The poet's poignant story is well known in Welsh culture. Hedd Wyn was the bardic name of Ellis Humphrey Evans, a shepherd and gifted poet from Trawsfynydd.

Hedd Wyn statue in Trawsfynydd. Photo © Alan Fryer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Having already achieved a second place position in the Chair competition at the 1916 Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth, Evans was determined to win the prestigious competition at the 1917 Eisteddfod, which was held in Birkenhead.

Having enlisted in the war, Evans finished and submitted his composition from the front. He died in the first day of action in the Third Battle of Ypres, better known as Passchendaele. Six weeks later on 6 September his name was called as the posthumous winner of the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod.

As history blogger Phil Carradice has written:

His death in battle shocked not just those present at the Eisteddfod but the whole of Wales.

A stunned silence fell over the Eisteddfod field as the news finally began to sink in. The Archdruid summed up the feelings of the gathering when he said, simply "Yr wyl yn ei dagrau a'r Bardd yn ei fedd - the festival in tears and the poet in his grave."

There could be no question of any form of investiture and amidst a funereal silence the Bardic Chair, the Chair that now belonged to the dead poet, was solemnly draped in black cloth.

The Black Chair, as it became known, still resides in Hedd Wyn's family home, Yr Ysgwrn. Earlier this year it was announced that the Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA) had secured the property for the nation.

At the time of the announcement in March the SNPA were carrying out much needed repairs to the roof of Yr Ysgwrn.

I've recently been in touch with the National Park to see how the work is getting on, and to see if any other improvements at the site.

A spokesperson told me, "The work on the roof has now been completed along with some plastering work inside the house itself.

"Work has also been done to re-build a wall around the rhubarb garden in preparation for the Wildlife Gardening project, where local schoolchildren will get involved.

"Other maintenance work has been done around the site to tidy up the area; this is generally an ongoing process."

Yr Ysgwrn, now complete with new roof. Photo courtesy of Snowdonia National Park Authority

"An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund is expected to be made in August for the development work for the site including interpretive work," the spokesperson added. "This is ahead of the main application to the HLF which will be made by 2014.

"The process to find a tenant to manage the land and outbuildings has also started. The SNPA have appointed a local company to oversee the tenancy application process which is expected to begin in August. The tenant will be responsible for looking after the land and livestock."

For further information on Yr Ysgwrn visit the SNPA authority's website, eryri-npa.gov.uk.

Read Phil Carradice's blog post on Hedd Wynn and the Black Chair on the BBC Wales History website.

Produced in collaboration with Theatr na n'Óg, Ma Bili'n Bwrw'r Bronco (Bili does a Bronco) is the Centre's adaptation of Douglas Maxwell's Decky Does a Bronco, which was first performed by Scottish theatre company Grid Iron in 2000. It later proved a huge hit at the Edinburgh Festival.

In this Welsh adaptation the play is set in a playground on a housing estate in the Swansea valley.
Five young boys spend the summer of 1983 acting out their dreams and fears in their local park, play fighting and performing their new obsession, bronco-ing: standing on a swing seat and riding it as high as you can before kicking the seat over the bars.

Yet the boys' playful bickering is cut short by an unimaginable event during the play, and their lives change forever.

A rehearsal shot for Ma Bili'n Bwrw'r Bronco. Photo: Farrow's Creative

Ma Bili'n Bwrw'r Bronco is adapted by Jeremi Cockram and directed by Geinor Styles. It stars Carwyn Jones, Chris Kinahan, Dafydd Rhys Evans, Gareth Bale, Iestyn Arwel, Osian Rhys, Rhys Downing and Sion Ifans.

The play will open at The Marl, Grangetown in Cardiff on 31 July and tour across the country in August.

Surtitled performances will take place in Cardiff on Thursday 2 August at 7.30pm and on Saturday 4 August at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

For more information visit the Wales Millennium Centre website, wmc.org.uk.

Mark Tredinnick. Photo: Literature Wales

Tredinnick, who lives near the Wingecarribee River near Sydney, scooped the prize for his poem Margaret River Sestets.

He has published 11 works of poetry and prose, many of which have won or been shortlisted for various literary prizes, and last year he won the prestigious Montreal International Poetry Prize.

The second prize of £500 in the Cardiff competition was won by Jonathan Edwards from Crosskeys for his poem Evel Knievel Jumps Over My Family. Edwards' first poetry collection, My Family and Other Superheroes, is forthcoming from Bridgend publisher Seren Books.

Harry Man from London claimed the third place prize of £250 with his poem Lost Ordinance, Sussex, 1943.

You can read the winning poems on welshpoetry.co.uk.

Five runners-up prizes were also awarded in the competition, run by Literature Wales, which was judged by Sinéad Morrissey and the recent Wales Book of Year winner Patrick McGuinness.

For more on the competition and its winners, and to read the winning poems, visit the Literature Wales website, literaturewales.org/cipc.

Meanwhile, Sally Spedding has won the Welsh Poetry Competition with her poem She wears green, on the topic of animal cruelty.

Second prize was won by Glyn Edwards with Lambing Language while third prize went to Morgan Rhys Powell with Austerity. Welsh writer and poet John Evans judged the 2012 competition.

The subject matters of entries ranged enormously, including the after effects of curry, the problems of ageing and women with facial hair. But Mike Greenhough, a retired physicist at Cardiff University, won the competition and the £500 winner's cheque with his poem Mounting Anxiety, inspired by the song My Favourite Things sung by Julie Andrews in the musical.

Competition winner Mike Greenhough with judge Siriol Jenkins and panel chairman Roy Noble

The first All Wales Comic Verse competition drew entrants from all across the country; 126 entries were received in all, with the shortlist of 10 drawn up for the inaugural competition that took place yesterday at the Priory Hotel in Caerleon.

Greenhough took his inspiration from the song in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and particularly the word 'few' that Julie Andrews' character Maria uses to describe her favourite things - which led him to wonder what other favourite things the nun might have had.

The opening stanza reads:

Watch a video clip of Greenhough reciting his winning poem at the competition.

Greenhough said, "As far as poetry is concerned I only write comic verse because I don't really understand more conventional poetry. I prefer to write humorously, rather than writing about the human predicament."

I asked poet and regular contributor to Roy Noble's show on Radio Wales, Goff Morgan, for his thoughts on the comic verse competition. He compèred at yesterday's event:

"I'd been interested in the idea of running a comic verse competition for some years. As someone who makes a small income from being a muse for hire on the Roy Noble program, it seems to me that it's often hard to get comic verse taken seriously. It seems to be the elephant in the room of poetry - everyone knows it exists, but they'd rather not talk about it.

"Comic poetry has a long pedigree. Since poetry was first declaimed, someone decided to subvert the form and raise a laugh. At the drama competitions in ancient Greece, performed in honour of the Gods, comic and tragic pieces were both consider fit tributes to the deities. Aristophanes was every bit as respectable as Aeschylus.

"The 17th and 18th centuries teemed with ripe satirical verse. The 19th century, however, saw a retreat of the poetry establishment from humour - it was a po-faced establishment in which lack of reverence was highly frowned upon - not to say that the form didn't flourish from comic opera to ribald music hall songs; it was just not worthy or respectable to promote laughter.

"I relish laughter - both raising it and doing it! A day without laughter is a sorry day indeed.

"One day, at the start of this year, I was discussing over a few beverages my long percolating idea with my friend Richard Frame, who suggested that we approach the Caerleon Arts Festival Committee, with whom he was associated, as they were looking to incorporate a literary element in to this year's festival.

"I wrote a short brief, and an outline of the rules, terms and conditions etc. and they took the idea and ran with it! It was fantastic - I don't know how they managed to pull it off so smoothly. Suddenly there was a team of people behind a real project - it was no-longer the idea of a lone fat man in a pub!

"I offered to MC the event, and was asked to write a verse to launch the competition. As we were the Caerleon Arts Festival, and Caerleon has a strong Roman connection, I wrote a short verse after the style of the Roman satirist Juvenal. We decided to read the poem to the assembled press from the steps of the Roman Legionary Museum - wearing a toga seemed to come naturally to mind in the circumstances.

Goff announcing the competition

"It was a rather short toga - my dimpled knees were a little more evident than I would have hoped or realised at the time - but I thought that my very British choice of socks with sandals set off the whole thing nicely. However, the number of times I've had to point out that they were for comic effect is starting to become rather wearing!

"I think we've achieved something rather entertaining with this competition, but also useful in reminding the world of poetry that comic verse is an important and still vibrant part of our literary tradition - it's time to take it seriously once more."

The Caerleon Festival continues until Sunday 15 July, with performances from the National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, poet and comedian John Hegley, a performance of Richard III and a literary walk with Catherine Fisher, organised by Literature Wales.

For more information and the full line-up of performers and events visit caerleon-arts.org.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are a number of arts-inspired events taking place at the week long festival, which begins on Monday 9 July.

Intrigued by the new festival I spoke to committee member Sarah Vining, who told me that although there are a number of high profile science festivals that take place across the UK - each of which draws thousands of visitors - Cardiff was sadly lacking in the science festival department.

Largely organised by a team of volunteers and armed with a small amount of funding, the result is a mix of 50 events that blend the quirky with the more conventional lectures and talks.

Dean Burnett

Here's the pick of the bunch if you're more arts- rather than science-minded:

• Cardiff BookTalk event: Cardiff BookTalk is a new book group set up Cardiff University that discus themes from the best in both classic and contemporary literature. In this special festival event on Thursday the group will discuss Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Entry is free but places must be booked in advance, see the Cardiff Science Festival website for more details on how to book a space.
• Science, art and music event on Friday at The Crofts Pub: featuring an art performance by Barrie Davies from 6pm followed by free live music and entertainment hosted by Scott Travers of Radio Cardiff from 8.30pm.
• Working with the enemy: the difference between artists and scientists is a talk on Sunday 15 July that will explore the relationship between scientists and artists. It will hopefully encourage a new perception of art and science, and encourage a greater collaboration between the two disciplines in the future.
• When Science and Comedy Collide: a comedy event, also on the Sunday, presented by Doctor of Neuroscience/stand-up comedian Dean Burnett.

I spoke to Penelope Rose Cowley earlier today, who is the artist in residence at The Crofts Pub in Roath. In addition to the event above there will be an art/science exhibition at the Skittle Alley Gallery there. (It really is an exhibition space in the old skittle alley area of the pub; an inspired idea, if you ask me.)

The exhibition, that will feature work by Penelope plus other artists Barrie J Davies and Bella Woodfield, will run from 1-11pm each day of the festival. Entry is free and no booking is required.

Penelope explained the fascinating theory behind her work, which is based on images of brain scans.

Her work expresses the translation of personal ideas, experiences, thoughts and memories. She also explores the idea of how thoughts are held in the mind and transmitted from the brain to the nervous system - and what that process would like if it was visualised.

An example of Penelope Cowley's work. Image courtesy of the artist

Penelope's own brain was recently scanned by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine by Dr Silvia de Santis of Cardiff University's Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC). She then used these images to create an artistic translation of her brain imagery - and some of her montages and prints will be on show at the exhibition.

If music is more your thing there are a few intriguing events on the line-up. Science rapper Jon Chase, who some may recognise from CBBC and BBC Bitesize Revision, will perform on Saturday 14 July while scientist Wendy Sadler explores musical science and how musicians mix technology with the richness of human voices to create new sounds in an event called Science of the Voice.

Dr Mark Lewney explains the physics of the rock guitar in Rock Guitar in 11 Dimensions, also next Saturday. According to the festival website he'll use riffs from Vivaldi to AC/DC, explain the secret of the Stradivarius, and show how string vibrations might lie at the heart of the Big Questions about the universe.

Get the latest news for the festival on the Facebook page and check the Cardiff Science Festival website if you want to book places on any of the events.

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. Photo: Keith Morris

A highlight was getting to meet, and I dare say interrupt the work of, the newly appointed poet in residence at the museum Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. I wrote about her residency at the time and even though it only seems like a couple of weeks ago, her residency is now coming to an end.

Samantha has been back in touch to let me know how she's got on during her time at the museum. The residency has been a platform for her to work towards her fourth collection of poetry, on the theme of textiles.

You often hear the term artist or poet in residence but if you've ever wondered what it actually entails, read on for Samantha's insight into her post.

"My Leverhulme residency, and so my time at the National Wool Museum, draws to a close on 14 July with my final free workshop in which we'll be looking at imagery and metaphor.

"Each of the monthly workshops has introduced students to a different aspect of the writing process, often drawing on artefacts from current exhibitions at the museum.

"I have also been running fortnightly writing surgeries all of which booked out weeks in advance and were free of charge. Over the course of the last six months I've seen the work of the participants go from strength to strength; one noted: 'You have knocked me sideways and I guess a few folk here could say the same. You changed my focus and the way I write.'

"My research has taken me around Wales, visiting mills and interviewing weavers, as well as to Styal Mill Museum and Helmshore Textile Museum in the north of England. I've come across some fascinating voices and drawing all the strands together will be a long process.

"Not only am I intrigued by the voices of the living, but also by the voices of the dead which I've come across in letters, diaries and legal documents. One aspect that I'm particularly interested in is social responsibility in industry and to this end I've been looking at the life of Robert Owen, a Welsh social reformer who moved to Scotland where he bought the New Lanark Cotton Mills in 1799.

A loom in action at New Lanark Mill. Photo: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

"I went to New Lanark in May to see how his factory worked. He was a man of vision who introduced free education and medical care for his workforce and decreed that two evenings a week should be devoted to dancing!

"He also wanted his mill at New Lanark to be surrounded by gardens because he thought it was essential for his workforce to have somewhere to walk and reflect outside factory hours.

The roof garden at New Lanark Mill. Photo: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

"I found that once I started on the research, other avenues opened up, leading to new poems, and that's the most exciting part for a writer because you never know where the road will take you.

"It has been a privilege to interview staff at the National Wool Museum as part of my research and I am grateful to all those who have generously shared their time and expertise as well as to staff at the National Museum in St. Fagan's and at Cathays and at the National Waterfront Museum who have given me the opportunity to view archives not normally on display to the public.

"Working with the staff and meeting such enthusiastic visitors has made the residency at the National Wool Museum a real pleasure.

"I've been privileged to encounter some inspirational people including previous artist in residence, Julia Griffith Jones, and the musician Helen Adam, with whom I ran a joint Rhythm and Rhyme Day at the National Wool Museum to celebrate the anniversary of the Rebecca Riots in Drefach. Helen taught me some mill tunes and following the session I wrote a poem which took its inspiration from a weaving song Y Gwydd.

Rhythm and Rhyme Day at the National Wool Museum. Photo: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

"Last night we held a celebratory end of residency reading at the National Wool Museum where participants in the workshops had the opportunity to read alongside myself.

"I performed some of my textile poems as well as poems from my new collection, Banjo, which was published last month by Picador. It has already been positively reviewed in both New Welsh Review as well as on the London Grip website and was recently named as one of the top new poetry collections in the Telegraph.

"This weekend I will be reading at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, alongside the two other prizewinners from this year's National Poetry Competition (in which I won second prize for my poem Ponting) and on the Sunday morning I'll be taking part in an event on Antarctica in the company of poets Bill Manhire and Melanie Challenger."

To read more about Samantha's work visit her website www.rhydderch.com.

Sheers' screenplay, entitled A Visit To America, has been acquired by the London and west Wales based Western Edge Pictures.

Owen Sheers. Photo © Charlotte Medlicott

Set in 1953 in New York, the film's protagonist is a private detective. With his life in personal and professional crisis he takes on a new assignment for Time Magazine, who have tasked him with gathering evidence to defend a libel case brought against them by a British writer.

The British, or rather Welsh, writer is none other than Dylan Thomas, who has been named by the magazine in an article as a lecherous drunk; a label to which he has taken litigious exception.

Dylan Thomas

The story follows the detective as he trails Thomas around the city detailing his behaviour and gathering evidence of his drinking, one would assume rather easily given his reputation, to use in the case.

Yet he is soon captivated by the poetry of the Welsh author, and as the blurb from the film's notes states, "the poet's words draw him in and start to cast his own torment in a new light."

Western Edge plan to shoot the film in New York in 2013 ready for a release date in 2014, which marks the centenary of the poet's birth in Swansea in October 1914. The film will link up with numerous Dylan Thomas centenary events in the UK and around the globe in celebration of the anniversary.

The chief executive officer of Western Edge Pictures is Vaughan Sivell, who grew up in west Wales. He said:

“It’s really exciting to be working with Owen on a project that will showcase such a great Welsh writing talent and Thomas’ impact in the States in a really creative and unusual way - it feels very much in the rebellious spirit of Thomas himself."

The production company were behind the 2010 film Third Star, which was largely filmed in location in Pembrokeshire and notably the beautiful Barafundle Bay. Take a look back at a gallery of photos from the film on the BBC Wales Arts website.

The film will mark Sheers' third foray into the cinematic world following Resistance (2011) and The Gospel Of Us (2012). The Welsh writer told us:

"This is an idea I've wanted to bring to fruition for many years and I'm thrilled to be developing it with such a dynamic Welsh production company."

First up is the inaugural Dinefwr Literary Festival that takes place across the weekend in the picturesque setting of the National Trust's Dinefwr Park and Castle in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.

The festival runs from Friday 29 June to Sunday 1 July. Highlights will include performances by writers Gillian Clarke, Sir Andrew Motion, Howard Marks, Julian Cope and previous Wales Book of the Year winners Deborah Kay Davies, Philip Gross and John Harrison.

Newton House at Dinefwr. Image courtesy of the National Trust Photo Library/David Norton

Other authors appearing include Joe Dunthorne, Pascale Petit, Alastair Reynolds, Paul Henry, Robert Minhinnick, Wendy Cope, Catherine Fisher and Horatio Clare among many others.

There's a host of musical events happening too, with Gruff Rhys, Emmy The Great, Georgia Ruth, Ghostpoet, Steve Eaves and Jodie Marie all on the line-up.

Weekend and day passes are available - for more information see dinefwrliteraturefestival.co.uk.

Meanwhile, the Beyond the Border storytelling festival returns to St Donat's Castle this weekend. The festival, which has an international feel with participants from across the globe, carries on the oral tradition that has been well versed in Wales over the centuries.

Beyond The Border is Wales' leading international festival of storytelling. The biennial storytelling festival, which began in 1993, celebrates the worlds of myth, legend and folktales with performances by storytellers, musicians, writers and artists from Wales and the world.

There are a number of themes running at this year's festival in addition to the individual artist performances. These include celebrating 200 years of Grimm's Fairy Tales and honouring the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Plus there's a look at journeys along the Silk Road and an exploration of the myths and legends of Celtic Britain.

Beyond the Border in 2010. Photo: James Mendelssohn

The art of storytelling is not a new one in Wales as the country has enjoyed a long history with the tradition: it was known as the cyfarwyddyd in medieval Wales. Wales can also boast an impressive literary history, with examples of texts dating back to the sixth century: browse articles on early Welsh literature on the BBC Wales Arts website.

Beyond the Border runs from Friday 29 June until Sunday 1 July. For the full line-up and ticket information visit beyondtheborder.com.

Finally, Busk on the Usk is a one day festival on Saturday taking place at the Riverfront Theatre and the City Campus of the University of Wales, Newport. It is the Welsh Contemporary Music contribution to the London 2012 Festival, but the festival also has a number of discussions and literary readings.

The team behind the Laugharne Weekend have helped to organise the literary side of the festival with authors including Pauline Black, Malcolm Pryce and musician, artist and writer Jon Langford on the line-up.

All the events at Busk on the Usk are free but ticketed, so for more information and the full line-up visit buskwales.co.uk.

The retrospective, which will feature around 150 paintings by the artist, is currently being set up at the Aberystwyth library ahead of the opening in July.

Inspecting a painting by Williams

Removing one of Williams' pieces from Maesteg Town Hall

The curation of such a large exhibition sounds wonderfully artistic and creative doesn't it?

Yet there's some manual labour involved in the process too, if these pictures sent by the team at the National Library are anything to go by.

Williams is perhaps best known for his imposing classical subjects, including The Awakening of Wales and his large scale classical interpretations of the Mabinogion.

He was also a notable portrait painter and was commissioned to paint the portraits of important figures of the day, such as David Lloyd George, and commemorative paintings such as the Investiture of Edward, Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1911.

This retrospective will also show more the spontaneous paintings that Williams made of the Welsh coast, some of which have never been seen, which give an insight into the artist's personality and his love of Wales.

Removing one of Williams' pieces from Maesteg Town Council

Williams gifted many of his paintings to his home town, so the library has been busy transporting many of the paintings from Maesteg in readiness for the exhibition.

Pieces from private and public collections have also been gathered for the retrospective.

The sheer size of some of the paintings going on show make manoeuvring them into position a little tricky: when was the last time you had to erect a scaffold to remove a painting from the wall in your front room?

The exhibition, Christopher Williams 1873-1934: A Retrospective, will run from 7 July until 22 September 2012 and will be officially opened by artist and former MP Kim Howells on Saturday 14 July.

Howells presented the 2011 BBC Wales series Framing Wales, which featured Williams and his works. Watch this clip from the series, in which he talks to Robert Meyrick, head of Aberystwyth School of Art, about the artist.

Related links

• Phil Carradice on Christopher Williams
• Profile on BBC Wales Arts
• National Library of Wales website

Griffith scooped the gong in 1960 for best actor in a supporting role, as he played Sheik Ilderim in Ben-Hur alongside Charlton Heston.

He beat fellow actors Arthur O'Connell and George C Scott, both nominated for Anatomy Of A Murder, Robert Vaughn (The Young Philadelphians) and Ed Wynn, for his role in The Diary Of Anne Frank, to take the award.

Hugh Griffith in costume for the BBC Playhouse production of The Joke in 1974

Born in Marianglas in Anglesey in 1912, Griffith was awarded a scholarship to RADA and left his career in banking to enter the acting profession.

However, he had to put his career on hold as with the outbreak of World War Two he enlisted in the British army and served in India and Burma.

Griffith's film career took off in the late 1940s. He broke into the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s and went on to star with some of the biggest names in the business.

He appeared with Laurence Olivier in The Beggar's Opera (1953), Dirk Bogarde in The Sleeping Tiger (1954) plus Marlon Brando and Richard Harris in Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) .

Griffith received another Oscar nomination in the category of best supporting actor for 1963 blockbuster Tom Jones as well as a Bafta nomination for best British actor and a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor. All three awards sadly proved elusive.

Kenneth Griffith, Aubrey Woods, Hugh Griffith and Cyril Cusack in the 1971 BBC drama Clochemerle

The late film critic and historian Dave Berry said of Griffith:

Griffith had long been a stage and TV favourite, since at least 1951 when in Mario Zampi's comedy Laughter in Paradise he played a dying eccentric who, for one last jape, forces relatives into acts alien to their natures to secure a share of his legacy.

Never has a bedridden incipient corpse rolled his eyes more to convey sheer devilry, and rarely has so little screen time been put to such use by a class performer.

The Welsh actor was always in his roistering element in comedies bursting with life, and many enjoyed the burlesque relish of his Oscar-nominated supporting role as the eccentric Squire Western in Tony Richardson's ebullient Tom Jones (1963), from Henry Fielding's classic.

Griffith conveys superbly the cant, hypocrisy and devil-may-care qualities of a man delighting in getting his own way, but gives Tom Jones (Albert Finney) unforgettably uncomfortable moments in the hero's sexual odyssey.

Further success in the 1960s followed with notable roles in How To Steal A Million (1966) with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole and the musical adaptation of Oliver! (1968) starring Oliver Reed and Harry Secombe.

Aside from Ben-Hur, Griffith is perhaps most associated with the film comedy Grand Slam. It follows a group of Paris-bound Welsh rugby fans making the trip across the Channel to watch the climactic match in the Five Nations championship in the late 1970s.

He played the undertaker Caradog Lloyd-Evans alongside Windsor Davies and Dewi Morris. It was a huge hit, and is still popular with Welsh rugby fans today.

Griffith died of a heart attack in 1980, aged 67.

Related links

• BBC Wales Arts: Top 10 Welsh actors article by Dave Berry
• Hugh Griffith on the Internet Movie Database website
• Profile on the BFI Screen Online website

Harris, whose grandparents hailed from Merthyr Tydfil, told BBC News: "It's unbelievable for a start, it's very humbling and thrilling. I can't tell you how exciting it was when they asked if I would accept the award."

Rolf Harris at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in front of portraits by his grandfather GF Harris

Rolf's grandfather George Frederick Harris was a noted portrait painter. He revisited some of his grandfather's works at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery during the series Rolf on Welsh Art. Browse a photo gallery of images taken from the episode.

In this clip from the series, Rolf heads back to his Welsh artistic roots and Merthyr to find out more about GF Harris and attempts to paint in the style of Wales-based Australian artist Shani Rhys James.

Watch more clips from the television series and browse photo galleries from the episodes on Graham Sutherland, Josef Herman and Sir Kyffin Williams.

Related links

• In Pictures: Bafta TV Awards 2012
• Rolf Harris on BBC Wales Arts
• Rolf on Welsh Art
• Rolf Harris' official website

Genealogy website ancestry.co.uk has published the wills of millions of famous Britons online for the first time, including the likes of Thomas, Winston Churchill, Florence Nightingale, AA Milne, George Bernard Shaw and Beatrix Potter.

The probate record of the Welsh poet shows that effects worth just £100 were left to his widow Caitlin, which equates to roughly £2,300 in monetary value today.

Copy of the online probate record relating to Dylan Thomas. Courtesy of ancestry.co.uk

More than six million records dating from 1942 to 1966, that form part of the England and Wales National Probate Calendar, 1858-1966, have been put online.

When compared to sums left by other well known authors whose details have been unearthed during the publication of the records, Thomas' bequest seems a small sum indeed.

For instance author Lewis Carroll left £4,145 (approximately £440,000 today) to his younger brother Wilfred in 1898 while George Orwell is listed as having £9,908 (just under £280,000 today) to his name in 1950.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Churchill left behind effects totalling £304,044 (nearly £4.8 million today) to his wife Clementine in 1965.

Thomas died on 9 November 1953 in New York. The post mortem gave the primary cause of death as pneumonia, with pressure on the brain and a fatty liver given as contributing factors. He is buried at St Martin's Church in Laugharne.

Read more about Dylan Thomas on the BBC Wales Arts website.

Jenny Sullivan with her novel Full Moon

The author, who was born in Cardiff and lived in Raglan in Monmouthshire for many years, moved to Brittany in 2004. She often returns to Wales and did so last Friday to pick up the award, which was presented at Cardiff Central Library.

It's not the first time that the author has won the Tir na n-Og award, as she gained the accolade in 2006 for her historical novel Tirion's Secret Journal.

Sullivan said: "I am absolutely delighted and honoured to have won this major award for the second time. I must admit to being a compulsive writer and I'm currently working on a sequel to Full Moon."

In Full Moon average teenager Nia - "she likes make-up and boys, but she's not so keen on homework" - encounters a strange creature in her Aunty Gwen's cellar that only emerges during a full moon, and it changes her average life for ever.

The Tir na n-Og English Award recognises the exceptional quality of books with a Welsh background for children and young people.

The Welsh language winner will be announced in a ceremony at the 2012 National Urdd Eisteddfod in June.

Related links

• Welsh Books Council website
• BBC Cymru: Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2012

Gareth Evans

Evans is originally from Hirwaun in the Cynon Valley and graduated from the University of Glamorgan with a MA in Scriptwriting for Film and Television.

He was named by Variety as one of 2012's "directors to watch" and has written, edited and directed The Raid, which goes on general release in the UK this Friday.

The Raid is Evans' third directorial feature. Set in the slums of Jakarta the film's main focus and setting is an impenetrable 30 floor apartment block, a safe house that is home to some of the city's most hardened criminals.

A SWAT team is tasked with taking down the notorious drug baron who runs the safe house and it falls to the rookie member of the team Rama, played by Iko Uwais, to complete the mission.

Evans' fascination with Asian cinema began when he was a child, after he watched his first Bruce Lee film Enter The Dragon at what was probably too early an age, by his own admission.

He moved to Indonesia in 2007 and worked on a documentary called Land Of Moving Shadows about the lesser known martial art Pencak Silat.

The Raid publicity film poster

It was during filming that Evans started to realise the art's cinematic potential. In filming the documentary he met his future leading actor Iko Uwais, a student who was a delivery driver at the time.

The Raid is Evans' second foreign language film collaboration with Uwais; their first was Merantau, in which Uwais was the star and fight choreographer, and which first highlighted the art of Pencak Silat.

Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais

The Raid combines Pencak Silat with other martial art disciplines, fighting styles and weaponry and is the first in a planned trilogy of films surrounding its main character Rama. The sequel will be called Berandal.

The Raid played to sold-out crowds at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival. Unashamedly violent and gory, and most definitely one for the over 18s only, the film has picked up many rave reviews and has scooped a number of awards.

These include the Midnight Madness People's Choice Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival plus both the Audience Award for best film and the Dublin Film Critics Award for best film at the Dublin International Film Festival in February 2012.

Iko Uwais in The Raid

Another string to the film's bow is that the musical score has been composed by Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda, marking his début foray into the word of film score composing. He's teamed up with Joseph Trapanese for the score, who has recently worked on Tron: Legacy with Daft Punk.

The Raid opens in UK cinemas this Friday, 18 May.

Tune into this Friday's Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on Radio 5 Live to hear what Mark and Simon make of the film.

145 years on since his birth, on 13 May 1867, the name Brangwyn will always be closely associated with Swansea due to the panels. However, the Guildhall was not the original destination for the paintings.

The interior of the Brangwyn Hall. Photo taken in 1949

The panels were an original commission from the House of Lords.They voted in 1925 to commemorate the dead of World War One with a memorial that would sit in the the Royal Gallery at the Palace of Westminster.

The Royal Gallery, 100ft long and 45ft high, was - and still is - dominated by two giant paintings by Daniel Maclise. Depicting battles scenes from the Napoleonic wars, the vibrant colours used by Maclise in the paintings deteriorated drastically within two years of their hanging, and continued to fade thereafter.

The new art work was expected to compliment the faded paintings by Maclise, and would be painted in a series of 16 panels to fill the north and south walls of the gallery, covering an area of 3,000 square feet.

Lord Iveagh, Edward Guinness, was in charge of the commission and provided the fee of £20,000 at his personal expense - a huge amount of money for an artistic commission in the 1920s. He chose Frank Brangwyn as the artist to complete the task.

Brangwyn was born to a Welsh mother and English father in Bruges in 1867. He had no formal training but was incredibly versatile; his artistic output ranged from oil paintings to interior design and he had a reputation for large-scale mural work. This, together with the fact that he was one of the most famous and successful artists in Britain in the early part of the 20th century, made him the obvious choice for the commission.

Brangwyn worked on the large-scale war panels during 1925-6. They were in the same military vein as Maclise’s paintings and depicted events from World War One. Yet after months of working on the panels both he and his patron Lord Iveagh decided that the subject of war was wrong, and that the panels should be more optimistic and uplifting. Brangwyn later donated the panels to the National Museum Wales in Cardiff, where they now hang in the main hall.

Brangwyn restarted the commission with a new theme concentrated on the beauty of the Great Britain that would show the riches of the British Empire, and what the British forces had fought for during the war.

The new decorative and wildly colourful panels showed the people, beauty and the produce of the Empire, although the idea of the British Empire was fast become outmoded at the time. Scenes on the new panels included themes of fantasy, fruit, flora and fauna, from his studies of animals at London Zoo, and images from his travels.

Sadly Lord Iveagh died in October 1927, when Brangwyn had only completed only five of the 16 panels. Though Lord Iveagh’s trustees agreed to honour the commission the other peers repeatedly demanded to see the artist’s progress. The one condition that Brangwyn had made with Iveagh at the start of the commission was that he was able to work without interruption and that he wouldn’t have to show his work to anyone until the entire scheme was complete.

He had to relent and the five completed panels were erected in the Royal Gallery for the committee to view. They decided, with the advice of the Royal Fine Art Commission, that they were not suitable to be housed in the House of Lords. They were deemed inappropriate and too exuberant for the gallery as they wouldn’t sit in harmony with Maclise’s sombre paintings.

The rejection of the panels was a crushing blow for Brangwyn. He was encouraged by Iveagh’s trustees to complete the commission despite the decision and eventually finished the panels in October 1932 after seven years work.

In 1933 it was announced that the panels would be given to a municipality or a body who could house and display them. The panels were shown at the Ideal Home Exhibition in London in 1933 and happened to be viewed by Swansea councillor Leslie Hefferman.

The Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, in 1949, with the panels visible on the right

Hefferman was determined to bring the panels to Swansea but faced competition from other cities such as Cardiff, Liverpool and Birmingham who had also expressed an interest in housing the panels.

By chance, the Guildhall in Swansea was still in construction in 1933 and the architectural plans of the building could be adjusted - the ceiling height in particlular - to account for the huge panels. It was successfully selected by the trustees and in September 1934 the panels were transported to Swansea and installed in their new permanent home.

The Brangwyn Hall at the Guildhall, Swansea was officially opened on 23 October 1934 by HRH the Duke of Kent.

Brangwyn donated all the studies and preparatory drawings related to the panels to Swansea council, and are now displayed in the corridors of the Guildhall. It is thought that Brangwyn never made the journey to Swansea to see all 16 of his panels in their complete glory. He died on 11 June 1956.

Related links

• Frank Brangwyn on BBC Your Paintings
• Frank Brangwyn profile on BBC
• Frank Brangwyn website
• Wikipedia: Frank Brangwyn
• Brangwyn Hall and the Guildhall website