Studio 2’s Talking Pictures

From 1976 until the mid 1990s, pioneering film and television was made at Theatr Clwyd. This happened at a purpose-built studio which was initially part of the theatre’s Education Technology Centre – a space for school children to use to make films – before it became known as Studio 2, a base for HTV Wales in 1980, and S4C a few years later.

A wide range of programmes was made at Studio 2, from chat shows to children’s television, music showcases to quizzes, dramas to debates.

The studio was cherished by the people who worked there, but the personal day to day stories of this time were never recorded.

Until now.

As part of Theatr Clwyd’s public art programme, we commissioned Jude Rogers and Catrin James to help uncover and tell this story.

Jude is a writer, interviewer and documentary maker, perhaps best known for her arts and culture journalism for The Guardian, the Observer and BBC radios. Her 2022 memoir, The Sound Of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives, was shortlisted for Welsh Book Of The Year and the Penderyn Music Prize. Catrin is an artist and archivist living and working in Wales, whose work celebrates the post-war built heritage of Wales through collage, film and oral histories. 

Talking Pictures

Over several months, Jude and Catrin set out to interview dozens of people with connections to Studio 2. They collected stories, photographs and objects that celebrate the studio’s legacy.

Interviewees, Jude tells us, talked about Studio 2 in joyful terms. “They have told us about the pioneering work done there and the egalitarian, utopian spirit that was fostered”. The work made there, Jude adds, “celebrated Welsh people, culture and communities in ways that hadn’t happened, or been possible, before”.

As the project has evolved, Catrin and Jude have built a new, accessible collection of oral history. The interviews will be available to listen to via the Theatr Clwyd website, and they’ll also be donated to the Welsh Broadcast Archives.

If Walls Could Talk

Alongside an online archive, we wanted to celebrate the legacy of Studio 2 within the walls of Theatr Clwyd’s new building.

To that end, Catrin created two collage artworks, using the materials that she and Jude had gathered during their research. At the same time, Jude started sketching a narrative that would take visitors on a journey through Studio 2’s history, and came up with an idea to create picture frames inspired by retro TV sets.

We then invited Ken Borg of Studio Mothership to develop these ideas into a public art piece that would span several walls, leading visitors on a journey into the newly refurbished cinema foyer.

Ken came up with a beautiful set of designs for the “TV frames”, and added extra magic to the original photos by layering the images, adding depth and an almost set-like feel.

Alongside this, Studio Mothership worked with Catrin’s collages, photos and archive materials to create a series of cut-out elements, including sections of photos as well more abstract graphics inspired by shapes and details found on vintage tv units and old logos. Some of these were printed on relief material, off-set against the wall, while others were printed in vinyl.

These elements sprawl the full length of the cinema stairwell and guide visitors into the cinema foyer itself, where a larger mural fills an entire wall.

The final piece is a vibrant and joyful tribute to the history of Studio 2, and a real celebration of community and collaboration – two things that continue to be at the heart of Theatr Clwyd’s mission today.