"Dal y Mellt"
Public broadcaster S4C and only Welsh language television channel announced several original scripted drama recommissions for 2025/2026. "Y Golau: Dŵr" ("Still Waters") will go into production in early October. This is the second season for this thrilling mystery and will be produced in partnership with Triongl/APC and Channel 4. Season two is set in the fictional village of Llanemlyn and features an impressive ensemble cast including Sian Reese-Williams, Mark Lewis-Jones and Robert Glenister. Season one of "Y Golau" premiered on S4C in May 2022 and was a ratings hit, with an English language version televised on Channel 4, featuring Joanna Scanlan, Alexandra Roach and Iwan Rheon. This new season will return with a mainly new all-star cast.
"Anfamol" ("Unmotherly") is also set to return, with S4C commissioning five new episodes of this dark, post-watershed comedy drama, billed as the Welsh "Fleabag". Created and written by Rhiannon Boyle, "Anfamol" will go into production with BBC Studios imminently. The series features the continuing sagas and life lessons of its central character Ani (played by Bethan Ellis-Owen) - a feminist lawyer, sister, aunt, daughter, and mother, who battles the raw realities of motherhood in today’s world - with hilarious and emotional consequences.
"Dal y Mellt", the first Welsh-language drama to be shown on Netflix, has been renewed by S4C for a second series. The next instalment of the heist drama, produced by Vox Pictures, will be shown in 2025, and will likely make its way again onto the worldwide streaming platform. Gwion Morris Jones will be returning to lead the cast as the show’s main character Carbo alongside many more returning cast members and new stars such as Broadchurch’s Matthew Gravelle and the brilliant Mark Lewis-Jones ("The Way"). "Dal y Mellt", which was acquired by Netflix under the English title "Rough Cut", is based on the thriller novels of Iwan ‘Iwcs’ Roberts. Season two will be adapted from his latest work Dal Arni ("Hold On"), the sequel to Dal y Mellt ("Catch the Lightning").
"Bariau", the gritty bilingual drama set in a men’s prison with stories based on the testimonies of real prisoners and prison officers, will return after its successful first season. The second series, like the first, will also be shot at Studio Aria in Llangefni on a two-storey set comprising of 24 cells. The viewers response to season one was so positive that filming is due to start shortly. Produced by Rondo Media with the support of Creative Wales.
Finally, S4C’s second season of "Stad," the sequel to "Tipyn o Stad", (which concluded in 2008 after seven seasons) will also return in 2025. "Stad" revolves around the adventures of the Gurkha family and their neighbours in the Maes Menai housing estate. Filming has taken place in locations around Caernarfon and Bangor. Produced by Cwmni Daand Triongl, the cast of Stad includes Lowri Palfrey, Siôn Eifion, Gwenno Fôn, Begw Rowlands, Gwenno Hodgkins, Wyn Bowen Harris and Elen Gwynne.
Gwenllian Gravelle, S4C’s Head of Scripted, said “We are thrilled that the success of our recent original dramas on S4C mean that we can satisfy the audience by offering the next exciting chapter of their favourite series’. This is not the case for many broadcasters in the industry unfortunately. We recognise the success of these dramas and the appetite for more, and are glad and proud to be able to deliver.”
As well as recommissions, S4C are also releasing two brand-new dramas for autumn / winter with detective series "Cleddau" ("The One that got Away") starring Elen Rhys and Richard Harrington starting on 13 October, and "Ar y Ffin" ("Mudtown") starring Erin Richards and Tom Cullen starting 29 December.