We're used to seeing the shepherd Ioan Doyle climbing mountains; but Ioan Doyle is also climbing high in several award festivals too.
Recently Defaid a Dringo, a docu-film that follows Ioan as he goes about tending his sheep and climbing, won the best climbing film in the Mendi Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain.
During the past eighteen months the programme has won awards in several climbing, adventure and outdoor festivals in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Canada, Austria, Cumbria, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Scotland.
Produced by Caernarfon-based Cwmni Da, the docu-film Defaid a Dringo follows a year in the life of the young climber from Bethesda, Ioan Doyle which includes his efforts to continue with his climbing career and his battle to establish his own business with his girlfriend, Helen.
You can also catch Ioan in S4C's current series, Blwyddyn y Bugail: Ioan Doyle every Monday at 8:25. During this series we'll follow climber and shepherd Ioan Doyle as he embarks on his first year as a sheep farmer in the Carneddau mountains, near Bethesda.
In the new programme on Monday, 2 February at 8:25 we'll see how Ioan copes with his new challenge as a presenter at the 2014 Royal Welsh Show, we'll also see him climbing on Owey Island in Donegal, Ireland. The series is available on Clic, with English subtitles.
Llion Iwan, S4C's Factual Commissioner;
"Defaid and Dringo is a tribute not only to the farmers, and young climbers but also to the community who understand and respect the landscape and animals that are a part of people's livelihoods. It also reflects the high production standard of the director Alun Hughes, who's won a load of awards with programmes like Dringo i'r Eitha, as well as this series, and the production company has created many special highlights on the channel."
