Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
Drama of the Week
BBC
3.7 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Returning to Swansea after the blitz, Dylan Thomas is overwhelmed by memories of his childhood and adolescence.
From summers at Fern Hill, to failed camping trips on the beach; from plagiarised poetry to drunken first love, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog is a story of what it is to grow up.
Comic, nostalgic, with a host of vivid characters, Dylan Thomas’s masterpiece is adapted by Joe Dunthorne (Submarine, Children of Radium) and stars Gerran Howell (The Pitt) as Dylan Thomas.
Based on the short stories by Dylan Thomas
Adapted by Joe Dunthorne
Dylan Thomas… Gerran Howell
Aunt Annie/Gwyneth/ Mrs Evans/ Mother… Carys Eleri
Uncle Jim/ Mr Thomas/ Mr Matthews/ Mr O’Brien… Ben Addis
Mrs Williams/ Mrs Thomas/ Mrs Franklin/ Female Stranger… Melanie Walters
Dan Evans… Iwan Davies
Lou/Jean/Nancy… Mia Khan
Brazell/ Gwilym/ Older Sidney… Jacob Ifan
George Hooping/ Barman… Gwïon Morris Jones
Skully/ Chauffeur/ Male Stranger… Shaheen Jafargholi
Young Dylan… Leon Raphael Mullins
Young Sidney…. Toby Founds
Production Co-Ordinator… Eleri McAuliffe
Sound Design by Rhys Morris
Produced and directed by Fay Lomas, BBC Audio Drama Wales
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm a reporter, Sue Mitchell, and this is Rob Lorry, an investigator. |
| 0:11.0 | If I get the name, I know I can find him. |
| 0:14.0 | In our last series, we managed to do what law agencies couldn't. |
| 0:18.0 | Track down a notorious people smuggler known as the Scorpion. |
| 0:22.3 | Now we're looking for one of his successes and he's every bit as ruthless. |
| 0:27.1 | If they know I'm talking about him, they come tonight, they will kill me. |
| 0:30.2 | You don't even know how they killed me. |
| 0:31.7 | Intrigue to catch a king. |
| 0:33.6 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.1 | This is Drama of the Week |
| 0:38.1 | Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog |
| 0:44.9 | by Dylan Thomas |
| 0:46.4 | dramatised by Joe Dunthor |
| 0:49.2 | Dumbull It's a cold clear night in February when the bombs fall on my childhood. |
| 1:04.0 | Thousands of them whistling down, night after night, until half the town collapses into memory. |
| 1:12.9 | Afterwards I walk down Emlyn Road and Tylo Crescent, |
| 1:16.7 | past Edershaw furnishers, Boots Cash Chemist, |
| 1:19.9 | Ben Evans, Langley's, the Cardoma, Curry's bicycles and Tucker's fish, |
| 1:25.3 | all still standing only in my mind. |
| 1:28.3 | On flattened Gower Street, its buildings melted. |
| 1:32.3 | The fresh snow is ankle-high. |
... |
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