Having performed last year at the First Night of the Proms, the Chorus were chuffed to be invited back this year. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ choral family - , and joined forces for the first time and with just a short rehearsal before the concert, broadcasting live to tens of thousands of people on television and radio, it’s was an exciting and nerve-wracking time. There were over 400 of us performing Belshazzar's Feast (by William Walton) and the sound that filled the Royal Albert Hall was phenomenal.

There was no rest for me as we went straight into a Prom the next night. Over the last year our Orchestra has engaged with thousands of children through the project, which culminated in two Proms. With a life sized Firebird (inspired by Stravinsky) flying through the Royal Albert Hall, trolls causing chaos and our Principal Conductor Thomas Søndergård teaching Dick & Dom to conduct, you could see and hear the excitement of some the Orchestra’s youngest fans.

Outreach work is another part of my role so just before we started the Proms, the Orchestra, a few Chorus members and I introduced these Ten Pieces to schools in North and Mid Wales. Teaching the children to sing Zadok the Priest (by Handel) and creating thunderstorms with our hands was lots of fun!

With a few more Proms ahead of us it's a very busy time of year but for the Chorus and Orchestra it’s definitely a highlight, and of course bringing some of the magic of the Proms back to Wales at Proms in the Park in Swansea is the perfect finale for us.

Find out more about ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales at the Proms on the website.

And you can see all of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales’s latest Proms at 

Now in its fifth year, the weekend-long event aims to provoke interest in the arts and get children feeling creative. Last year 4,000 young people got involved, and organisers are hoping to build on that number in 2014.

West End star Connie Fisher, one of the festival’s patrons, is hosting an interactive performance workshop to demonstrate techniques to build confidence and help every performer while they are under the glare of the stage lights. There will be different workshops for different age groups taking place on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 January.

Keen artists can benefit from a workshop with Korky Paul, illustrator of the popular children’s book Winnie The Witch, which will see Korky reading aloud from the books and showing how fun reading, writing and drawing can be.

Fans of Jeremy Strong, award winning author of the My Brother’s Famous Bottom series and The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog books, can find out just where he gets his ideas for his host of quirky characters in a special session on Sunday.

There will also be a Horrible Histories workshop with the Birmingham Stage Company, exploring the crimes committed in Tudor times with the chance to take part in a trial and discover the punishments that lay in store for those who were found guilty.

Other events include workshops in dance, comedy, West End stage, radio, photography, graffiti and graphic design. There will also be Lego building on a giant scale, clog, ballet and break-dance sessions, circus skills classes, lessons in beat-boxing and rap, storytelling and puppetry sessions and the chance to build nest boxes for endangered swifts with the Small World Theatre Company.

Visitors should also make sure they don’t miss the beautiful live music, light and movement show by SPARK! It promises seven mysterious characters composed of light and sound who will transform the landscape around them through high impact drumming, dynamic choreography and beautiful lighting design.

take pART is on 11 and 12 January 2014, from 10am - 4.30pm.

For the full line-up visit or

Mark told me that he and Theatr Iolo's artistic director, Kevin Lewis, were keen to create a piece that offered a totally immersive experience for the family while they were in the theatre, yet encouraged them to use their imaginations long after the show was over.

Mark said: "We wanted the families who see the show to enjoy it as they would a big family film or a Saturday night teatime show like Doctor Who or Merlin.

"In theatre those sorts of shows tend to be TV productions that have been adapted for the stage but we wanted this to be created specifically for the stage.

"The show is fantastical and has a strong story like many films but really utilises the imaginative freedom of theatre."

Here Be Monsters is aimed at ages eight plus and centres on Ed and Elfi, two children who have each suddenly found themselves with an unwanted new sibling due to their parents' new relationship.

Neither of the children is too keen on the arrangement, but when they realise their town is besieged by monsters they set aside their differences and team up to vanquish the beasts.

Mark added: "I love stories that use fantasy to transform the everyday world, from writers like Philip Pullman, JK Rowling and Susan Cooper to the enduring enchantment of Doctor Who.

"I wanted to write a play that combined a scary, exciting and fun adventure with humour and heart - characters who go on a personal journey that's just as much of a challenge as their magical quest.

"And I also wanted to tell a big story in a small town setting - to explore what new forms mythical monsters might take, should they turn up on our doorstep."

As the production team did not have any special effects tricks or green screen experts at their disposal, the play's monsters are those that can be found anywhere and everywhere, even in the most mundane settings.

Mark said: "As we were developing the idea I was amazed how much we could create simply through storytelling and simple theatrical techniques."

Kevin said: "We're delighted to be producing Here Be Monsters – it's a big, big show for us, a real 'summer blockbuster' as we’re calling it.

"Mark's script is just fantastic – engaging, funny and just the right amount of scary.

"While the script itself is quite filmic with lots of different locations, characters and of course the monsters, my challenge as director has been to translate all of that into a theatrical production.

"We want our young and not so young audiences to have an experience that asks them to use their imaginations and that really shows off what live theatre can do that other mediums can't.

"We've also been running workshops with schools before the summer holidays to really build up the experience and to take the imagination and theatricality out into the real world."

The company was recently awarded Winner of Best Play for Children and Young People by the Theatre Critics of Wales Awards 2013 for Grimm Tales and Kevin was one of three nominees in the Arts and Culture category in the Inspire Wales Awards 2013.

Mark's novel Sleepless Knights is published by Atomic Fez and will be launched next month. It focuses on a character in the old Arthurian stories called Lucas who also appears in work by Sir Thomas Mallory and was a butler figure to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Mark said: "I find it fascinating that it was somebody's job to take a practical approach to what happened in these legends, sort of like Alfred the butler in Batman or Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster.

"The Arthurian story ended so sadly and I really wanted to explore how that would affect someone who was involved so closely in it."

The story is set in modern Wales where King Arthur and six of his knights are exposed as living among us and references many of the fragments of Welsh legend that still exist here.

Here Be Monsters is on at Chapter in Cardiff from 6-10 August at 2pm, with additional 7pm performances on 8-9 August.

It will also show at the Park & Dare, Treorchy; Borough Theatre, Abergavenny; The Welfare Hall, Ystradgynlais; Blackwood Miners' Institute; The Riverfront, Newport; The Torch Theatre, Milford Haven; and Ffwrnes, Llanelli on various dates.

For more information on the production visit .

Mark Williams will be chatting to on Monday, 22 July, about Here Be Monsters. Tune in from 1pm.

Igam Ogam is a naughty cave girl who does behave quite badly at times and likes nothing more than going on adventures with her friend Roly and during the process of this show, discovers her own shadow.

The production – which is suitable for children aged two to six and their families - is produced by Coreo Cymru and the Wales Millennium Centre in association with Calon TV, who Carole says have been very receptive to the idea of their character being developed into a stage show.

It marks a new direction for Wales Millennium Centre, as the landmark Cardiff theatre moves into producing its own theatre shows, as well as hosting them.

Louise Miles-Crust, head of programming at Wales Millennium Centre, said: "We know that Wales has the performers, creative talent and backstage and technical crew to compete on a world stage and it is important for us to facilitate this by producing our own shows, for audiences in Wales and beyond.

"Children's theatre is vitally important to us. Since we opened nine years ago, we have hosted countless shows for children of all ages.

"The excitement we see on the young faces as they experience live theatre, perhaps for the first time, is inspiring.

"In a digital age, it is wonderful for children to see the action unfolding in front of them, for them to interact with the characters through singing and dancing, and to become a part of the experience."

Carole added: "It will feature a prehistoric set specially created by Sean Cavanagh, from Abergavenny, who has worked on high profile West End productions including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

"It is all on different levels and has slides, trampolines and seesaws, so is sort of like an obstacle course. I imagine the young audience will find it very tempting to climb on stage and get stuck in.

"There are also puppets of other favourite characters from the Igam Ogam show, under the guidance of puppeteer Rachel Canning, a former student of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

"They really add to the performance and it's a very physical show so the children are encouraged to sing and dance along with the characters."

Igam Ogam has been funded by Arts Council Wales and the tour will feature both Welsh and English versions of the show. A soundtrack has been specially created by composer Julian Martin, who also wrote the music for the animation.

Pontypool dancer Lauren Lee Jones plays Igam Ogam and her sidekick Roly is played by Orris Gordon.

The Igam Ogam Show tour begins at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Sunday 23 June, before moving to the Lyric, Carmarthen, The Welfare, Ystradgynlais, The Riverfront, Newport, Neuadd Dwyfor, Gwynedd, and various theatres across Wales before it comes to the Weston Studio in the Wales Millennium Centre in August.

For full details .

The recession has brought tough times for independent retailers, so you might be forgiven for thinking that Sean has sent his own request to Santa this year, for more customers.

But not so. While acknowledging that the shop's first festive season is crucial, Sean says business has been brisk.

"It's extremely important for us," he says, "but I'm not at all nervous about it because we have been very busy since we opened. The amount of stock that we have been selling has tripled.

"As a whole, UK independent toy shops are struggling against the chains but at the end of the day everybody has their own business model.

"We offer a lot of attractions in the shop and we're doing really well because we'll go the extra mile for our customers.

"We also stock toys that are not available in big stores."

In the toy world Christmas always brings talk of crazes. Which parent or child could forget the years when a Buzz Lightyear, a Tracy Island or a Cabbage Patch Doll were as rare as hen's teeth and yet a must have under the tree?

There is no stand-out favourite toy this Christmas, says Sean.

"There are quite a few crazes this year," he says. "There's Skylanders Giants, which are action figures. They were the number one toy last Christmas. And there's also Moshi Monsters."

This, however, does not necessarily mean a relaxed Christmas for the doting parent. Another vintage craze is making a comeback after 14 years, Sean adds, and is already looking scarce.

"Furbys have completely sold out this year. They've sold out in a lot of the bigger toy chains stores too," he says, referring to the robotic doll which looks a little like a cross between an owl and a hamster.

"The Fisher Price record player has also sold out."

Of course stressed shoppers are another Christmas staple, but Sean is of the opinion that this is another area in which the indie toy shop can beat the big chain store.

"It's quite a stress-free environment in our shop," he says. "There's something about a small independent toy shop that disarms people.

"We also sell sweets and the high-powered smell of chocolate that greets people when they walk in usually does the trick."

Sean's shop employs five, but also receives important feedback from his two children, aged eight and 14, who one presumes always stay one step ahead of the trends.

"My children can be the envy of their mates," says Sean," but they help out in the store and in choosing products to sell."

Their father will be working right up until Christmas Eve, he says, and then has plans for his own Christmas celebrations.

"I'm hoping to enjoy Christmas Day then go on a well-earned holiday."

The top 10 most popular toys for Christmas this year*

1. Fisher Price Classics (Record Player, Teaching Clock etc)
2. Furby
3. Skylanders Giants Game & Figures
4. Ludo Board Game
5. Remote Control Inflatable R2-D2 (Star Wars)
6. Contruction Bricks (Lego, Cobi, Megabloks)
7. Warhammer Models
8. Traditional Wooden Train Sets
9. Moshi Monsters
10. Puppets (Hand Puppets & Finger Puppets)

*According to Mr Mac's Magical Emporium

The Snow Tiger opens today at the Sherman Cymru, where it runs for two nights before going on a tour of Wales.

It is aimed at 3-6 year-olds and is written by Philip Michell from Abergavenny, based on a traditional Scandinavian folk tale.

Mared said: "This was one of the first pieces I commissioned, so it’s been very interesting to see it all the way through to production.

"I found the world he created very appealing. It's set in the snow lands in a little village in the mountains that's far away from everything and it just felt really magical.

"I was really interested in the idea of people living with nature and the threats facing animals. I thought it would be worth exploring why we should respect what nature brings us and learn to co-exist with animals.

"I liked the idea of focusing on the fact that nature can be cold or dangerous rather than focusing on nasty people and ‘stranger danger' as I think children are exposed to too much of that sometimes."

The Snow Tiger or Teigr yr Eira follows the journey of a little boy called Usko, who is fascinated with the popular tale of this magical, rarely seen beast.

His sense of adventure means he is often off exploring when people’s backs are turned and one day he sneaks off to find the snow tiger but gets lost.

All the actors play live instruments and sing and there are puppets to help convey the story to its young audience.

Mared added: "I think there’s a lovely message about going on an adventure but coming home safe, which I think is important for that age group."

She admits having her daughter has helped her know what to look for when commissioning work for youngsters, but admits: "I have always been close to my inner child anyway."

The cast for The Snow Tiger includes: Carwyn Jones (Theatr Bara Caws, Cwmni Da), Bethan Mai (S4C Pentalar and Darn o Dir) and Alun Saunders (presenter on Cyw and has also performed in shows with Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Theatr na'nOg and S4C's Gwaith/Cartref, Caerdydd).

The enchanting story will be taken to school audiences at venues across south Wales on a tour that lasts more than three weeks and will take in Blackwood Miners Institute, Theatr Bryncheiniog, Riverfront Theatre, Pontardawre, Garthowlg Theatre, Porthcawl Theatre and St Donats, among others.

It then returns to the Sherman on 11 December where it offers a Christmas treat for families until 5 January.

The theatre is also putting on the more traditional Peter Pan, adapted by Penarth writer Rob Evans and directed by Roisin McBrinn, which runs from 30 November to 5 January.

For Mared 2013 looks just as action packed. She is directing a 'RAW production' at the Sherman in January, part of a series to showcase the work of emerging writers.

Then she will be working on three short plays in Welsh which are being put together for a project in the summer as well as continuing to develop new work for the theatre.

For details of tickets and showings visit .

A pumpkin lantern

These days the night before All Hallows Day has been "Americanized" to the extent that nearly all Christian and pagan connections with the time have been forgotten under a welter of witches hats and trick or treat games. But there used to be much more to Hallowe'en and here in Wales the traditions of Galan Gaeaf, as the night is called, go back many generations.

The origins of Hallowe'en celebrations are a little unclear. Certainly it is the eve of All Hallows or All Saints Day, a major Catholic festival. It is also the eve of a pagan Celtic festival of the dead, a time when spirits were thought to walk the earth. This festival was known as Samhain and 31 October and 1 November each year are now a time when Christian and pagan celebrations intertwine for a brief period.

In rural communities, long before the industrialisation of Britain destroyed many of the old traditions, the end of autumn and the first day of winter - 1 November - was a cause for celebration.

The harvest had been gathered in, excess livestock had been culled or killed off and put into storage for the coming year. It was very much a communal festivity, a time for celebration and enjoyment. Everyone, from the farmer to the lowest cow hand, had participated in growing crops and keeping the animals and now they would celebrate together.

Often this manifested itself in the traditions such as the harvest mare. Corn would be fashioned into the shape of a horse and hung above the hearth. But getting the harvest mare into the house was a cause of much horseplay - the origin of the term - when women tried to prevent it coming inside, soaking it with water, and the men attempted to keep it dry.

In Wales 1 November, the first day of winter, was called Calan Gaeaf. The night before - the eve of the day - was referred to as Nos Galan Gaeaf or, occasionally Spirit Night. And many traditions gradually grew up around the festival. Almost inevitably, they were connected with all things frightening or disconcerting.

One of these was called Coelcerth. A fire was built, everyone placing stones with their names on in and around the fire. If any stone and name were missing the following morning, that person would die during the coming year. It is easy to imagine the thrill of apprehension and horror as people looked for their stones in the cold light of day!

Being frightened soon became an essential part of Galan Gaeaf. The image of Y Hwch Ddu Gwta, a black sow without a tail, accompanied by a headless woman, that would together roam the countryside, terrified everyone on Galan Gaeaf when the best place to be was inside your house in front of a roaring fire.

Even then there were dangers. Touching or smelling ground ivy was thought to make you see hags or witches while you slept. In order to see into the future boys were told to cut 10 leaves of ivy, throw one away and put the rest under their pillows. For girls seeing what would come was a much more rigorous process. They had to grow a rose, train it around a large hoop, then slip through the hoop three times before cutting the rose and placing it under their pillow when they went to bed that night.

Traditions changed, of course, with each region or part of the country altering things to suit themselves. The American custom of trick or treat actually has a Scottish origin, guising as it was known, while modern customs such as apple bobbing or the lighting of bonfires on Hallowe'en night go back many years.

Traditionally, if a woman wanted to see the face of the man she would marry, on Hallowe'en night she would darken her room and look into the mirror. The face of her future bridegroom was supposed to materialise behind her. If, however, a skull was to appear, it meant that she would die before the year was out. In Pembrokeshire in the 1950s this tradition had changed to the more simple one of never looking into a mirror on Hallowe'en or else you would see witches and demons in your sleep.

In the 18th century, as Britain changed from a rural to an urban country, many - but not all - of the Hallowe'en or Galan Gaeaf customs died out. The ghost story is one that has remained and 31 October each year is a time to bring out the tall tales and terrify yourself with visions of headless horsemen and spectral wraiths, knowing of course that when you wake up on 1 November everything will be back to normal. You hope!

Children listing to the radio in 1939

They watched the newsreel features, usually pushed in between the first and second features at the cinema, and read comics that told stories about conflict and the bravery of soldiers.

They collected cigarette cards showing things like war planes of the world and Air Raid Precautions. And yet they, like everyone else, were stunned when war finally broke out in 1939.

Welsh children reacted by doing what they did best - they carried on playing. Not, in those days, on computer games or television. Such luxuries lay well in the future.

Games for children, in cities like Cardiff or Swansea and in rural areas such as Pembroke and Ruthin, were invariably what you could make up in your head:

"We had hopscotch and rounders, marbles and 'Mob.' For 'Mob' you shut your eyes, counted to 20 and then you had to find your friends. Indoors, at night, we played games like Snakes and Ladders or Ludo and Snap. We got around by bus or bicycle. Or simply by walking. There was no being picked up by cars... Once a year you might have a real treat, to go by train to Barry Island for the day."
(Sylvie Bailey in Wales at War)

British toy manufacturers soon cottoned on to a growing or developing market. In pre-war days, many of the best diecast toys had tended to come from Germany, from firms like Bing who had been making them for years.

After the outbreak of hostilities such toys or models were no longer available and British toy makers had no alternative but to produce their own.

In the early days of the war a whole range of tanks, warships and aeroplanes were produced, many of them from manufacturers in places like Merthy Tydfil. It was only as the war went on that materials for such luxuries became scarce and from 1942 onwards such toys were in very short supply. Children were forced to jealously guard their old and, by now, rather battered models.

No matter. For the children of Wales there was always the great outdoors. Racing across the fields, building hides and dens, even playing in the wrecks of crashed aeroplanes, these were what mattered. To the mind of a child, the destruction going on overhead or overseas meant very little. The imagination was all-powerful.

Even the impedimenta of war provided the opportunity for play. Gas mask cases made excellent goal posts while the masks themselves were sometimes the source of unexpected fun, as one man from Newport remembered:

"Every now and then the teacher would call out 'Gas,' in which case we had to get our masks out and put them on. We soon realised that by blocking the intake and then blowing, air was expelled from the sides of the mask. And very realistic farting sounds were made. You'd hear the muffled laughter from inside the masks."
(Bryan Hope in Wales at War)

Shrapnel collecting was one of the most popular activities, particularly in places such as Swansea and Barry, towns that - once France had fallen and, therefore, the range of German bombers extended - were heavily attacked on a regular basis.

On the morning after a raid, parties of children would roam the streets searching for the largest or most interesting pieces of shrapnel. Sometimes the shrapnel - the odd pieces of anti-aircraft shells or bombs that were scattered across the place - was still hot. Shrapnel collecting was an activity that both boys and girls enjoyed and long and intense were the discussions in the school playground over who had acquired the best bits.

Many children belonged to organisations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. During the war years these groups quickly turned their activities towards helping children and young people do their bit for the war effort.

Collecting metal to turn into planes and erecting Morrison Shelters - steel tables in living rooms for people who had no room to build a shelter out in the garden - were just two of the many tasks that the scouts carried out. The creation of the Air Cadets soon offered another outlet for activity and ATC Squadrons came into existence right across Wales.

Above all, however, there was the cinema. During the war years the popularity of cinema going reached its zenith as men, women and children queued around the block to watch the latest Hollywood epic and the cartoons that were universally adored.

To lose yourself in a cowboy film or a classic like Gone With The Wind was an opportunity, brief as it might be, to forget the troubles of the war for a few short hours. It was something that everyone enjoyed.

It would be wrong to say that the children of Wales - just like children across Britain - enjoyed the war years. But they endured them and, quite simply, made the best out of a very bad job.

Child evacuees preparing to leave London

Wales was too far to the west to be greatly influenced or affected, out of range of the German bombers, and well protected by the huge might of the Royal Navy.

And yet, contrary to what they believed, the outbreak of war did have an immediate impact on Welsh children when the government, on the day after the declaration of war, closed all of the schools in Britain for a period of up to a week - and Welsh schools were included in the list of closures.

This extra week's holiday brought great delight for children all over the country but its purpose was both pragmatic and sensible - its purpose, in fact, was pure safety. Nobody knew if air attacks would be launched by Germany and schools, along with cinemas and almost any places of public gathering, could offer great targets. That much had been learned by the and Gotha bombing raids of World War One when several hundred civilians had been killed and a school in the East End of London destroyed in one of the later raids.

Much better to shut down these places where large numbers of people congregated, at least for a while. That would, at least, keep people safe. No immediate bombing attacks took place, however, and, to the dismay of the children, most schools re-opened within the week, thus making the extra holiday very short lived indeed.

Evacuees in Newtown and Oswestry

The other event that had an immediate affect on Welsh children was the arrival of hundreds of evacuees in the towns and villages, even in the cities, of the country. The government had laid out plans for wholesale evacuation of children from large industrial centres like London, Liverpool and Birmingham long before war actually began.

In fact there had already been an evacuation programme in operation during the Munich Crisis of 1938 but once Prime Minister Chamberlain had secured "peace in our time" it was abandoned and all of the children soon returned home.

The was an altogether more serious affair and to government planners and civil servants it was inevitable that, sooner or later, war against Hitler's Germany would break out.

As a consequence, Britain had been divided up into three separate regions or sections - neutral, reception and evacuation. Neutral areas were those parts of the country where there was not any great danger while reception regions were the places where evacuated people could be safely housed.

Evacuation areas were those places where danger from bombing was greatest and therefore parts of the country where the most vulnerable members of society - namely the very young - needed to be removed. Most of Wales were designated as a reception area.

The order to evacuate children was given on 31 August 1939, three days before war broke out. Over the following week almost two million people, most of them children, were sent away from their families in the industrial cities of the south east and the Midlands into the countryside of the west. Many of them went to the rural parts of south and north Wales.

In many cases schools were evacuated en masse, teachers simply moving with their pupils. Very young children were accompanied by their mothers but, in the main, it was a case of simply heading for the station and setting off for places unknown and probably never even dreamed about:

"I remember a crocodile of little ones having to walk to school. There we were tagged with a luggage label with our name and details. And then we were taken by bus to the station and put on a train." (Dennis Barratt in Wales At War)

The traumatic effect of such uprooting on these young evacuees, being suddenly snatched away from family and loved ones, from everything that was familiar and known, can only be imagined. And of course there was always the fear that, back home in London or Birmingham, bombs might be dropping and destroying people and places while they slept safe and secure in their beds.

For the children of Wales, the sudden and unexpected arrival of parties of youngsters from Liverpool or Manchester were often moments of high adventure. Local children would stand, staring, as the evacuees disembarked from their trains and follow them along the road to the dispersal centres. The new arrivals were almost exotic for boys and girls who had rarely ventured more than ten miles from their home towns.

In hindsight the evacuation process was far from humane, particularly the way children were herded together in a central location and chosen or rejected, just like cattle at a farmers market. Despite this process, in most cases the evacuees were welcomed warmly enough, although there were always exceptions.

Evacuee children had to attend school along with their Welsh counterparts and in places where the main language was Welsh there were several teething problems. For children from London and other industrial centres, the sights and sounds of the Welsh countryside were, to say the least, unusual. It was effectively the meeting of two cultures and after the initial curiosity had worn off what often emerged were moments of conflict:

"We were Welsh - they couldn't understand us and we couldn't understand them. We understood some of the words they used - "Daft," we knew what that meant. So we had to have a battle, the whole of Llanllynfni children against the evacuees, by the bridge, down at the bottom of the village." (Eluned Giles in Wales At War)

As the months went on, of course, local Welsh children and English evacuees grew to accept and even like each other. Many long lasting friendships were formed and each group - English and Welsh - influenced the lives and development of the other.

When the war ended most evacuees returned home. Indeed, many had already gone, having slipped back to the places of their birth once the main German bombing attacks ended in 1943. But many stayed on and made the country their home. Wales, after all, had been one of the most significant factors in their growth from childhood to adolescence.

Professor Jane Humphries

Professor Humphries also reveals in the documentary how the social conditions created a population boom amongst the poor - one which was exploited by the early industrialists. New factories were built in sparsely populated areas and their workforce was provided through the trafficking of orphans from the cities.

These children, aged eight and sometimes younger, were handed over by the Parish authorities and signed up to work for free until they reached adulthood. Without this available slave labour many businesses would never have got off the ground.

The documentary, produced by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Cymru Wales, uses animation created by artists from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales graphics department and by current and former students of the .

Animator: Helen Dallat, student, International Film School Wales

Animator: Dave Freeman ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Cymru Wales Graphic Design

Animation: Sinead Oram, International Film School, Wales

You can find out more about the programme and watch clips of the animations on .

The Children Who Built Victorian Britian, Tuesday 1 February, 9pm, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four.