Monday, August 15, 2011

Gwyn Thomas in New York



I like the crisp black and white aesthetic of this YouTube, its sharp angularity, its jazzy score, its dark suits and skinny ties, its raincoats and thick spectacles. It comes from those innocent days - 1964 - when you didn’t have to look like a model to present TV shows. You just had to have something interesting to say. Valleys product Gwyn Thomas, broadcaster and novelist, wordsmiths his way around New York like your favourite schoolmaster gone AWOL. As a wit and raconteur he was an absolute natural for television. Pity it’s such a short clip – I would love to see the entire programme. As well as Fifth Avenue he was also filmed at the top of the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, Grand Central Station, Central Park, the UN building, Harlem, ‘Skid Row’, Greenwich Village, the White Horse Tavern and, for the finale, Broadway. Gwyn Thomas in New York was made by TWW which was a precursor to ITV Wales. There are lots of other Gwyn Thomas clips on YouTube which are worthy of investigation. Listen to him, for instance, vibing on Cardiff Docks, Barry Island, the Vale of Neath and Llanwonno.