#Port Talbot

[invisibleicewands]

Bringing revolution to Port Talbot - by Michael Sheen

On a recent February morning, I woke up to find I was wrong. Not a particularly uncommon experience in itself, but unusual to discover that on this occasion I was being publicly accused of it by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. “Michael Sheen has said that ‘the people of Port Talbot have been let down’,” Kemi Badenoch wrote in the Daily Mail. “But he is wrong.”

It was a big day. I spent all of last year directing a three-part drama series for the BBC called The Way, which was to air that night. It begins in my hometown of Port Talbot, where a strike at the local steelworks becomes the spark that ignites a violent descent into national chaos. Clearly, Ms Badenoch had been given a sneak peek of the series before forming quite a strong opinion on it. But no: reading her article, Ms Badenoch admits that she hadn’t watched it at all. Why let a total lack of information prevent a full-throated denouncement, eh? Presumably, she also assumes that we managed to write, film and edit the entire series after Tata Steel announced the imminent loss of some 2,500 jobs at the steelworks mere weeks ago.

While the winds of change have only been blowing in one direction for many years, the events in our story were dreamed up some years ago and act as a fictional catalyst for all that follows. Surely even Tory ministers understand there is no VIP fast lane for making a TV series. This isn’t a PPE contract, after all…

Nothing to see here

After that episode aired, it occurred to me that such shenanigans in the right-wing press could have been about a couple of things. Since the ITV drama about the Post Office scandal, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, caused public outrage, I imagine the government has a new fear of the impact a TV show can have. A pre-emptive strike against a series it perceives to be criticising its actions around the steel industry must have seemed a useful tactic. And, having seen Breathtaking – based on Rachel Clarke’s memoir of how the Covid crisis unfolded in the NHS, which aired on ITV the same night as The Way – I wonder if her piece was an attempt to distract attention away from more dangerous territory.

It gave Ms Badenoch a chance to trot out her line about how the people of Port Talbot should be grateful for all that the government is doing to save the steel industry, not moaning about the impact job losses will have on their community. But the people of Port Talbot have been let down, no matter what Ms Badenoch wants us to think. Not by any single entity, but by years of neglect. That she immediately assumed my comments referred to her and her government tells its own story. In the words of a much older drama than mine: the lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Then and Nye

“This crisis is a privateering racket with your friends lining their pockets!” No, not an accusation against Boris Johnson, but something I currently say to Winston Churchill every night. We opened a new play called Nye at the National Theatre this week. I play Aneurin (“Nye”) Bevan, who attacks the prime minister for turning a wartime crisis into a money-making scheme for him and his cronies. It’s one of many moments in the play that seem to speak to past and present at the same time.

The entanglement of “now” and “then” is heightened by the fact that I am wearing pyjamas. Nye is lying unconscious in his hospital bed at the end of his life, and we follow him through a dream of his past. He wanders from childhood memories of overcoming his stutter in Tredegar library to his meteoric rise through local politics, to becoming the youngest member of Clement Attlee’s pioneering postwar cabinet. And, of course, as minister for health, his tumultuous birthing of the NHS on 5 July 1948. It’s an extraordinary, surprising and moving experience telling this story on stage each night. That shared space between actors and audience, where all is felt but unseen, crackles with electricity.

Once more, with feeling

It seems that exploring the motives of politicians, the uses and abuses of political power, and the quest for justice that saw the creation of the NHS taps into deep wells of emotion. Like the pockets of gas that miners feared within the coal seam, their release brings risk and reward. At a recent show, we had three instances of people needing to be helped out of the theatre, the final one forcing us to pause the show moments from its end. Thankfully, it was nothing more serious than someone fainting. But emotions are running high.

I’m more than happy to invite Ms Badenoch to a performance. But I realise, of course, there’s no guarantee she would make it to the end.

#Michael Sheen #The Way #Port Talbot #politics #Nye #the man knows how to write

[michaelsheendaily]

sneak peak at Michael Sheen's new mini series The Way

#michael sheen #michaelsheenedit #the way #directed by michael sheen #welsh dragon #port talbot #michaelsheendaily

[greeneyed-thestral]

#michael sheen #port talbot #passion in port talbot #the gospel of us

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

angel ❤

#michael sheen #port talbot #michael sheen being an awesome human being #Youtube

[flannelandcurls]

Snack time with Teacher! "If we all take a tiny piece from these six sandwiches we may be able to feed all of you." (not exact quote). Peter (white shirt) is the one who brought the food. Asking the townspeople to tell stories about the town. One said there was a fire on the hill beyond the river they're next to. Picking the skin off of an apple, because..Michael. *shrug* lol

Michael Sheen as Teacher in the 72hr play "The Passion of Port Talbot" as well as "Gospel of Us".

#michael sheen #sandwiches #apple #snack #port talbot

[glitterypin]

Michael Sheen strumming a ukulele, from the BBC Wales documentary Michael Sheen: The Fight For My Steel Town (x)

#michael sheen #ukulele #michael sheen: the fight for my steel town #bbc #bbc wales #port talbot #welshest boi

[kenmarten]

Town Textures

#photographers on tumblr #original photographic works #monochrome #black and white photography #black and white #ken marten #photography #port talbot #documenting wales #wales #steel town #urban textures

[procrastiel]

sooo, did anyone else spot the nightingale in Michael Sheen's The Way episode 2 or was it just me

#a nightingale sang in berkeley square #well. almost. it sang in a forest outside #Port Talbot #but close enough #nightingale #good omens #reference #the way #michael sheen #pretty birds #ineffable fandom #ineffable heartbreak #gomens #crowzi #i have things to say #ineffable husbands

[reihino1988]

Well, today Is the day

#michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #the gospel of us #port talbot #the passion of port talbot

[ourtubahero-blog]

As part of your daily dose of antidepressants, here’s a picture of Michael Sheen petting a dog!

#michael sheen #aziraphale #good omens #good ineffable omens #ineffable husbands #Michael Sheen petting a dog #your dose of love #antidepressants #the sheendex #sheendex #good ineffable husbands #Michael loves animals #the white curl #The gospel of us #port talbot

[technicallysweetvoid]

Last night’s preview screening for “The Way” was fantastic! Highly recommend watching this new 3-part series when it comes out.

A few photos here - for any Good Omens/Sheen fans! - from a really interesting Q&A, at the BFI Southbank in London on 5th Feb. They’ll announce the release date tomorrow. I’m excited to see the rest

It was also really fun to meet/have a drink with some GO fans there, who were utterly lovely!

#michael sheen #good omens fandom #michaelsheenedit #the way #port talbot

[invisibleicewands]

The Way premiere (S4C) - 16/02/2024

#Michael Sheen #The Way #Port Talbot #S4C

[rainbowpopeworld]

46 minutes of Michael Sheen being earnest and sweet. A visit to things from his past, which ends up being a love letter of sorts to Port Talbot, Wales. Brief cameo by David Tennant

#just trying to find things to feed my hyperfixation #good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #michael sheen #david tennant #jennifer saunders #port talbot #wales #Vimeo

[parttimesarah]

Michael Sheen as “The Teacher” in The Passion of Port Talbot

#we love theatre boys #especially socially conscious theatre boys #michael sheen #the passion #port talbot #theatre #site-specific theatre

[crusheswhimsandfancies]

The Way - episode 1: The War

#enjoyed this #very dramatic #also #michael sheen #as a 1980s miner is kinda hot #just saying #I enjoyed his moustache #the way #bbc the way #port talbot

[michaelsheenpt]

Nightshoots for "The Way", the three-part drama directed and co-created by Michael Sheen

The Way will tap into “the social and political chaos of today’s world by imagining a civil uprising which begins in a small industrial town”, according to the BBC.

The drama is set to follow the Driscolls, a seemingly ordinary family who find themselves part of a story of life, death and survival.

After finding themselves caught up in the fallout of civil unrest, the family is forced to flee their home country.

The Way will follow the Driscolls as they attempt to escape their old life, despite the risk of finding themselves burdened with memories of their past.

Speaking about the project, director Mr Sheen said: “I’m such an admirer of Adam and James’ work, so to create this project with them in these extraordinary times has been thrilling.

“I’m so excited to be telling this global story through the prism of my home town and its community as we dig into the rollercoaster ride of our recent past and the mysterious depths that lay beneath.”

#michael sheen #the way #behind the scenes #twitter #port talbot