The Rhondda - re-imagined

If you think you know the Rhondda, think again. John Geraint’s kaleidoscopic portrait of his native valley – brimful of exuberant characters and inspirational stories of community renewal – is a real eye opener.

Up the Rhondda!, published this week by Y Lolfa, is a collection of 43 pieces by one of Wales’ most experienced documentary filmmakers. In it, we meet eccentric schoolteachers, working-class ‘billionaires’, the man who invented Corona pop and the masterminds behind Treorchy’s rise to become Britain’s champion high street.

Based on author John Geraint’s popular Radio Rhondda show and podcast, John on the Rhondda, each chapter brings to life a distinct and authentic aspect of the Rhondda experience. It’s a masterful re-telling of the valley’s astonishing past, as you’d expect from the man responsible for the BBC’s landmark history of the nation, The Story of Wales.

Rhondda, in its coal-mining heyday, comes to life as “a linear city in a thoroughly modern milieu: trendy shopping emporia, top-class entertainment venues, state-of-the-art sport stadia and a network of electric tramcars running the length of the twin valleys.”

John Geraint says:

“The Rhondda of my childhood sang with a brio that was far more than plain defiance. Rhondda people shared a bond, a fellow-feeling that seemed so natural to us, but was so hard-won. There is something in that shared experience – something I’ve tried to represent and celebrate in the TV programmes I’ve made, as well as in this book – something that we need to pay attention to, not out of sentimental attachment to the past, but because it’s a glimpse of something humanity has always been searching for: a way of living that’s fair shares and fair do’s for everybody, a world we can all enjoy the better, because it’s better for all of us.”

As West End singing star Sophie Evans says in the book’s foreword:

“From sport to religion, and from schooldays to shopping, the values celebrated in these chapters make me understand why I feel so proud to come from the Rhondda, and why I’m justified in feeling that pride.”

John Geraint maps the meanings of Rhondda place names, and drills down to the bedrock of the Valley’s famous camaraderie. He takes us down crazily angled terraced streets, on magical mountain walks, from ‘Bracchi’ cafés to see Rhondda heroes on the silver screen. More than a back-catalogue of hiraeth, Up the Rhondda! is about the values the valley has invented and imagined, the values its lived by, and how they might yet guide the Rhondda – and the wider world – towards a better, fairer future.