BAFTA recognition

John Hefin. Credit BAFTA Cymru.

John Hefin. Credit BAFTA Cymru.

09 October 2012

John Hefin, former Teaching Fellow in Film in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies (TFTS) at Aberystwyth University, has been awarded a BAFTA Cymru Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television Drama.

The award, presented by Elan Closs Stephens, Emeritus Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth University, was given in recognition of John’s invaluable contribution to the creative industries in Wales and beyond over a period of forty years.

The BAFTA ceremony took place in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 30 September.

Joining the BBC as a production assistant in 1962, John went on to become the Corporation’s Head of Drama in Wales.  

He is probably best known as the creator and chief instigator of the BBC’s longest running and hugely popular soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, which first aired in 1974.

He also produced and directed award winning series and programmes such as The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (starring Philip Madoc) and Off to Philadelphia in the Morning (starring Sian Phillips).

His 1978 film, Grand Slam, starring Windsor David, Hugh Griffith, Sharon Morgan, Dewi Pws Morris and Siôn Probert, has achieved cult status.  

John was a Teaching Fellow in film at Aberystwyth University in the late 1990s and early 2000s and is a Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is a member of the Gorsedd of Bards and was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to film.

Dr Jamie Medhurst, Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, welcomed the award, “As a Department, we are thrilled that a friend and former colleague has been recognised in this way. He is highly respected because of his enormous body of work and the award acknowledges John’s exceptional contribution to the creative industries in Wales.”

The awards ceremony was hosted by The One Show presenter Alex Jones who is a former Theatre, Film and Television Studies student and a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.

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