Actress tells man who attacked Welsh language as 'moribund' to 'just shut up'

A Welsh-speaking actress has told a man who described the language as "moribund" to "just shut up basically".

Sian Reese-Williams, who plays the starring role in international Welsh-English hit, Hidden (Craith), was reacting to comments that writer Jonathan Meades had made in The Critic magazine.

In an article littered with derogatory comments about the language, Meades branded it “moribund”.

He also claimed that it is a “tool not only of communication but of identity and exclusivity, thus of self-harm and curtailment”.

Asked what she thought about his comments by The Telegraph, Sian Reese-Williams said: “Why does it matter to you? Just go and live your life, relax, and stop it. Just shut up basically.

“It’s completely without any basis whatsoever - we’ve got a thriving Welsh-language TV drama industry here. And being bilingual is pretty cool.”

Sian Reese-Williams added that following the success of other non-English language shows on Netflix, she hoped that more Welsh language shows could appear in the future.

“Hopefully the purely English versions will be done away with in time. It was a really necessary thing, in terms of financing and distribution," she said. "But Scandi noir has opened the door to subtitled dramas.

"It would be wonderful now to have just bilingual or Welsh versions which are shown round the world. Ten years ago it wouldn’t have happened, but look at it now - we’ve got Squid Game.

"And Netflix is making something in the Navajo language. So there’s an appetite now for things outside of the five main languages that you’d usually see in TV and film. And why can’t Welsh be part of that?”

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