So as BBC Wales’ Real Families season gets into full swing, one of the things that strikes me is the courage it takes for people – high profile or otherwise - to put their lives in front of a microphone. Take our Cardiff Half Marathon summariser, Jamie Baulch, who goes in search of his birth parents on BBC One Wales on Thursday night. Jamie tells his story to Eleri Sion on Thursday afternoon.
There are three documentaries on Radio Wales this week which will similarly see people offer a really candid picture of their lives. On Sunday at 12.30pm – and as part of Real Families - Criccieth based journalist Sioned Morys confronts the demons of being a working mum in Incredible Years. Concerned she was struggling with the balance between her working life and her home-life, Sioned booked herself onto a parenting course to try and learn how to control her son’s tantrums.
Dr Rhys Jones with a barn owl
Later that day at 6pm, Am I Here By Myself? sees three people in their twenties share the experiences of depression and self-harm that led them to set up an organisation aimed at helping others.
Meanwhile on Saturday at 1.30pm, Dr Rhys Jones – he of the Wildlife Patrol – takes us on a two part journey through the dilemmas caused by having his entire genome sequenced. Will he find out things about himself he wished he’d hadn’t known?
Elsewhere on the station, some big guests in the afternoon this week: Eleri Sion speaks to Torvill and Dean on Thursday and John Cleese is with Wynne Evans on the Big Welsh Weekend on Friday.
Horizons’ 12 artist Houdini Dax are the Radio Wales Artist of the Week this week. We’re playing both Found Love In The Dole Office and their cover of Andy Williams’ Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, which they’ve recorded for a BBC Wales promotional campaign for Wales’ Euro 2016 qualifiers. Wales play Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday night live on Radio Wales Sport.
And don’t forget, all roads lead to Sunday at 9.30am when Roy Noble takes on a new time and Dewi Griffiths’ Golden Days Postbag. Roy’s joined by singers Paul Potts and Jeff Hooper this week. Also setting their alarm clocks an hour earlier are Jamie Owen, now between 11am and 12.30pm and Aled Jones who’s interviewing comedian Stephen K Amos at 1pm.
