Meet the Families Wales in a Year

A new year, a new life...

Amazing.

..and a new Wales.

SHEEP BLEATS

But how do we really live as a 21st-century nation?

How do we work?

HE WHISTLES

How do we play?

THEY CHEER

How do we love?

CAR HORN BEEPS

2012 saw the results of the latest Welsh National Census.

But a census is just a set of dry statistics.

It's not flesh and bones.

It doesn't show us how we really live, or who we really are.

# In my dreams, I'll always see you... #

Our hopes...

our fears...

our dreams...

For the past 12 months, we have followed

eight very different families from all walks of life

and from all over the country

to reveal the real Wales behind the statistics.

What woman ain't going to love that?

We've captured their day-to-day lives at home...

at work...

and at play.

And I love him.

A kaleidoscope of celebrations...

So, I've got it at last.

..and challenges...

You've come to a point where it's not worth sending the ships out.

..happiness...

I baptise you in the name of the Father...

..and heartaches.

I don't want her to die in a hospital environment.

I'd rather it be here, at home.

It's a unique and unfolding insight

into the incredible daily dramas of all our lives.

Oh!

This is Wales In A Year.

That's good news.

Wales, 2012.

A land of 8,000 square miles, eight and a half million sheep,

22 million trees and 3.1 million people...

..and as new year dawns in Newport Gwent,

the population is about to become a 3.1 million plus one.

27-year-old Charlene Christensen

and her 25-year-old boyfriend Sean Lonergan

are preparing for their new arrival.

Charlene is 38 weeks pregnant, and tomorrow she's booked in

to have her new baby delivered by Caesarean section.

You think six, then, do you, Mum?

Yes, I'd take in six.

The scans have revealed that Charlene is expecting a little girl,

but her mum, Hermione, is not convinced.

Well, take the grey ones as well.

You've got a choice then, haven't you?

If...it should come out a he, he!

SHE LAUGHS

No, because she's carrying the same way I carried on both my boys

and her actions have been exactly the same, her scattiness.

That's how I was on the boys.

And, like, normally, on a girl, she's more rounded

and you carry something, you know, round in the back,

whereas she's lost it all. She's just all front.

And that's how I went on both my boys, so I'm not convinced.

I haven't been convinced from the word go.

Girl or boy, this won't be Charlene's first child.

I've got two children.

The oldest is six, which is Aleya Ellie,

and then I've got Aleysha Ayla.

Aleysha is three. She's really fun-loving.

She's a lovely child.

She's severely disabled, she is.

She's got brain damage, which was caused at birth,

and she's partially blind...

She's also epileptic as well and she's got cerebral palsy,

so she's 24-hour care.

She doesn't walk, she doesn't talk, she's got no mobility at all.

Charlene had a straightforward and worry-free pregnancy

when carrying Aleysha.

It was when she went into labour that the complications began.

I remember the baby's head coming out and the student midwife said,

"Stop pushing now, Char, I can see the baby's head,"

and the cord was wrapped round her neck.

She then just quickly took the cord off the baby's neck,

and I thought, "Oh, my gosh." Well, her head was blue.

They took her out and they had her in an incubator at the side

and they tried resuscitating her, but it wasn't working.

And, of course, we're all crying now, thinking, "We've lost her,"

and...

finally, then, we heard her cry and they turned round and told us,

"Oh, she just needs a little bit of oxygen to help her breathe."

They didn't tell us that she had brain damage

or there was anything else physically wrong.

Aleysha is one of approximately 70 children born every year in Wales

with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy,

a condition caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain at birth.

Oh, there's your belly!

There it is!

Aleysha is profoundly disabled and needs tube-feeding four times a day.

So, what I have to do is attach it and press start.

'She's been tube-fed, anyway, from the time she was born.

'She's never had a bottle once.

'Not even in intensive care, not even when she improved.'

Is that better, sweetie?

'Like, for instance, if we...'

Our brain automatically tells us what to do,

to chew to swallow, to suck, whatever,

whereas Aleysha's doesn't.

Because her brain's not telling her to swallow, it just sits there.

So, that's why she has to be PEG-fed now.

Look! Ready, steady, go!

And again!

Aleysha will require 24-hour care for the rest of her short life.

'When I look at her, the only thing I think is,

"Oh, I love you so much."

'I don't feel sad or anything like that,

'because she's done really well so far.'

And again!

Back about a year ago, we used to go to bed every night

and every morning you would wake up, walk down,

look at her to check if she was still here. But that's gone now.

We don't do that any more, because it just messed your head up too much.

So, now, I just take it as, you know...

When she's ready, she's going to be ready,

and until then, she's still going to be there, smiling in the morning.

Do you like that noise?

ALEYSHA GIGGLES

'I personally think she'll last till about 17.'

With a push. I think.

'I don't want her to die in a hospital environment.

'I'd rather it be here, at home.

'I just think, basically, when she's ready,

'she'll just go in a peaceful sleep.'

-TOY SPEAKS:

-'Ooh, Muffin, snuggly!'

Muffin, snuggly!

-TOY SPEAKS:

-Tell Muffin story.

Tell Muffin a story, then.

Last year, 35,682 babies were born in Wales.

Charlene's new baby will be one of the very first of 2012.

After Aleysha was born, I was adamant,

obviously, everything I went through with her,

I didn't want any more children, but...

Obviously, I met Sean and... things changed.

I thought, "Yeah..."

So, it took me two years, but it doesn't matter.

There have been no complications with this pregnancy so far,

but Charlene is understandably worried about the birth.

I've basically told them that I want a C-section.

'I am worried about it.

'I suppose I have been throughout the pregnancy because, obviously,

'even with a C-section, things can go wrong.

'As long as the baby's healthy, that's all I'm concerned about.

'You know, when everything runs smoothly.'

We'll be back with Charlene at the birth of her new baby

later in the programme.

With the new year comes new hopes and fears.

And as 2012 begins, for many in Wales,

the greatest fear is job security.

Government figures show that the driving force of the Welsh economy

is not the public sector or large companies, but small businesses.

There are over 200,000 small businesses

scattered across every corner of Wales.

From out-of-town industrial units

to one man, and woman, bands in terrace back rooms,

small businesses employ over 600,000 Welsh workers.

But what effect will the world recession have

on small businesses in 2012?

On a cold, dark January morning

in New Tredegar in the South Wales Valleys,

the start of the new year means the end of the Christmas holidays

for 40-year-old small-business owner James Mellor.

James's factory, AJM Sewing,

is the largest employer in New Tredegar,

with a staff of 36 mainly female workers...

..and behind the walls of this unassuming converted Valleys chapel,

James and his team manufacture one of Wales's more unusual exports.

BELL RINGS

AJM Sewing are Wales's one and only manufacturer

of luxurious and somewhat risque lingerie.

But what do James's workers make of it all?

In the beginning,

we used to be quite shocked at some of the things we've made, but...

now it's just a job, and you just get on and do it.

Some things are nice, some things are quite outrageous.

Each to their own.

It sells, that's the main. You know?

So, what could possibly have drawn a solid Valleys boy like James

into the flighty, a la mode world of fancy pants?

The basic truth was, there was a lot of women in the factory

and, like I said, I was 16, male, and that's where I wanted to be,

but after that, you know, it was just a fantastic job,

and I really can't say I've had a bad day, not enjoying what I do.

12 years ago, James set up on his own,

risking all of his savings to get AJM off the ground.

When we initially started the business,

we had 25 machines in total,

which was bought from a redundancy package.

Now, I think, we've got about 100 sewing machines here.

The normal production run for us

is probably in the region of 400 to 800 garments for a particular style.

And 2012 has arrived with a bang for James and his staff.

They've returned to two big underwear orders,

and shop floor supervisor Tracey's already under pressure.

Two big orders to get out now.

One Lascivious, and the other's the Kitty range.

So, there's a huge... I think it's 3,000 black

and... 1,000...something cream.

You have your slack periods and then, it's all systems go.

Like, these have just come in now, and they want them out on Friday.

You've got to make sure you've got the right frill, OK?

It's all hands to the deck, as usual.

I need 32 small and 40 medium...

Less than 15 years ago, six large sewing factories

employed hundreds of ladies and a small number of men

throughout the Valleys.

Household names such as Gossard and Berlei, Bentwood and Cohen's

churned out high-volume, quality underwear

for high street stores such as Debenhams, C&A, and M&S.

You know, when you walk into Marks & Spencer's...

You know, the majority of what you made was in there.

Especially the lingerie, because we made all the bras for them.

And the knickers. You know, suspenders...and all that.

And it's the same thing. You walk in, think, "Oh, yeah, I made that,"

and then you check the stitch, then you might pick up another bra,

which you've got a tendency to do, pick up another bra...

and you think, made in China, or whatever it is that it's made,

and then you go, "Oh, yeah,"

and then you pull it to see the stitching cracks...

It's just... It's just habit. It's what you do.

In the late '90s,

manufacturing began moving to cheaper workshops in the Far East.

One by one, the Valleys factories closed

and many of the AJM women found themselves being made redundant

not once, but several times.

This is the third, fourth sewing factory I've been in,

and the rest have gone,

basically, sending their work abroad.

And on not necessarily no work. It's just all gone abroad.

All of us worked for Marks & Spencer's.

It was such a big company that when they said,

"We don't want any more. We're taking it abroad..."

I mean, you were talking hundreds of girls out of jobs. Hundreds.

It was a nightmare. It was horrible. Horrible.

With unemployment in the Valleys currently running at around 12%,

many of these women are the main wage earners in their households.

You've just got to take each year as it comes, really. So, you know...

..hopefully, it will get better.

This leaves James with the constant pressure

of having to bring in new orders.

This week, there's a feast of work on the factory floor,

but there's nothing on the books for the end of the month.

So, James is heading to the big smoke in search of new clients,

a task that fills him with dread.

I go to London once a year, and that's too often, to be honest.

It's a very daunting experience for myself. I'm not a city person.

Cardiff, to me, is extreme.

You know, London is just...

There we are.

The more you do it, the more you get used to it, I suppose.

I have a meeting with Agent Provocateur.

It's a very important meeting for the business.

It determines, you know, the work for, well,

the next six months, for at least 25 of the employees.

I've got very, very sweaty palms at this moment in time.

I'm very apprehensive.

The meeting this afternoon is of great importance to the business

and the survival of the business.

James and his sweaty palms hit London

and head for the officers of Agent Provocateur.

In the top secret world of international underwear design,

the cameras are unwelcome and have to remain outside.

Two hours later, James emerges.

The meeting went reasonably well.

Like I say, there's a couple of styles on the table that they are offering.

There's still a little bit of work to be done

before we can secure the contracts fully.

Hopefully, we'll know by the end of next week.

I don't think we're going to get a full quantity, unfortunately.

James set aside the uncertainties

and heads for his second appointment of the day, Selfridge's,

and a glittering shindig celebrating the UK undie industry.

James has been invited

because most of the high-quality, high-priced UK designer lingerie here

has been cut and stitched by AJM Sewing.

But whilst the bright young things flash the fruits of the factory's labour,

James is feeling a touch uncomfortable.

It's lovely to see but, unfortunately,

I haven't got the experience of this type of thing to actually,

you know, intermingle and...

you know, to approach people, to discuss things and what have you.

But, you know, I'm sure it'll come in time. I'm trying.

Then James spots something that might well calm his nerves,

and three glasses later, he's ready to intermingle.

Where is the manufacturer located?

-It's in South Wales.

-South Wales? OK.

-It's in Wales?!

-It's in Wales!

-I'm half Welsh and I've never been.

Well, it's easy, for us. Honestly, we go on the train.

-It's so much easier.

-Come up and see us.

Is it like Coronation Street? Does everyone ask that?

-The underwear factory?

-Yeah, it is like Coronation Street.

There's no arguments, though. We don't go to the pub so much.

-No drama? No hotpot?

-No.

What do you have instead? Welsh rarebit?

HE CHUCKLES

It's a rare opportunity for James to gauge first-hand

how London's fashionistas react to his work.

We wouldn't have it. At the last minute, when we call James and say,

"James, please, we need three more knickers!"

And there they are two days later.

So, without you, this wouldn't have been possible, so thank you.

Genuinely. Not just for the cameras.

For James, there's just one downside

to hobnobbing with the absolutely fabulous.

After being in the industry so long, you know,

and going to the trade shows and things like that,

you don't look at them as women.

You know, you just look at them for the garments they've got on.

You know, it's one of those things.

If it's not quite right, you want to go up and tweak the garment,

to put it right, but obviously, you can't.

But I just look at it purely from a professional basis now

and, after 25 years in the industry, there are some downsides, yeah.

Underwear doesn't do it for me.

HE LAUGHS

James leaves the bright lights behind

and heads back to the Valleys,

with the Agent Provocateur contract still unsecured.

Looks like 2012 could be an up-and-down year

for Wales's last knicker factory.

So, what about the nation's health in 2012?

The good news is that life expectancy in Wales

continues to climb, and the average male can expect to reach 78,

the average female, 82.

The bad news, though, is that a longer life comes at a price,

and dementia is on the increase.

In 2012, there are an estimated 42,000 people in Wales

suffering from dementia,

a total that is forecast to double over the next 20 years.

In Merthyr Tydfil,

the next family whose lives we have filmed throughout 2012

are living with the consequences of dementia.

Here, on the sprawling Penydarren estate,

46-year-old Suzanne Folley is washing the dishes

for her 77-year-old next-door neighbour Gertrude Sage.

Gertie is suffering from dementia and is registered blind.

Gertie is also Suzanne's mother.

'She had a stroke a few years ago, which...'

took her sight away.

And then she started forgetting, you know,

little things, like.

Took her to the doctors and they said she had the early stages of dementia.

All right!

And it's just gradually got worse, the older she's getting.

What, Mam?

I said, I've got another cardigan somewhere. Can you find it?

I can't hear you, Mam. What did you say?

-I've got another cardigan here somewhere.

-You've got two on, Mam.

-Have I?!

-Yeah. You've got your jumper and your cardigan.

-Sue?

-What?

-Are there any tissues?

-In your pocket.

Right? You got it?

-I've got something.

-You've got a tissue.

-All right?

-Oh, I've got something, yes.

-Do you want a drink now?

-What?

-Do you want a drink?

-Have I had my breakfast?

-Huh?

-Have I had my breakfast?

-Yeah, you had Shredded Wheat.

-Right.

For Suzanne, the demands are non-stop.

24 hours a day.

24 hours a day and when she haven't got the sitters in in the night,

I have to go to sleep with my mobile phone in my hand,

because she's got an alarm on the bed.

If she gets out of bed and she wanders

and she's not back in after, say, ten minutes, Lifeline will ring me.

She's got an alarm on her front door,

so if she goes out the door after a certain time of the night,

and she doesn't come back in, they'll phone me.

She's got a pendant around her neck which she presses for...

If she wants to know what time it is, she'll press that,

and Lifeline ring me, "Oh, we've got your mother on the Lifeline."

I'll come in here, "What's the matter, Mam?" "What's the time?"

You know, she's forgotten what that's there for.

-What, Mam?

-Who's there?

-The ones from the BBC, Mam, talking to me.

-Oh.

It's all right, I'm not talking to myself.

-Oh, I thought you were going funny.

-Huh?

-I thought you were going bit funny.

-You thought I was going cuckoo?

-I thought you were going funny!

-Oh, I am! I've gone funny ages ago.

Suzanne is one of an estimated 370,000 people in Wales

who provide unpaid care for their relatives or friends.

She is also the busy mother of two teenage daughters,

Savannah, who is 17 and studying for her A-levels,

and Lowri, who is 15 and approaching her GCSEs.

Right, I'm going to sort my kids out now. Are you all right a minute?

Yeah, well, I'm all right, why...? Where are you going?

-Back in my house a minute.

-Go on then.

-Right?

Don't go wandering, will you?

The sole breadwinner in the house,

Suzanne has had to give up work to care for Gertie.

Adding to the financial and psychological strain,

husband Jason suffers from epilepsy,

and he's been forced to give up his job as a builder.

Oh, it is hard work. It's hard for her because, like I say,

the phone will go at two, three, four, five o'clock in the morning

and, automatically, you've got to go in

to see if everything is all right, if you know what I mean.

And it's a 24-hour job, isn't it?

So, that's what she's got to do.

Just put up with it. Life goes on, doesn't it?

Oh, it does tell on her, like, obviously. But, you know, always...

It wears her down, doesn't it? You know, she's in here one minute.

The next minute, I'm sitting down watching telly or whatever,

and no sign of her.

She's in there, because her mother's wandering out the front.

-It's a bit awkward...

-She seems to do it more in the night, doesn't she?

The night, she's worst.

And he keeps telling her, "You don't know who's hanging about."

There could be anybody out there, she leaves her door open, and she wanders...

I know it's only from by here to by there, but because she can't see,

-anybody could just go in the house and...

-She's been so lucky now.

-A couple of kids have fetched her back a few times, haven't they?

-Yeah.

You look at hoodies and these kids, you know,

they've all got bad names, but there's about five boys,

they had their hoods up, their baseball caps on,

and they were outside with her and they were holding her hand and catching round her.

So, you know, she's lucky that it was a gang of boys like that

that fetched her back.

-It could've been anybody, couldn't it?

-Yeah.

There's one big decision facing the family in 2012,

and it's one Suzanne hopes she'll never be forced to make.

What I've always been frightened of, when she gets old,

is going into a nursing home and...

I've always said, "Oh, I'd never do that to you."

Perhaps if it comes to the point

that someone takes the decision out of my hand,

if social services say, "Yes... She's got to go in, for her own safety,"

perhaps then... but I can't be the one to...

make that decision, and say, "Right, put her in a nursing home,"

because that's the one thing I promised her I would never do,

put her in a nursing home.

No, it's my mother.

Government statistics reveal that 19% of the population,

just over 560,000 people, are Welsh speakers.

Well over half of those who are fluent Welsh speakers

live in just four areas of Wales,

Anglesey, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Gwynedd.

Nestled in the foothills of the Snowdonia National Park,

Ty Cerrig Farm in Ganllwyd, Gwynedd,

is a tenanted farm that has been rented and worked

by the Edwards family for almost 130 years.

The entire family are first-language Welsh speakers.

81-year-old Gruffydd Edwards was born on the farm

and has spent his whole life working it.

Today, he's bringing some of his 240 sheep

down from the surrounding hills for their mid-winter MOT.

Oh, I waited until the lambs are ready for the spring,

so that I can send them up to the mountain

when the ewes come down for lambing.

Sorting out the sheep is a hard task

for an 81-year-old with a bad knee and arthritic hips,

but Gruffydd has been joined by his 41-year-old son Ifan

and his 31-year-old daughter Carys.

Maybe we should inject it like this...

Two-year-old granddaughter Heledd

also appears to have the farming gene.

A couple of months ago, I was whistling on the dogs,

and there she was,

putting two fingers in her mouth, trying to whistle on them...

Heledd! You're helping out, aren't you?

These ewes are yearlings, and too young to lamb this spring,

but they need dosing against disease,

and their tails need trimming to prevent fly strike and maggots.

I'm cleaning the...

between the legs.

After spring comes, if they get dirty, you get the maggot fly

and then the sheep are killed by maggots eating them alive.

The reality of being a tenant hill farmer in 21st-century Wales

is nobody's vision of the rural good life.

It's a tough, ill-paid and dying industry,

and in the last 75 years,

a period that covers Gruffydd's own working life,

there has been a 70% decline in the number of Welsh tenant farmers.

The Williams's farm, Ty Cerrig,

is now one of just 44 left in the County of Gwynedd,

and across the whole of Wales, there are now less than 400 tenant farms.

Watch yourself, Heledd!

The decline is no surprise.

Incomes are low, typically as little as 8,000 a year,

and tenant hill farmers have little chance to modernise and adapt,

and so every scrap becomes a potential source of cash.

Here, I'm putting the tail wool in a bag,

so we can put it to go into the market.

But put it in a bag for now, then I'll sort it another day.

Phrase in Welsh.

"You pick the small wool up and the wool will pick you up."

Cwyd ti'r gwlan man, mi godith y gwlan chdi 'de.

It's dinner time now. It's about one o'clock.

So, we need to....

especially, get food to the young one.

Usually, we would have worked through lunch and kept on going.

Finish work first, then eat, usually.

It's a well-earned lunch.

Ti isho bwyd? Oes?

Between them, they've sheared 50 sheep

and collected 30 kilos of wool,

and given the current market value of that wool,

for their morning's work, the family have made approximately 30p.

Lots of work for our little pennies

that we get off the tail wool of the sheep.

It's only 1p per kilo of that we'll get.

Last year, many farmers found that it

was costing the farmer more

to shear than they were having for the wool.

And then...

Hard labour.

But you've got to shear them, or else the maggots will be on them.

Ddim isho byta?

Don't want to eat?

Tyd 'wan.

Unsurprisingly, given the current economic climate,

Gruffydd fears he may be the last generation of his family

to run the farm.

His son, Ifan, has already had to make a difficult choice.

Well, when I was in school, definitely, I wanted to be a farmer,

but I realised, on a...mountain farm like this, in Snowdonia,

there wasn't much money, especially on this farm

to keep my father and myself.

So, I did my degree in electrical electronic engineering

and...never turned back, really.

I miss it, in a way. I enjoy working outside and it's a good life,

but the financial rewards weren't there, so...

It's a shame in a way, but that's the way life is.

These days, Ifan lends a hand on weekends,

but sees no possibility of ever taking over the farm.

Meanwhile, Carys spends every spare moment helping out at the farm,

whilst also holding down a number of part-time jobs.

Well, I'm the little slave.

THEY LAUGH

I'm the little slave that's trying to keep the family going,

to farm this land, and if I didn't work somewhere else,

I couldn't survive.

It's... It's a hard farm to keep,

and I would like to keep it in the family, but it's hard going.

Hard going.

She's very good with the sheep.

She recognises sheep as if they were children in school with her.

She's very good in that manner. Much better than me, actually.

But things are set to come to a head in 2012 for the Edwards family,

as Gruffydd faces up to an operation

that might well force him into retirement.

I was supposed to go in two years last March to do the knee,

but the specialist prefers to do the hip.

"You've got arthritis in your hip and in your knee," he told me,

"but we'd like to do the hip first."

No, I don't know what the future is, but...

still, I keep going while I can.

We'll follow the family in their struggle to hold onto the farm

throughout the four seasons of 2012.

Just over 20% of the Welsh population,

around 620,000 people, were born in England,

but the cross-border movement is a two-way thing,

and the exodus in the other direction is some 630,000,

a net loss to Wales of around 10,000 Welsh-born people.

Bala in North Wales, home to the famous Bala Lake

and to the Hickish family.

English incomers Toby and Stephanie Hickish

run a catering company with the help of their three children...

-Could you follow me, please, Evie?

-Yep.

..17-year-old Evie,

Freddie, 24,

and 28-year-old George.

Could be lighter, these things.

Theirs is a manic, all-encompassing lifestyle.

STEPHANIE LAUGHS

I've got courgette balls I've got to stuff with cream!

No, I've got the stuff the eclairs with cream.

From their farm house on the outskirts of Bala,

catering is not the only business they turn their hands to.

We run five holiday cottages...

We run a cafe up here.

We do evening meals for people, we do parties for people,

and we run a cafe in the leisure centre in Bala. Umm...

-And we also do a bit of gardening in our spare time.

-Mainly catering.

Mainly catering, I suppose, yes.

-I'd like it to be mainly gardening, cos that's my passion.

-Yes.

And the aim is to employ lots of people here

so that I can spend my time wafting around the garden.

Yes, with a big hat on and a pair of sunglasses.

With a huge hat and a pair of secateurs... THEY LAUGH

..and a flowing skirt, but that's a long way off yet.

Toby and Steph moved here from the Home Counties 17 years ago,

with warnings of impending doom ringing in their ears.

People said, "Gosh, you'll never settle in Wales at all,"

"they don't like the English," and all that rubbish,

which is absolutely not true, for a start.

But we had to come here and get into the community immediately,

because we needed help, and we needed help on so many levels.

The reason for the move was their son, Rory.

Rory was born and he had muscular dystrophy

and it meant both of us, really, had to change our lives somewhat,

but it was a very good excuse to come here.

He was given... Oh, sort of two, three years to live,

and he made it, I think probably thanks to the Welsh air,

until he until he was 14.

Everybody adored him,

and we sort wandered around behind him in Bala High Street

-with everybody saying hello to HIM.

-HE LAUGHS

He was a really good sort of integration...

-Icebreaker.

-Icebreaker, yes, if you like.

He was always a huge bonus, wasn't he, really?

The force of Rory's extraordinary personality

made him an immediate hit with the local community,

but his two brothers, Freddie, who was six when they moved to Bala,

and George, who was 10,

have mixed feelings about their reception as English incomers.

We were in the car and I was six years old.

You were there and you leant over because you in the front seat,

and you went, "Oh, guess what, we're moving to Wales!"

And I started wailing. I was like...

-HE WAILS

-"I don't want to move to Wales." I didn't know where it was, I guess.

I had my group of friends and it wasn't very nice,

sort of just being told that we're going to move.

To me, it felt like we were given a week's notice or something,

and just said, "Right, we're moving next week."

-But I think there was more time than that.

-Must have been.

A little bit more thought than just doing that, but...

So, I got moved into a Welsh school, so I could pick up Welsh.

I thought the headmaster sounded very strange.

He'd sort of say..."Nyaw, nyaw,"

which was, "Iawn, iawn,"

and thought he was doing aeroplane impressions, but he was,

you know, he was just speaking Welsh

and then I'd understand it more and more.

So, I think that probably helped integrate me a bit more.

I never picked up Welsh, really.

I...

It was a very difficult thing for me to have to do,

to learn Welsh and to pick up this new language...

and then, obviously, I was different,

so, in school, you had...

your half dozen kids who could speak English and not Welsh,

maybe learning it all right, but they were English kids

and that was the group I was with.

Then everybody else was the Welsh lot, and...

I don't know, children always find something to...

-Absolutely, yeah.

-..to pick on, isn't it?

Yeah, I don't think I ever fitted with those guys, either.

You still had some sort of, like,

native Welsh speakers as your friends and stuff.

Well, I'm marrying someone Welsh now,

so there must be something all right.

The family are now well-established in the area,

employing a number of locals across their businesses,

but 2012 will be a pivotal year for them.

-Oh, do you think those are done?

-Yes.

Not only have Steph and Toby just taken on the contract

to run the local leisure centre cafe...

The potatoes are for you!

..they've also agreed to host and do the catering

for their own son Freddie's forthcoming marriage to a local girl.

I think we're just going to try chucking everything

and see how it turns out at the last minute.

Seems quite fun.

The Hickishes are a close-knit family unit,

but in 2012, will too many cooks end up spoiling the broth?

'We're OK.'

If the Pimms has taken effect, then we should be all right.

SHE LAUGHS

CAR HORN BEEPS

International migration into Wales

has increased by over 50% in the last decade.

160,000 people born outside of the UK are now resident in Wales,

and the largest proportion, around 28,000 people, live in Cardiff.

44-year-old Cardiff businessman Jahan Abedi is one of them.

Jahan lives a life of hard work...

Very busy!

..and long, long hours.

My wife keeps telling me off all of the time. All of the time.

But, you know, I just can't...

You know, this is who I am, I can't change.

But as a multi-millionaire,

Jahan not only knows how to earn big bucks,

but also how to give them away.

Thank you, guys. Lovely.

'You have to give back to your city.'

You can't just take.

Whether it's your time, or your money, or your effort,

you've got to give something back.

Otherwise, you go your whole life,

not making an impact on the people around you.

It's not a great life to have.

You know, when you're gone, when you're dead, people say, "So what?"

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Jahan is one of 22,000 millionaires who call Wales home.

It's all far cry from the circumstances

that first brought the Iranian-born refugee to Wales.

We came here after the Iranian Revolution.

My father was a university professor,

so when the Revolution happened,

they basically sent us out.

We came to London.

So, I was in London since the age of nine,

and then I came to Cardiff University when I was 17.

Jahan made his millions in the property market.

It's like a building site.

I started getting into property after I graduated.

I couldn't get a job.

My trade is engineering.

And...I applied for loads of jobs.

It was a recession, pretty much like now,

and I couldn't get a job, so I ended up going into property.

I opened up a property management company

and slowly started building my own houses.

And now this is what I do.

Jahan has recently expanded his empire beyond property development,

moving into owning high-end bars, clubs and restaurants

in Cardiff's bustling city centre.

The move was not a considered business strategy.

It was undertaken on a very personal whim.

Three years ago, my mother came here for weekend.

I took her out into Cardiff...

..and I could not think of a decent place to go.

It's different when you go out with a group of your friends,

when you're young, you're male, you don't really...

It doesn't really hit you.

But when you go with somebody who you're trying to, basically...

take her to a nice place,

for the first time ever, it suddenly hit home

that there is not many nice places in Cardiff.

CROWD SHOUT AND LAUGH

And so Jahan's been on a five-year crusade

to make Cardiff city centre a more exclusive, chic destination,

worthy of mums.

You know what, there is a saying. They say,

"You always get what you pay for." And it's absolutely true.

Nothing we have is really very expensive,

but it's not also very cheap.

And I think for our clientele,

it's not so much whether this glass of water is, I don't know,

50 pence cheaper somewhere, it's more who you're surrounded by.

We'll see you on the dance floor later on!

-Water?!

-I am on water. I'm working tonight. I'm working.

'People are relaxed and having fun.

'They come here, they spend time with their friends,'

and, hopefully, some of them can meet a nice person.

I actually met my wife in Mocha.

I got introduced to her there.

Her...best friend is my neighbour.

12 months after marrying his wife,

Jahan begins 2012 with the dawning realisation

that perhaps there's more to life than hard work and hard cash.

We did a Muslim ceremony last year.

I love her.

She's the best thing in my life.

It was important, I think, for me, to find the right person.

My dad died last year, and before he died,

he kept telling me he wanted to see me married

with a lovely wife and a baby, so, thank God, it happened.

Because, when he passed away, my wife was pregnant,

we knew it was going to be a son,

and he is actually named after my father,

so it's all worked out very well.

'You know, people told me, before it happens,

'but it doesn't hit you until you have it.

'You don't know what the feeling is like,

'and how a little smile makes you happy

'and how, when you come home tired...'

You know, it's...

I'd like to have more. I'm hoping to have more.

I AM going to have more.

HE LAUGHS

HE GROWLS AND BABBLES

For Jahan,

2012 is going to be all about reassessing his priorities.

Last night I came home, I saw him for one hour,

and then I had to go out again.

It's difficult for my wife. It's very, very difficult.

It's a very busy time for me now.

And it's my own fault.

I shouldn't have picked so many projects to do.

You know, sometimes people lose sight of what is important.

So, I'm trying to stop it for next year.

The amount of food we import into Wales

is at its highest for 40 years.

In 2012, only 58% of our diet was grown, reared or caught here.

On the west coast of Pembrokeshire, Welsh trawler, The Stephanie,

is leaving Milford Haven docks and setting sail for the Irish Sea.

Milford Haven Port Control, Milford Haven Port Control - fishing vessel Stephanie.

-'Stephanie, Port Control, morning.'

-Hi, good morning, ma'am.

Just leaving Milford Docks,

am I all clear to enter the haven and proceed out to sea, please?

'Stephanie, Port Control, all clear to exit the docks.'

Ah, that's all copied, I'll report in the usual places.

The Stephanie is one of only two Welsh-owned deep-sea trawlers left in Wales.

Both her and her sister ship, the Mercurius,

are operated by Wales' last trawlerman Shaun Ryan.

Them thicker ones do break if you drop them too much, yeah?

You've got to go when the weather's good. You can't afford to miss a day.

If you miss a day you don't get any back.

It's not like a nine-to-five job, when you go out to sea you're working shifts then.

You get two or three hours off through the day and that's basically you.

There's none of this go to bed for seven, eight hours at a time,

three hours is the most you'll get.

Less than 60 years ago, Milford Haven was a bustling fishing port

with 150 deep-sea trawlers operating from its docks.

Since then, rising costs, declining fish stocks and EU quotas

have ripped the heart out of the Welsh deep-sea fishing industry.

A few places are going absolutely ridiculous.

It's the highest we've...

I've ever seen... You know, since I've been fishing.

They've jumped up...

In the past fortnight they've jumped up another four pence a litre.

It's going crazy.

You're coming to a point where it's not worth sending the ships out.

It's currently costing Shaun an incredible £1,000 a day

just to run each boat.

Line her up...

Bring her on...

And then let 'em go.

The captain of the Stephanie, Barry Travis, has seen many changes

during his 20 years at sea.

You're never guaranteed a wage.

If you don't catch anything then you don't get paid anything.

At one time you could come out here and you'd never do it every trip,

you wouldn't make a fortune, but there was always that chance of one trip you would do.

So you came out and you took your chance,

but now you never see them big trips any more.

You're catching enough to pay for your fuel

but you're not earning money for yourself or your crew.

There's cod restriction everywhere at the moment.

We have very little cod quota.

It's a funny one, really, because the rules are being made up

by people who don't understand the job.

It's almost as if they don't want a fishing industry in Great Britain any more.

What we're actually trying to get is two or three baskets of monkfish

and a couple of baskets of other stuff

like your lemons, your megrims, Dover soles.

Like cod of that size, we'll save fish like that.

But anything smaller than that will have to go back over the side.

See, that's a codling.

Well in size, size enough to keep but too small.

It is a shame and with the likes of cod they have a swim bladder and when

they come up out of the depths, they're dead.

No good, back over the side. It's just money wasted, really.

It is silly, but...that's the law, that's the rule.

Seems a shame when you're having to dump stuff that is worth money and everybody likes.

And it's not just wasteful quotas that are crippling the industry.

Factory ships from Belgium and Spain have been buying up Welsh fishing licences,

flying THEIR flag out of Milford and squeezing out Shaun and his crews.

You've got the Belgian fleet that's here working now.

All the fish on the Belgians' go straight in the wagons.

They'll go straight back to Belgium. It doesn't even touch the quay.

It goes straight on the stage in the lorry and that's it gone.

That's just normal.

It's just been going on for that many years, you'll never stop it.

The Welsh fishing industry has always been a tough, dirty and dangerous job.

Electric ray - give you about 220 volts.

And it's now facing oblivion.

It's just pointless, you might as well go and sign the dole

and get some money back off the government what you've put into 'em.

It sounds a bit crazy, none of us want to do that sort of thing,

but then you've got to draw the line of when and where.

Less than 50 years ago, over 700 men worked on Welsh deep-sea trawlers.

Today, Shaun employs just eight.

Will 2012 be the year

that the Welsh trawler industry is finally scuttled?

The average gross weekly earnings for an adult employed full-time in Wales is just over...

Four out of five self-employed people

take home less than the average wage

and as the recession bites, the challenges get tougher.

In Swansea Market, the majority of the 100 plus stallholders

are self-employed.

Amongst them is 59-year-old Lynda Colley.

28, and a Happy New Year to you. Thank you very much.

Lynda is the fourth generation of her family's women

to run the Abrahams & Family store.

Take care. Bye-bye.

When my great-grandmother Florence James started the business,

she was left a widow with five children

and decided that she needed to feed them.

She came down on a Friday, she'd killed some chickens,

made some cakes, had some parsley from the garden

and all she sold on the Friday was one bunch of parsley.

But she was a determined lady,

she came back the next day, and she sold out

and this is how the business was born.

And luckily for me, it worked.

Although when I was younger,

I used to wish that she'd started a hat stall

because it takes us two hours to put the stall out

and it takes us two to three hours to put it away!

And you see some people just pull shutters up and down

and I used to think, "Why can't we do that?!"

But I'm glad she didn't, I'm glad it was this kind of business we've gone into, you know.

Lynda has three grown-up children.

Laura who is 26,

Martin, 33 and Stuart who is 31.

If you don't like it, cook it and bring it back so I can eat it!

In a radical break with tradition, Laura is a schoolteacher

and won't be taking on the family business.

But Martin and Stuart are both on hand to help out their mum.

Stuart also runs a T-shirt stall on the market.

It's stressful but he loves it.

I'm going absolutely flat out, I promise I am.

I should be done by about half past three at the latest.

To be honest that's what's great about this place,

you really don't know what each day is going to be like.

You don't know what challenges are going to come up,

but I call that fun. If you can't overcome it,

you shouldn't be in here in the first place, like.

Lynda's also incredibly proud of the market

and what she believes it has to offer.

As you can see in the market, we've got a tremendous amount of diversity in here.

You could do all your shopping in here if you want to.

You can buy clothes, you can buy cards, you can buy food,

you can buy shoes, there's jewellery...

Anything that you could possibly buy anywhere in the high street

you could get in here.

Morning!

But like most of the other stallholders,

Lynda's aware that the market faces challenging times.

The independent traders are so, so important, you know?

They are the life and soul.

They are the blood in the veins of any city, really.

But I think Swansea has so many... 11 or 12 Tescos around us

and three or four out-of-town retail parks

and they will kill the city.

The importance of retaining some credible building

and the aura of shopping

that you feel when you come here... It's a meeting place,

it's part of the people of Swansea's life.

We are generations serving generations.

-Hello, sir.

-Good morning. Can I have two slices of that?

Turkey? Yes, of course you can.

It's the people in here that give the atmosphere to the market.

If we weren't, dare I say nice people working in the market,

we wouldn't have any customers.

I think there are so many people in here that are so nice

that people just come back time and time again for that reason.

Happy New Year to you and your husband. OK, you take care. Bye-bye.

But nice doesn't put money in the tills and the stark truth is

that the numbers using the market have slumped.

In 2012, many of the stallholders - Stuart included -

will face some very tough decisions.

It's been touch and go over the last sort of two to three months

whether or not it's going to be easier for me

to pack up and go and do something else.

We certainly can't live like that.

The way things are in here at the moment,

things are getting more expensive but the takings are getting less,

so just have to play it by ear at the moment.

We have now met all eight families

who will be taking part in this series.

They are a wide and varied group - young and old...

Rich and poor.

Their hopes and expectations for the year ahead are equally different,

but as we follow them throughout 2012,

through all of their triumphs and their heartaches,

we will discover that there is far more that unites them and us as a nation

than drives us apart.

It's a big story!

But before we begin that journey of discovery,

let's return to the start.

To Newport, Gwent, and the promise of new life.

There's a new addition to the Christensen/Lonergan family.

Was she born at 11? Six minutes past eleven, wasn't she?

Six pounds and two ounces.

Yeah, six pounds, two ounces.

-Was it...?

-Yeah, she was ten.

-Ten out of ten.

-She's doing really, really well.

She had 60 mils of her bottle and she's only supposed to have 30! She was greedy, yeah.

She was guzzling it. She is happy, though.

First-time dad Sean's all smiles now,

but he wasn't half an hour ago.

It was terrible.

I had my fingers crossed on the Saturday.

-Oh, bless you!

-But now dad's grinning from ear to ear.

I feel great. Amazing. Not a feeling like it. Love it.

I can't stop looking at her, can't believe it, like.

Mum Charlene's equally relieved.

Not only is the baby healthy, she's also a girl.

As soon as they got 'em, and took her into the other room,

she was like, "Do you want me to go and check, quickly?"

I was like, "Yeah, quick. Go and have a look."

-Oh, I would have died if they had said a boy.

-Yeah.

Yeah. A big yard sale!

We've spent loads, haven't we, on stuff for a girl from the beginning?

I would have died.

And the name of their beautiful baby girl?

Chealey, Chealey Jay Lonergan.

I made you.

Yeah, I done that.

Ain't you?

In the next Wales In A Year...

Is Ty Cerrig Farm about to go up in smoke?

If it goes out of control

we could have fires like you do in Australia and America.

Oggy, oggy, oggy!

Oi! Oi! Oi!

In Cardiff, Jahan's Six Nations celebrations

take an unexpected twist.

And in Merthyr...

If I only could have my time over again!

..Valentine's Day stirs happy memories for Gertie.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd