2001 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 2001 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• First Minister – Rhodri Morgan
• Secretary of State for Wales – Paul Murphy
• Archbishop of Wales – Rowan Williams
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Meirion Evans

Events

• 1 March – Peter Clarke is appointed Children's Commissioner for Wales.
• 1 June – Official opening of Cardiff Bay Barrage.
• 7 June – In the UK general election:
  • Plaid Cymru retain a total of 4 seats. They lose Ynys Môn to Labour but Adam Price gains Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from Labour's Alan Williams.
  • Newly elected Labour MPs include Hywel Francis (Aberavon), Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Ian Lucas (Wrexham) and Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
  • Kevin Brennan replaces Rhodri Morgan as MP for Cardiff West.
• 16 June – Entrepreneur Terry Matthews is knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
• 11 July – Welsh language pressure group Cymuned is launched at a meeting in Mynytho.
• 1 August – Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) is created through the merger of The Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) and Coleg Harlech.
• 16 September – To commemorate "Glyndwr Day", actress Siân Phillips unveils a memorial statue to Catrin Glyndŵr in London.
• 26 October – A memorial service to celebrate the life of Harry Secombe is held at Westminster Abbey and attended by the Prince of Wales (now Charles III).

Arts and literature

• 15 March – Julien Macdonald is chosen as fashion house Givenchy's new designer.^[1]
• 24 March – Opening of the exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! in Cardiff.^[2]
• 15 December – Rob Brydon wins Best TV Comedy Actor award in the British Comedy Awards.
• 25 December – Matthew Rhys and Tom Ward star in a TV adaptation of The Lost World.
• November – John Bourne establishes the Wrexham Stuckists group of artists.^[3]
• Jessica Garlick makes the last ten in the first series of Pop Idol.
• Andrew Vicari sells a collection of 125 paintings of the First Gulf War to Prince Khaled of Saudi Arabia for £17 million.
• Irish photographer Paul Seawright is awarded a personal chair by the University of Wales, Newport.

Awards

• Prix Hélène Rochas – Rebecca Evans
• Cardiff Singer of the World – Marius Brenciu
• Glyndŵr Award – John Meirion Morris

National Eisteddfod (held in Denbigh)

• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Mererid Hopwood (first woman ever to win the chair)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Penri Roberts
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Elfyn Pritchard
• Wales Book of the Year

• • English language: Stephen Knight – Mr Schnitzel
  • Welsh language: Owen Martell – Cadw dy ffydd, brawd
• Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen -

New books

English language

• Malcolm Pryce – Aberystwyth Mon Amour
• Alastair Reynolds – Chasm City
• Jon Ronson –
• Carole Seymour-Jones – Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T.S. Eliot

Welsh language

• Roger Boore and Rhian Nest James – Hoff Hwiangerddi
• Gwynfor Evans – Cymru o Hud
• Tudur Dylan Jones – Adenydd
• Angharad Tomos – Cnonyn Aflonydd

Music

• Feeder – Echo Park (album)
• Hilary Tann – The Grey Tide and the Green, commissioned for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms and performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes
• Catatonia – Paper Scissors Stone (album)
• Goldie Lookin' Chain – Don't Blame the Chain (album)
• Melys – Chinese Whispers (album)
• Terris – "Fabricated Lunacy" (single) and Learning to Let Go (debut album)

Film

• John Rhys-Davies makes his first appearance as Gimli in .
• Sara Sugarman writes and directs Very Annie Mary, featuring Welsh stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Kenneth Griffith, Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Mary Hopkin and Ruth Madoc.
• Rhys Ifans co-stars in The Shipping News.
• A Bollywood film, Mein Dil Tujhko Diya (I Gave You my Heart), is shot in Aberystwyth and the Elan Valley.
• In Gosford Park, Jeremy Northam plays a fictionalised version of Ivor Novello. Several of Novello's songs feature in the film's soundtrack.
• Nia Roberts stars in A Day Out.

Welsh-language films

• Against the Dying of the Light^[4]
• Y Delyn

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

• Y Stafell Ddirgel (drama serial)

English-language television

• The Bench

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Joe Calzaghe^[5]
• Football – Liverpool F.C. win the FA Cup the first time it is played in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Births

• 23 March – Dream Alliance, racehorse bred near Blackwood^[6]

Deaths

• 11 January – Lorna Sage, critic, 57 (emphysema)^[7]
• 20 January – Crispin Nash-Williams, mathematician, 68^[8]
• 18 February – Claude Davey, Wales international rugby union captain, 92^[9]
• 22 February – Cledwyn Hughes, Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos, former Secretary of State for Wales, 84^[10]
• 11 April – Sir Harry Secombe, singer and comedian, 79^[11]
• 16 April – Henry Morgan Lloyd, clergyman, 89^[12]
• 26 April – Dafydd Rowlands, minister and writer, 69^[13]
• 30 April – Brian Morris, Baron Morris of Castle Morris, poet, critic and politician, 71^[14]
• 25 May – Delme Bryn-Jones, operatic baritone, 67^[15]
• 10 June – Samuel Ifor Enoch, theologian, 86
• 17 July – Val Feld, the first member of the Welsh Assembly to die, 53 (cancer)^[16]
• 19 July – Roderic Bowen, MP, 87^[17]
• August – Valerie Davies, Olympic swimmer, 89
• 19 September – Rhys Jones, archaeologist, 60
• October – John Owen, television writer (suicide)
• 6 December – Eryl Stephen Thomas, former Bishop of Monmouth and of Llandaff, 91^[18]
• 7 December – Ray Powell, MP, 73^[19]

See also

• 2001 in Northern Ireland

Notes and References

1. Book: Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf. Contemporary Fashion. 2002. St. James Press. 978-1-55862-348-4. 276.
2. Book: New Statesman. April 2001. New Statesman Limited and Contributors. 40.
3. Web site: About us. Stuckism Wales. 15 April 2019.
4. Web site: Archif Genedlaethol Sgrin a Sain Cymru/Against the Dying of the Light (search for Jack Jewers) . The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales . Promotional film (10 minutes) . 2000 . 12 February 2012 . Ifans, Rhys . Cell E123 8313.
5. Web site: BBC Wales Sport Personality winners . BBC Sport . 2 August 2021.
6. News: Dream Alliance: from slag heap allotment to Grand National hopeful. Daily Telegraph. 12 December 2010. Marcus Armytage. 4 April 2010.
7. Web site: Whitbread judges split over Kneale. 24 January 2001. Nigel Reynolds. The Telegraph. 25 January 2020.
8. Web site: Crispin St John Alvah Nash-Williams. dcs.st-and.ac.uk. 1 March 2019.
9. Web site: Great Welsh centre Davey dies. 21 February 2001. ESPN. 25 January 2020.
10. Web site: Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos. Andrew Roth. 23 February 2001. The Guardian. 1 March 2019.
11. Book: Harris M. Lentz III. Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2001: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. 16 April 2002. McFarland. 978-0-7864-1278-5. 262.
12. Web site: The Very Reverend Henry Lloyd. 26 April 2001. The Telegraph. 25 January 2020.
13. Book: Meic Stephens. Necrologies: A Book of Welsh Obituaries. 2008. Seren. 978-1-85411-476-1. 143.
14. Book: Meic Stephens. Poetry 1900-2000. 1 October 2007. Summersdale Publishers Limited. 978-1-84839-722-4. 365.
15. Web site: BRYN-JONES, Delme (1934-2001), opera singer. Trevor Herbert. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. 1 March 2019.
16. Web site: Val Feld. Paul Williams. 10 August 2001. The Guardian. 1 March 2019.
17. Web site: Roderic Bowen. Andrew Roth. 25 July 2001. The Guardian. 1 March 2019.
18. Web site: Farewell to former bishop. 12 December 2001. South Wales Argus. 25 January 2020.
19. Web site: Sir Ray Powell. 10 December 2001. Andrew Roth. The Guardian. 25 January 2020.