Welcome to the July issue of The Acorn TV Dispatch – and the first in our Summer Destination Series.

Over the summer, we’ll explore some of the countries featured in the Acorn TV library. With the premiere of Welsh crime drama Hidden set for July 16, Wales is the perfect place to start!

The breakout success of series like Hinterland and Acorn TV Original Keeping Faith, along with the country’s stunning landscapes, have helped Wales earn its place as the “new home of dark drama” (The Guardian).

Our Wales issue takes off with a look at Hidden, from the creators of Hinterland, through an interview with the series producer. We’ve also got a Wales quiz, as well as an explanation about Welsh surnames. (If you’ve ever wondered why there are so many Joneses around, we’ll explain.)

Happy streaming!

In this issue:

Behind-the-scenes look at dark psychological thriller Hidden
Why so many Welsh people have the same last name
Acorn TV Watchlist: Discover Wales
Where, What, Who of Wales quiz
Trending comments from the Acorn TV fan community
Q&A with our Acorn TV Fans Facebook Group moderators
Answers to this month’s Ask Acorn TV questions
Acorn TV soundtracks that hit the right note
Upcoming premieres on Acorn TV

Behind-the-scenes look at Welsh crime drama Hidden

Uncovering Hidden

Behind-the-scenes look at a dark psychological thriller

The “Welsh noir” crime drama is on the rise. From a country that until recently didn’t have “its own” detective show, Hidden is the latest offering from this stark and stunningly beautiful land. Acorn TV recently had a chance to ask series producer Hannah Thomas about the gripping series. Here’s what she had to say about this “drama with a defined sense of place.”

The countryside and landscapes in Hidden are striking. What is the setting?

The setting is the beautiful area surrounding Snowdonia. Snowdonia is a region in North West Wales concentrated around the mountains and glacial landforms of the massive Snowdonia National Park. The park is also home to an extensive network of trails, more than 100 lakes, and craggy peaks like Cader Idris and Tryfan. Then there’s Mount Snowdon itself, Wales’s highest peak. It’s known as Yr Wyddfa in Welsh, which is Europe’s oldest still-spoken language.

We also show the beautiful Menai Straits. This channel links North West Wales with Anglesey island, the towns of Bangor and Caernarfon, and the old industrial slate quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Is the setting significant?

The setting is hugely significant as the landscape in North Wales is so varied. The landscape can in turns be comforting and bucolic – and menacing and alien. The fact that all of this can be found within a 30 to 40 mile radius is astounding.

All drama needs a defined sense of place, and there’s something about the North Wales landscape that draws you into it. The danger of it and its jaw-dropping beauty felt like exactly the right place to set our story.

You’ve called the series “Hidden.” What’s hidden – and what will we uncover?

What isn’t hidden is the identity of the killer – that’s known from the outset. But we’ll uncover more about Dylan Harris and some horrific details about his life as the series progresses. We’ll also get to uncover the lives of many of our main characters.

We wanted Hidden to be defined and driven by our characters. We wanted to give them time to breathe. To establish themselves. To draw the audience in. We felt strongly that without fully formed characters, stories can feel banal and empty. So you’ll uncover details about the lives of most of the characters that are revealed in the first episode. And as the series progresses, we’ll also introduce other characters who will be pivotal to the evolving drama.

Why did you reveal the identity of the killer so early?

Hidden isn’t a “whodunit.” We were too interested in the character of Dylan Harris (played by Rhodri Meilir) to conceal his identity from the viewer. Instead, we wanted the audience to spend time with him, to understand his psychology.

We wanted to create a show that offered a much fuller examination of a crime – the abduction, rape, and murder of a young woman. We knew that whilst trying to get an audience to empathize with our monster, Dylan Harris, was always going to be a challenge, we knew we had to humanize him. To see him as a prisoner of his own troubled upbringing and deeply disturbed psychology.

Tell us about the show’s main character – Detective Inspector Cadi John.

As with Dylan, we wanted our audience to come to know Cadi John. Cadi is an incredibly “normal” character. She’s complex, strong, feisty, stubborn, and dedicated. She’s not sexualized in Hidden. She succeeds at her job through her diligence and hard work. But she’s not cold. She’s connected to her family and cares for her ailing father. She has a wry sense of humor and works well with Detective Sergeant Owen Vaughan.

Cadi is someone we believe an audience will really identify with as she juggles the pressures of work and family. You get the sense that although she feels very deeply about things, there’s no drama. Like most women, she carries her sorrows quietly and tries to live a decent life. There’s something compelling and inherently human about her.

When it begins, Hidden looks like a cold case investigation. But that soon changes.

Yes, in Episode 1 it seems as though the series is going to be about the investigation regarding the discovery of a single body, that of Mali Pryce. But the investigation quickly gathers speed and unearths a dangerous and disturbing reality. This is what draws Cadi John closer to Dylan Harris.

What is the future for Welsh dramas?

Wales has a rich tradition of storytelling. Series such as Hidden and, before it, Hinterland hopefully demonstrate our ability to tell complex stories set against the backdrop of the beautiful Welsh landscape.

Welsh drama is in rude health! There’s a growing confidence in the sector – and no shortage of world-class talent, in front of and behind the camera, to keep it going. It’s a privilege to be able to share our stories, our landscapes, and some of our language with Acorn TV viewers and a growing audience around the world.

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Keeping Up With the Joneses

Why so many Welsh people have the same last name – and what they do about it

From singer Tom Jones to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, the Joneses seem to be everywhere. This is especially true in Wales. While Jones might be in the top five most common surnames in the United States, in Wales it’s number one. More than 5 percent of the population share the name. (One Welsh national rugby team had five Joneses in its ranks.)

But it’s not just Joneses who are thick on the ground in Wales. It’s also those with family names like Williams and Davies and Evans. So why do so many Welsh people share the same name? And what do the Welsh do about it?

Like father, like son

Jones is actually a contraction of “John’s son.” Just as Williams is “William’s son,” Davies is “David’s son,” and so on. This naming convention began in Wales during the 1500s. That’s when the country was united with neighboring England and English names bean to be adopted by the Welsh. John was a particular favorite.

As a result, it’s hard to keep up with all the Joneses. But the Welsh came up with a solution. To distinguish one Jones from another, villagers would refer to each other by their last name plus their occupation. Hence, the storeowner would be Jones the Shop, the mailman Jones the Post, and the baker Jones the Bread.

The dangers of getting it wrong

The Welsh tell a joke about a Russian spy who parachutes into Wales and sneaks into a Welsh village. He is to make contact with a Mr. Jones and pass on a coded message: “The tulips are blooming well today.”

A small boy directs him to Mr. Jones’s cottage, and he knocks on the door. When a man opens it, the Russian inquires, “Are you Mr. Jones?”

“I am,” the man replies.

“The tulips are blooming well today,” he tells him.

The man looks in puzzlement at him. Then he realizes what has happened. “You’re at the wrong house,” he says. “It’s Jones the Spy you want.”

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Acorn TV Watchlist: Discover Wales

Wondering where to start? This Watchlist is the perfect introduction to the beautiful backdrops and gripping stories that have put Wales on the map.

Decline & Fall – Miniseries

This acclaimed BBC adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s (Brideshead Revisited) novel follows Paul Pennyfeather (Jack Whitehall, Fresh Meat), an unassuming Oxford theology student whose expulsion finds him working under headmaster Fagan (David Suchet, Poirot) at a third-rate private school in Wales. Watch Decline & Fall

Keeping Faith – Series 1

Award-winning actress Eve Myles (Torchwood) stars in this BBC thriller as Faith Howells, a lawyer with a happy marriage until her husband suddenly disappears. As Faith becomes the police’s prime suspect, her search for the truth leads her to the criminal underbelly of her quiet town. Filmed along the stunning Welsh coast, this suspense-filled mystery also stars Mark Lewis Jones (Stella). Watch Keeping Faith

Hidden – Series 1 Premieres July 16

When a young woman’s body turns up with evidence that she had been held prisoner, the investigation leads DI Cadi John (Sian Reese-Williams, Requiem) to a string of disappearances in a remote yet striking corner of Wales. This noir thriller from the team behind Hinterland is a gripping mystery with “superb performances all-round” (KillingTimes.tv). Watch a Clip from Hidden

The Indian Doctor – Series 1-3

This uplifting and charming period drama from the BBC follows an Indian doctor (Sanjeev Bhaskar, Mumbai Calling) who moves to a small Welsh village in the early 1960s. As he and his upper-class wife (Ayesha Dharker, Indian Summers) adjust to life in the mining town, they start to change the community – and the community changes them. Watch The Indian Doctor

How well do you know Wales? Test your knowledge with the Where, What, Who of Wales quiz.

TAKE THE QUIZ

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Meet the Moderators

We created the Acorn TV Fans Facebook Group to give members a space to engage with a community of other fans, led by the fans themselves. With almost 8,000 members now in the Facebook Group, an excellent team of volunteer moderators work tirelessly to ensure the community is a welcoming place for all. These volunteers are Acorn TV members, just like you, who generously donate time to help other members have the best Acorn TV experience possible.

We’re excited to introduce you to Karen, Nancy, Linda, Catrice, and John. If you see them in the Facebook Group, be sure to say hello!

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Ask Acorn TV

Answers to common questions from Acorn TV fans

How do I get closed captioning on my Acorn TV show?

Acorn TV offers the option to enable or disable closed captioning on all series and films in our library. This feature is particularly important for members who are deaf or hard-of-hearing but can also be useful when dialogue is difficult to understand due to local accents and dialects, or when the volume can’t be turned up too loud.

You’ll need to enable (or disable) the CC feature on your specific device. Select your preferred viewing device below or click here to find instructions for all devices.

I loved Amy Huberman in Striking Out! What else does she star in?

You’re in luck! As big fans of Amy Huberman ourselves, Acorn TV will be co-producing a new comedy created, written, and starring the award-winning Irish actress. The six-part Acorn TV Original, which just wrapped production in Dublin, follows Joy (played by Amy), a single woman who looks for happiness in all the wrong places following a painful breakup. It’s a warm, irreverent series that showcases the existential struggle of seeking fulfillment in these modern, digital times.

Finding Joy will make its exclusive North American premiere on Acorn TV in Fall/Winter 2018. In the meantime, you can catch Amy in the hit Irish dramas The Clinic and Striking Out, both now streaming on Acorn TV.

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What’s the Score?

Acorn TV soundtracks that hit the right note

Ever find yourself humming along with the theme song of a TV show? Or get the music stuck in your head long after you’ve finished watching? In last month’s issue, we answered an Ask Acorn TV question about the music on The Good Karma Hospital. This month, find out more about the music in your favorite shows and just why it might be moving you.

Variations on a Theme

Many elements go into a successful TV series. There’s the script. The actors. The setting. The costumes. The cinematography. But what about the soundtrack and the theme music – the audio backdrop against which the action unfolds?

The right music can do a lot for a show. It can help set the mood and ratchet up the drama. It can pull on the heartstrings and tap into the nostalgia. It can help transport you from your armchair to another time and place.

Think about the eerie (perhaps tongue in cheek?) theme song for Midsomer Murders. Or the evocative, pulsating music of The Good Karma Hospital. Or the folksy opening song for Detectorists – a musical echo of the hopes and cares of our two heroes, Andy and Lance:

Will you search through the lonely earth for me,

Climb through the brier and bramble?

I’ll be your treasure…

The theme tune of the new Aussie dramedy Bed of Roses is a close match for the storyline, too. It sums up in a nutshell the lot of Louisa, the show’s widowed, down-on-her-heels mother of one.

A little bit country

In our Kiwi cop series Brokenwood Mysteries, the music isn’t just in the background. Thanks to the music tastes of Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, country and western is front and center, blasting out from his vintage car’s vintage cassette player.

Country music, says Shepherd, has “the best three-minute crime stories ever sung.” As he points out, country is all about the passions and life events that are never far from the murders he investigates – “heartache, adultery, jealousy, divorce, and death.”

A kind of shorthand

In the Acorn TV Original Keeping Faith there’s a haunted, longing feel to the theme song. It fits both the series narrative and the soulful Welsh setting.

In Murdoch Mysteries the musical score varies from episode to episode, depending on the action and the plot. The composer likes to have two weeks for each episode. But sometimes he also brings in recurring themes. For instance, perhaps you’ve noticed the light piece that strikes up when Detective Murdoch and Doctor Ogden are together in a scene. It serves as a kind of shorthand to indicate the relationship between them.

But in Murdoch it’s the relentless, pounding music at the start of the show that really makes a statement. What does it say to you? Industry, enterprise, science, discovery, progress?

Anywhere, anytime

For a theme song, Girlfriends goes with the 1960s Motown hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” At a stroke, the music does two things. It connects us with a formative era in the lives of the main characters, who once all sang together in the same band. And it sums up the determination of these three best friends – “women of a certain age” – to overcome whatever life throws at them.

That’s the power of television – it can take you anywhere and to anytime. And the music can help get you there.

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Up Next on Acorn TV

Queue up your watchlist for these upcoming premieres

Welsh crime drama Hidden premieres July 16

Satirical miniseries Anglo-Saxon Attitudes premieres July 16

Coastal Railways with Julie Walters premieres July 30

Love Hurts starring Zoë Wanamaker (Girlfriends) premieres July 30

⭐ Acorn TV Tip: See what’s been recently added, clips & trailers for the upcoming month’s premieres, and what’s leaving soon by simply clicking “Schedule” on the top menu of the Acorn TV website. (Can’t find it? Click here.)

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