ITV Cymru Wales wins RTS award for The Aberfan Young Wives' Club
A landmark film produced in partnership between ITV Cymru Wales and ITV Studios to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster has won the Best Factual (History) category of the 2017 Royal Television Society Programme Awards.
The Aberfan Young Wives' Club was broadcast across the UK on the ITV network in the run-up to the anniversary in October last year. At the ceremony in London, the judges described it as "sensitive, rigorous and authentic."
The hour-long documentary revealed how the spirit of Aberfan has endured since the 21st October 1966, when a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip killed 116 children and 28 adults in the village's Pantglas Junior School.
Directed by multi-award-winning director Marc Evans (Safe House, Hinterland, Collision, Jack to a King, House of America), the programme made use of ITV’s extensive archive footage, courtesy of the National Library of Wales.
The programme was the first made by Shiver Cymru, a partnership between ITV Studio's factual arm and ITV Cymru Wales. It was produced by Jonathan Hill, editor of English language programmes at ITV Cymru Wales. The executive producer for Shiver was Mike Blair. The programme was commissioned by Tom Giles, ITV’s Controller of Current Affairs.