Cult Welsh TV sitcom Satellite City is now available to buy for the first time since the popular BBC show ended 10 years ago. Satellite City, which won two BAFTA Cymru awards during the late 1990s will be released on December 4 2009 as a special DVD box set.
The show was based on the life of a family in Pen-y-Ceffyl, an imaginary Rhondda town, and ran from 1996 to 1999.
Young American Randy arrived in Satellite City – the town’s high number of satellite dishes marked it out as working class – and was taken in by the Price family who quickly initiated him into ‘the Welsh way’. Randy and his new friends may have spoken the same language but plenty was lost in translation as he had to share a bed with pensioner Idris and negotiate a turbulent romance with local girl Mandy.
Co-written by Boyd Clack, who played Idris’ son Gwynne, and produced by Welsh film company, Fiction Factory, Satellite City featured much loved characters such as Moira who enjoyed being ‘unhappily’ married to Gwynne, nymphomaniac Mandy and nice but dim Dai the Barman.
Fiction Factory director Ed Thomas, who co-produced the show with Mike Parker said: “One afternoon in 1994 I bought Boyd an apple tart, he ate all of it while reading out all the parts of six episodes of a series he called Satellite City. Our ethos as a company then was ‘good as gold, mad as hell,’ which Boyd thought suited him well. Two radio series and nearly 20 hours of television later, we’re still waiting for him to say thank you and he still owes me for the tart.”
Satellite City debuted as a play in 1991 at Chapter Arts Centre and ran for two series on BBC Radio Wales before evolving into the TV sitcom.
The box set will delight Satellite City fans, who have campaigned for years with online petitions for a DVD issue. Co-producer Mike Parker added: “From the Welsh often being the butt of jokes on TV, in Satellite City we were able to make fun of ourselves and enjoy it. I think that’s why people loved it.”
The DVD can be purchased at www.satellitecitystore.com and includes the pilot; all three series; the 1999 hour-long special; signed postcards from the cast, plus stills.
- Satellite City debuted as a live play in 1991 at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff before becoming a series for BBC Radio Wales.
- Satellite City’s television pilot episode was aired in December 1995; the series ran for three series from 1996 to 1999. The sitcom ended with an hour-long special, From Here to Maternity in 1999.
- Although Satellite City has been aired several times on BBC 2 Wales since its end, it has never been released on DVD.
- In 1997 the series won a BAFTA Cymru for Best Graphics and another in 1998 for Best Light Entertainment.
Written by Kelly Salter
