Michael Sheen returns to Wales

Though I was born in Newport, my parents returned to their home town of Port Talbot when my sister and I were very young, so I think of it as home. I visited the town recently to make a film for The South Bank Show. Melvyn Bragg pointed out that it's also the birthplace of two other Welsh actors, Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton. Hopkins was actually born in nearby Margam and Burton was born in Pontrhydfen, but I say that if you can walk to a place from your home, then you can still refer to it as your home town.

Wherever you come from, you carry the place with you. I go back to Port Talbot as often as I can. Whenever I go, I stay at my parents' house on the side of the mountain. There are a few more houses up there now and the town has changed a lot since I grew up.

Port Talbot is a seaside resort, so my strongest memories are from the Seventies, of sunny summers down on the beach and It's a Knockout competitions between the local sports clubs. There were huge concrete paddling pools along the seafront with loads of us seven-year-olds crammed in. My memories from that time are fantastic, but of course it wasn't sunny all the time and as far as seaside towns go, Port Talbot wasn't that successful, unlike nearby Porthcawl, which is very touristy, and Swansea's Gower coast, one of the most beautiful parts of Wales.

A view of Port Talbot from the mountains

There has been a lot of development of Port Talbot's beachfront, including the obligatory multi-screen cineplex. There was a dark energy in the place when I was growing up; you could sense the threat of latent violence around every corner. I remember taking part in rugby matches at rival schools - afterwards, the entire school would be waiting for you outside the gates.

Port Talbot is an old steel town but originally, it was all just sand dunes right up to the mountains. The town grew around the steel works with big estates built for the workers, so it's not a pretty place. I was lucky, I joined the National Youth Theatre in Swansea when I turned 14. I wouldn't say acting came out of a need to escape, but I think my background shaped the kind of actor I became. I'm quite a physical actor - I think that there is a dark energy to the stuff I do.

The nearest big city to Port Talbot is Swansea, only a few miles down the road, so there was always plenty going on and places to hang out there. But in my school holidays, I was usually off on courses with the youth theatre. I remember staying at a residential centre called Dan-y-Coed right on Swansea's seafront in The Mumbles - an extraordinary name for a beautiful place. To me it was heaven. I stayed in a big old house with 50 other people aged between 14 and 22; we worked and slept there. I still go to The Mumbles with my mum and dad whenever I'm home and we always visit the local ice cream parlor.

The Mumbles (Welsh: Y Mwmbwls)

I really started to discover Wales when I went on tour with the National Youth Theatre. Most memorable was my first encounter with Snowdonia, one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world. I was traveling with a coachload of excitable teenagers - very rowdy, all singing songs. Then suddenly, as we drove through Snowdonia, everyone went quiet. For a group of teenagers to be completely awestruck by a view gives you the measure of what it's like. Every birthday I would persuade my parents to drive me to Hay-on-Wye. It's a great place for people like me who love books, and I found it extraordinary that you could have a whole village devoted to them. But I also loved the drive through the Brecon Beacons; I was into The Lord of the Rings from about 13 years old, so I would fantasize about the story as we were driving through this fantastic, alien landscape.

              

Snowdonia

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/869ad/4a8b2

http://phototravels.net/wales/N0012/wales-snowdonia-landscape-01.html

 

 

Hay-on-Wye circa 1973

http://www.philseed.com/postcards.html

I find that areas of outstanding beauty are enhanced when you know about their history and culture. I've done a lot of research into 12th- and 13th-century Wales because I'm very interested in the period when it had its last native prince. During my research, I came across a lot of fascinating stories. For example, the fact that people believe the town of Caerleon in Newport to be the cradle of the Arthurian stone. There are supposedly caves in the mountains of Gwynedd, where Arthur and his knights still wait, inanimate, ready to be called back to save Wales in its hour of greatest need. The Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon is also a great place to visit; you can sense the history. In North Wales, Anglesey was formerly known as Mon and there are lots of stories about the Romans trying to swim across the water to the island, dragging their horses with them only to be met by druids and "shrieking women with painted faces" trying to ward them off.

Northwestern tip of the island of Anglesey

(www.rubycon.org/photos/wales.html)

One of my favorite buildings is The Boathouse, Dylan Thomas's former home in Laugharne, a lovely little coastal village by the Taf Estuary. Thomas lived there with his wife Caitlin and their three children and wrote most of his famous poetry, including Fern Hill, in the shed there. It's a magical place.

Thomas Dylan's Boathouse

Whenever I'm in Wales I fantasize about moving back to Port Talbot one day. Where I grew up, there's a road that goes over the top of the mountains called The Bwlch Road and when you get to the top you get the most beautiful views over open land - I'd love to own a house up there.

http://www.betws31.freeserve.co.uk/Bath-house/Bwlch_y_Deufaen_Road/bwlch_y_deufaen_road.html