......have something in common: we are both rubbish at reading poetry. As evidence of the royal inadequacy I offer you his recent reading of Dylan Thomas's Fern Hill. It's a poem I like and it's named after a farm in Carmarthenshire, not far from Laugharne, belonging to his aunt and which Thomas used to visit as a boy. I identify strongly with his evocative and poignant description of his “green and carefree” days there, when he was “prince of the apple towns”, before musing, in later years, “the farm forever fled from the childless land”.
You'll have to take my word that I'm little better than his royalness at versifying. But what about others? What about the man himself? I always think that Thomas has more than a touch of John Gielgud's 'luvvy' intonation in the way he reads his own work. Of the usual list of Welsh voices, I've clipped in Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Philip Madoc reading the same poem. There is absolutely no doubt that it needs reading with a Welsh accent and Richard Burton hits the spot for me. He's the boyo for this one! Hardly surprising really as he came from the same area of Swansea as Thomas and has the same rhythym in his voice.
You'll have to take my word that I'm little better than his royalness at versifying. But what about others? What about the man himself? I always think that Thomas has more than a touch of John Gielgud's 'luvvy' intonation in the way he reads his own work. Of the usual list of Welsh voices, I've clipped in Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Philip Madoc reading the same poem. There is absolutely no doubt that it needs reading with a Welsh accent and Richard Burton hits the spot for me. He's the boyo for this one! Hardly surprising really as he came from the same area of Swansea as Thomas and has the same rhythym in his voice.
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