod aged just 13.

But first, Sian is meeting with historian Gerald Morgan

who wants to learn more about Sian's history at the Eisteddfod.

Sian Phillips, I can't tell you what a thrill it is to meet you here

and to welcome you to the Eisteddfod in Meifod.

Thank you very much indeed.

-I've discovered that you have an Eisteddfod history...

-A bit.

..that goes back quite a way.

What do you remember about that first Eisteddfod that you went to?

Well, it seemed I'd travelled for days to get there.

It was only Llandybie, I think -

I had to go there from Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen or Alltwen,

but it seemed like a very long journey. And Mair and I went -

her name was Mair Lynn Edwards, we called her Mair,

and Mair and I had to do a recitation, would you believe,

which was a dialogue between two men, in the old meter,

and it was about a man,

between his cheerful self and his very depressed self.

And that was our recitation.

We acted this...this middle-aged man, really -

the split personalities of a middle-aged man.

It was a very strange thing to choose for little girls.

Were you dressed up for the occasion?

No, we weren't dressed,

but my mother said, "Ask for a table and a chair.

"And don't start until they're quiet."

So Mair and I, very nervous,

sort of got a table and a chair and we put them there,

and then we waited and waited

for what seemed like five minutes

and then we launched ourselves into our dramatic duologue.

-And you won!

-And we won!

And it was the beginning of a career.

It was the beginning of my career, believe it or not,

because they broadcast the same piece later that day

from the Eisteddfod.

Next, Sian Phillips is going to learn

something about a woman she met as a very young girl.

Sali Wernwgan's niece was Rosina Davies -

a famous evangelist who travelled the world preaching

at a time when women were rarely seen in this type of role.

Rosina wrote a book about her life,

and Dr Wyn James can tell Sian more

about this extraordinary woman's time as an evangelist.

She came under the influence of the Salvation Army initially,

and, of course, the Salvation Army were using girls in a way

-that the traditional nonconformist chapels weren't using.

-Sure.

And she was converted, apparently, they say,

hearing the Salvation Army people preaching and singing

-on the square in Treherbert.

-Really?

-When she was 16 years of age.

-No!

-Yes. By the time she was about 20,

she's up in London moving in the London-Welsh circles there.

-That's right.

-And getting to know people like David Lloyd George.

Did she really?

David Lloyd George, actually, was a subscriber, I think.

-His name is one of the first in the list for the book.

-Oh, really?

-Really.

-So they obviously...

-Of course.

-..obviously, had a link together, in that sense.

-So she was moving in those Welsh high-society circles.

-Yes.

And she played a very, very prominent role

in the 1904-1905 revival.

Over that two-year period of the revival, 1904-1905,

she preached I think about 500 times altogether.

-No...

-Mainly in North and West Wales.

-Extraordinary.

-So there was a remarkable energy, as well.

-That's incredible.

-People started calling her the Rose of Glamorgan.

-Yes.

-And then she said that people in North Wales didn't like that...

-Oh!

..because they wanted to own her, as well.

-So she changed her name to the Rose of Wales.

-Of Wales - yes!

And that name followed the very popular Rosina across to America,

as Dr James can explain.

-They named a racehorse after her...

-No!

-..in Pennsylvania.

Well, I don't think she would've liked that, at all!

And she says in her biography,

"They named this racehorse after me in Pennsylvania,

"called it the Rose of Wales, and I'm not sure I really like it."

THEY CHUCKLE

Oh, it's wonderful!

Time is now quickly approaching for Sian's performance.

She's due to recite a poem inside the main pavilion

in front of 2,500 people,

a solo performance she last delivered at the age of just 13.

Sian has memorised the three-minute piece,

and is feeling more than a little apprehensive.

It is marvellous to be here,

but it is a long time since I did this poem

at the National Eisteddfod,

and I do feel nervous.

Yes, I am very nervous, actually.

Sian has been given her five-minute warning

and it's time to head backstage.

She can see thousands of people waiting to see her perform.

The production team are behind schedule,

so the wait goes on.

Sian finally gets her call,

and it's time for her to perform her poem

for the first time since 1946.

Rhowch groeso gwresog, os gwelwch yn dda,

i'r actores Sian Phillips.

APPLAUSE

Baled y Pedwar Brenin gan Cynan.

O bedair gwlad yn y dwyrain poeth

cychwynodd y pedwar brenin doeth am eira'r gorllewin,

dan ganu hyn,

O, seren glir ar yr eira gwyn.

Pa fodd, fy Arglwydd, y cefaist ti,

y perl dros y gaethferch a rhoddais i.

Yn gymaint a'i wneithir i un o'r rhai hyn.

Fe gwnaethost ti, Arglwydd, yr eira gwyn.

APPLAUSE

Her performance is wonderfully received by the audience.

A standing ovation in celebration of an incredible career,

and a performance not seen for 70 years,

originally performed by a 13-year-old girl

from Carmarthenshire.

So, did Sian enjoy coming home to the very stage she started on?

Yes. It took me right back!

It was strange doing something I did as a little girl,

now that I'm old.

But, erm...

Because I learned it then when I was young and...

It was a little bit odd doing it,

but the audience... I remember that feeling,

and that kind of audience in this kind of place.

Yeah. It was great.

Sian's journey into her past is nearly over.

She's heard stories of a hero from the Napoleonic Wars,

and had a decades-old question finally answered.

So how does she feel about all she's learned about her ancestors?

I feel wiped out, actually.

Not because I'm tired, but I do feel...

I do feel I've been through the mill.

It's taken me back

and made me think about a lot of things.

I've also been reminded, though, how very tough their lives were.

And, erm, how hard they all had to work,

very often at things they didn't want to do.

And, erm...

I don't know, I...I felt very close to them,

and I feel I owe those people a lot.

A lot.

Everything, really.