S4C uncovers unseen footage of the Lloyd George family
06 January 2012
On Sunday 8 January at 20:30, an S4C history programme is to feature previously unseen home movie footage of Megan Lloyd George and her father David Lloyd George.
In the new series Mamwlad (Motherland), Ffion Hague presents the stories of seven remarkable women who made their mark on Welsh history.
The series begins on Sunday 8 January at 20:30 (S4C, English subtitles) with the story of Megan Lloyd George – Wales’ first female MP.
The producer Catrin Edwards talks about the excitement of receiving the priceless footage from Megan’s nephew Bengy Carey Evans.
“I felt the weight of the responsibility to keep the films safe – so much so that I almost felt I should sleep with them under the pillow until I could transfer them safely to the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales in Aberystwyth,” says Catrin.
“They’re fascinating films which have been shot between the 1920s and 60s - some show Megan as a young woman with her father, and others show her during middle age in her home in Cricieth. It is an interesting and important personal archive.”
Presenter Ffion Hague is an expert on David Lloyd George, but what will the programme tell us about his daughter?
“Her name is very familiar to us, but mostly Megan is only discussed in the context of her father’s life and career. Our interest in her is different,” says Ffion.
“How did it feel to walk into Parliament as one of only 16 women, and the only woman from Wales? Did she open the door for other women? And did she ever manage to step out of her father’s shadow?"
During the programme we see how Megan inherited some of her father’s traits, as Catrin Edwards explains.
“We discovered that she was a talented broadcaster. She’d embraced that new medium and was a regular and popular contributor to the early BBC politics radio programmes from the late 1920s. She had the ability to speak to listeners and especially to young women who identified with her, in an intimate and meaningful way. She was also a powerful public orator, something she certainly inherited from her father,” says Catrin.
