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A leading GP and writer on medical issues has called on the Attorney General to launch a public inquiry into the death of a 10-year-old boy from Wales. Dr Phil Hammond said the UK Government had to allow a public inquiry into the death of Robbie Powell, from Ystradgynlais, and into the events which followed…
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A D-Day Commando, filter room girl and RAF evader feature in ‘Welsh Heroes of World War 2’ which is now available to watch on-line. The three programmes take Ted Owens, Eileen Younghusband and John Evans on emotional trips down memory lane to revisit their WW2 experiences. The series ends with RAF evader John Evans, who…
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A veteran of 41 Commando has made an emotional return to the beaches of Normandy. Ted Owens, aged 88 and from Pembroke Dock, Wales, returned to the spot at which he had been wounded during the landings as part of filming for an upcoming television programme. Ted also made an astonishing visit to a town…
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The Wales This Week special ‘The Bullseye Killer’ has won a British Academy Cymru Award (Bafta Cymru). The hour-long documentary won a Bafta in the Current Affairs category of the awards at the Wales Millennium Centre. The programme documented the crimes of John Cooper, one of the most notorious criminals in British history. Cooper burgled, raped and murdered…
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When Wales This Week began filming with Hywel Jones there was a determination not to turn his story into a “misery film”. That determination came from Hywel himself. But the aim would not necessarily be easily achieved: Hywel was dying of cancer. He knew already that his condition was terminal. But he hoped that by…
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In early 1942 a courageous band of Welshmen found themselves fighting side by side against the all-conquering Japanese army. The men, who had joined up to provide air defences for Cardiff, Newport and Barry, had been sent to the Far East as the Japanese bore down on Britain’s “impregnable fortress” at Singapore. But the battle-hardened…
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Next week an inquest will open in London to answer questions about one of the most baffling of all modern spy stories. Gareth Williams was a well-liked and extremely talented young man from a small village in Anglesey, who went to work for the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. But he died in bizarre circumstances. Gareth’s…
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Wales This Week‘s film ‘Living With Dementia’, which was broadcast on ITV Wales last year, has won a Guild of Health Writers’ Award for Best Broadcast Programme. The award was presented at the Royal Society of Medicine in Wimpole Street, London. The film followed Jim McWade, who suffers with Alzheimer’s Disease, and his wife Maureen, and…
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A few years ago while working on a book called ‘Airman Missing’, a short biography of RAF evader John Evans (no longer in print!), I became intrigued with those who had helped him evade capture in occupied Belgium. John, who was originally from Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, evaded the Germans for 114 days after his Halifax was…
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‘I Fought Them All’, the biography of Irish prizefighting legend, Tom Sharkey, has been shortlisted for a Wishing Shelf Award. The book is nominated in the adult non-fiction category. The winner is due to be announced in April. Top major boxing website, Max Boxing, said of the book: “It emits quality from the first opening…