1961: SUNDAY OPENING - A Threat to the WELSH WAY OF LIFE? | Panorama | BBC Archive

[@TRexo-ds5ze]

Can't stop staring at the fella's hair at 5:39. A really magnificent effort.

[@MadBiker-vj5qj]

It's the cigarette behind his ear that really gives it that certain something...

[@tonydeltablues]

What a wave!

[@jonb3311]

Has to be a syrup.

[@vantheman1238]

Welsh working men used to get the ferry from Chepstow to Clevedon on a Sunday they too had a feeling of reverence as they sank their first pint of the Sabbath!

[@thedarrenzone1963]

I've heard many a tale of thirsty drinkers in the valleys making a stealthy trip across the border on Sundays. Pontypool to Pontrilas and back...

[@Cameraman61]

They used to run Sunday coach services from Newport to over the border.

[@jonb3311]

A pub in Cwmtwrch was on the border of 3 counties. The police gave up trying to nick them for Sunday drinking.

[@martinhumble]

Amazing document. I'm watching from Sweden. Thank you Public Service!

[@ericablair4425]

BBC Archive !

[@ericablair4425]

😂 LOL

[@willmartin4234]

I would love it if BBC made Tudur's TV Flashback available to watch again, it was one of my favourites.

[@GaryJohnWalker1]

And this is why I still dislike Sunday - there are still memories of this attitude to the day. I'm not Welsh, from Yorkshire, but the grim, quiet Sundays of the 60s still lingers. And 'nice' dig by the vicar against the chapels - they're pre-New Testament. Ha, not really Christian iow.

[@alfredwinterbottom1588]

Now you can shop at Tesco's and be a minority in your own country within a generation. WE WON!

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

When I was a young boy I used to pump the organ in the chapel. Nothing changes......

[@curiousuranus810]

Except the electric organ.

[@roddymcniven8734]

@@curiousuranus810I think that one went right over your head

[@deadpool3982]

@@roddymcniven8734 funnily enough that much the same as the choir boys 😂

[@Steveholmes1972]

Filth

[@medleydeluxe5298]

LOL!🤣🤣🤣

[@crunchinjelly]

What a great film.

[@JJONNYREPP]

1961: SUNDAY OPENING - A Threat to the WELSH WAY OF LIFE? | Panorama | BBC Archive 0835am 1.12.24 pub opening? 12 til 3pm and then 5pm til closing... the all day public house is far superior. and people can only spend the money they have on them. which they would have spent irrespective - whether at the pub or in the offy. i mean, the guy who wolfed down4 pints of an evening can now sip and ponder, all day, those 4 or 5 pints as he chats his chit his mates. the drinking consumption hasn't much altered merely time in which those pints are imbibed. anyhow; the decency and moral fortitude of the husband and grandfatherly creche (ie: the pub) are most welcome, here, in my world.

[@Disco-Terry]

'What kind of a Sunday would it be sitting in a public house?' - A bloody good one fella!

[@johnathanryan2117]

One that gets my vote too Terry

[@david_g_barron]

Shows that Wales was slowly growing more secular at that point in time and this would carry on until 1996 when the last are of Wales voted in favour of pubs opening on Sunday. I am sure that those people would have been aghast at events that took place on Sunday such as Sporting Events, and just wonder how they felt about people working on Sundays such as NHS Workers.

[@jonb3311]

And what makes you think hospitals used to shut down on Sundays?

[@genoajames1866]

Not a Welsh Choirboy in sight! Interesting...

[@BuJammy]

I got that reference.

[@alan-sk7ky]

1:45 Who else is hearing Eric Idle's version from One Foot in the Grave, traffic jam scene...

[@jrsc01.]

haha lol🤣

[@rachel.mcgowan]

Victor Meldrew, Victor Meldrew...

[@flybobbie1449]

Can't remember the film but there was a scene where the parishioners were clock watching as the vicar went on, all afraid the pub would close before they could get out.

[@PSI-qf8bq]

Someone, please tell me what the guy at the raffle with the clipboard had on his head? Bizzare 😮😮

[@rensha8635]

Mothers didn’t get the day off then , they still had to provide the meals and clear up after the family. I see the children weren’t even allowed out to play - shame when they had school the rest of the week. This is a sweet documentary and I’ve no doubt it meant for a more peaceful day of the week but I know which member of the family id want to be on a Sunday 😂

[@Greyalien587]

Did you not see the men covered in dirt? Did you see any woman doing that work? Providing meals and cleaning up is basic living. It’s not a job.

[@hedydd2]

@@rensha8635 Huge numbers of essential workers worked on Sundays including all dairy farmers without exception along with milk truck drivers, who manhandled allthe milk from every other farm in churns off milk stands back then. Not forgetting the processing workers at the Milk Marketing Board factories. Some may have milked especially early on Sundays in order to attend their churches and chapels and certainly didn’t normally harvest hay on a Sunday even if the sun shon. None of that today. Very few dairy farms left but those that do generally don’t have the time to waste from their seven day week tied to their cow’s tails. The milking has to be done 365 days a year, rain or shine, birth or death, and the milk is collected even on Christmas day. To pay inheritance tax for the ten years after the old man’s death.

[@RamblesBrambles]

Theres nothing more depressing than a Welsh chapel

[@mid-walesrover681]

I went to college in Lampeter in the 70s when Sunday was still dry and the place was peaceful and calm, a time to think and reflect. Today people try to shoe horn sessions of 'mindfulness' into their busy lives.

[@nottmjas]

Until the reporter showed his face, I thought that the late great Cliff Morgan was narrating this piece as l know that he started his broadcasting career with the BBC around this time.

[@hedydd2]

I wonder how many of those four chapels survive today, and if they do, what size is the average congregation? Llandovery is substantially Anglicised for one thing, although the surrounding countryside is still overwhelmingly Welsh speaking. The coming dissolution of farming in Wales will eventually put paid to even that cultural feature and community, far and away more significant to the rural area and language than the decline of religion. The lack of reverence to organised religion is not such a bad thing overall. Far too many of those in ‘power’ at church and chapel abused their power and members of their congregation, young, old, male and female. It’s still being exposed even at the highest level of course, so cannot be denied.

[@ericablair4425]

That what I believe those arguing to keep certain traditions meant ! Foreign way of life creeping in Its to protect Welsh culture race land. I have seen the decimation of farming in England & gentrification destroys the original landscape & wildlife that relied upon the old ways .

[@rensha8635]

Very true words, however one thing a single religion did do was pull the community closer together, and in togetherness there is protection and safety and cohesion.

[@hedydd2]

@@rensha8635 The Young Farmer’s Club, WI, Merched Y Wawr, Masons, breakfast clubs, Round Table, grassland societies and many other clubs and institutions do the same thing both locally and nationally. Pulling a community together is not exclusive to organised religion and there was, and still is, great rivalry and often animosity between chapel, church and various denominations within them, let alone different religions, even to this day.

[@Knappa22]

The chapel in the video is Ebenezer Baptist Chapel. It remains open but has a very small congregation. They now have ecumenical services with the other chapels in Llandovery.

[@ShaneDixon]

Give me a pub any day - and twice on Sundays!!

[@pteg80]

Some magnificent haircuts on display.

[@gplunk]

Perhaps they should've married Sunday services w/ a pub crawl to really stimulate parishioner participation....

[@JJONNYREPP]

1961: SUNDAY OPENING - A Threat to the WELSH WAY OF LIFE? | Panorama | BBC Archive 0826am 1.12.24 the fact there is always a pub next to or across from a church is no coincidence. the old brew houses used to sell their wares in churches and the church was usually the hub of public life... if we travel back a bit in the history of these septic isles. indeed, i am very tolerant of drink and the ladies. they are certainly no hindrance to one's social ease or well being. and i am sure your god approves of them(?) p.s he hit then nail on the head and alluded to the distinction between rural and industrial societies... which still seems to be the way of things re: strife....

[@ericablair4425]

Legally it’s Monday to Friday ie working days . That’s what the Government operates under .

[@JJONNYREPP]

@@ericablair4425 Comments on ‘1961: SUNDAY OPENING - A Threat to the WELSH WAY OF LIFE? | Panorama | BBC Archive’ 1.12.24 1444pm that's how it still should be. before they brought in the 7 day week the workers employed by whichever company were given the option to take up the 7 day working pattern or stick to their 5 day a week shift pattern... i would have chosen 5 day mon-fri shift pattern as let's face it. out for a pint was the order of the day ie: you met up with people you hadn't seen for a week etc etc yawwwn... in the day of split shift and alternate shift patterns (which should be made illegal) you'd be lucky to see anyone you used to meet up with of a weekend etc etc... their desire to break up the nuclear family unit is such that they will go to any lengths to do so. the option not to sign up the the officially mapped out family unit is yours, of course, but.... you get my drift, maybe?

[@therealyogibear2k225]

If people weren't supposed to work on a Sunday, then surely that should also mean the priest's giving the sermons in church should not be working. Did they not get paid for working on a Sunday?

[@flybobbie1449]

Payment in kind, get the rest of the week off!

[@MichaelBennett1]

4:10 if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!

[@thesunkendream]

I've never thought of this before, what's the name of the song that plays at the end of all of these videos? With the TV tower in the background

[@OrangutanSquash]

“Girls in grey” the queen’s hall light orchestra.

[@thesunkendream]

@@OrangutanSquash Thank you

[@shahsheikh541]

We would all live better healthier lives and good relations with our family members if we did have a day of rest every week, we toil all our lives,we must have a more equitable life.

[@davidkennedy8929]

I’m glad this religious claptrap is now history, I used to hate Sunday as nothing happened and if like me you were not interested in religion you would be bored stiff.

[@JulianOrchardfan]

I used to thoroughly enjoy Sir Harry Secombe who presented Highway on itv.Whilst over on the bbc we had Thora Hird and Praise Be. Crazy times.

[@alanredversangel]

12:48 Imagine this Hannibal Lecter looking fella preaching fire and brimstone to you on a Sunday morning. Stuff of nightmares.

[@jonb3311]

To the best of my knowledge there are no chapels left in the Swansea valley. There ain't that many pubs either.

[@Knappa22]

There are some e.g Alltwen Chapel (Congregationalist / Independent)

[@jonb3311]

@@Knappa22 I think the Soar chapel opposite Ponty Library may be used. I remember Pantteg chapel being on the TV and that's shut.

[@Thomas-px2lh]

The melancholy is almost too much.

[@bblair2627]

10 PUBS FOR A TOWN OF 1900!

[@MichaelBennett1]

Thirsty days.

[@flybobbie1449]

70's there were 8 pubs within 10 minutes walk my old home.

[@jonb3311]

@@flybobbie1449 Village of under 2,000 had 18 pubs and 18 chapels/churches. The pub owners used to get on, the chapels were on a constant war footing.

[@Knappa22]

Llandovery has always had a lot of pubs and inns. The town was at the convergence point of many drovers’ routes in times gone by.

[@flybobbie1449]

Bring back Sunday closing. The world was a more restful place in the 60's and 70's with the shops closed. One way to reduce our carbon foot print. Now Sundays are busier than most week days.

[@veeeks2938]

This stuff still goes on in certain islands in the north of Scotland. Islanders on the Isle of Lewis are against tesco opening on a sunday. I also mind supermarkets had to seal off their booze aisles on sundays back in the 90s, lest it anger the lord, lol.

[@SilverBullet888]

I remember this day well great times

[@johnathanryan2117]

Open a pub and call it The Church Inn. Everyones happy then.

[@TinLeadHammer]

So it is either a chapel or a pub? What a boring life.

[@KeefsCattys]

Grew up in the 70's and my parents wouldnt let us watch TV or play with friends . Horrible times . Religion is a poisonous and harmful thing

[@NB-ns3cy]

You are evil

[@user-ve3gh5xg9q]

Old 🇬🇧😍

[@cymro6537]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 not so much , 🇬🇧

[@scroggins100]

And there it was gone! By there see look you said Evans the Milk. Bless em all.

[@lrdisco2005]

The only reason they enforced the Sabbath was they realised you couldnt make people work seven days a week without killing them. They had to make sure your day off was miserable so you would look forward to Monday.

[@richard-davies]

I don't give a damn about any religion, but it would be nice for most places to shut down on a Sunday as there is no day off these days, it's literally a 7-day working week.

[@Evemeister12]

With the ridiculous 24/7 culture we've now got, a return to a quiet sunday would be desirable. Religious or non-religious.

[@OrangutanSquash]

What’s stopping you?

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

It did Kill the Cymric way of Life.

[@williamrees6662]

The Cymric way of life? The chapels only came to Wales about 200 years ago. Before then most people were Catholic or Anglican. Indeed, all of the most famous Welshmen in history were Roman Catholics, and they certainly did not share any puritanical notion of Welshness.

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

@@williamrees6662 I am from a Puritan Familyy! Certainly not Anglican the Church in Wales Welsh Speaking. Alsoo I have many preachers in my family, Catholocism was an anathema in Wales dewch yma.

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

You really are making a BIG mistake if you think that!

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

Chapels are much older than 200 Years,.

[@pipins3616]

All about money shops open people working all over

[@gingerali]

Closed down the Churches and pubs , replaces them with take away and Mosques . Greed !

[@curiousuranus810]

It's like some superstitious, tribal nonsense from a thousand years ago, thank goodness society has grown up since then.

[@ericablair4425]

It gave people society a discipline to live by . Now there is none ! Just at the mercy of the Markets . Imposing on peoples lives .

[@briandelaney9710]

That’s a terribly blinkered attitude and unhistorical. Christianity built England and Wales

[@ianclarke1852]

Less Christianity now and more people in prison, more kids in care, more anger, more fractured homes.

[@curiousuranus810]

@@ianclarke1852 Less young women being considered pariahs for having a baby out of 'wedlock'. Less priests fiddling with kids. Less religious hatred here, but lots where they still cling to their superstitions. Nice arguments, like this, instead of haranguing your opponent for being godless miscreants for believing in the wrong bit of the bible - or none of the nonsense. Many more people taking responsibility for their own actions. Humanity growing up.

[@mid-walesrover681]

Be careful what you wish for.

[@phillipcarter8045]

Nothing is sacred anymore .

[@deadpool3982]

If you want to follow the rules about the sabbath go ahead, don’t expect others who don’t follow your religion to do so It isn’t and never was ‘sacred’ to us, just a load of rubbish from an old book 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@michaelbrodie5942]

We're not as indrocrated or oppressed anymore

[@AreJayCee]

It was 1961 FFS

[@ramsden35]

And we know why those fellas wanted the kids in church.

[@NB-ns3cy]

You are judging people by your own standards. The police would be interested to view your harddrive

[@robinburn4974]

I think Labour has done more damage to Wales than opening pubs on a Sunday has 😂

[@ftumschk]

... try 14 years of Tory austerity and Thatcher's dismantling of traditional Welsh industries.

[@robinburn4974]

@ftumschk and don't forget Brexit

[@ftumschk]

@BuJammy Probably because Thatcher dealt them such a mortal blow that they were on their last legs anyway... my lad. Same with other key industries and services she damaged or sold off.

[@BuJammy]

@@ftumschk More pits closed under Labour governments than under Thatcher my lad. The steel industry was ruined by nationalisation, another gift from Labour. I'm never a Tory, but those are facts.

[@jimjam6958]

Failed in Wales - Not The 9 O'clock News 😂

[@steve00alt70]

They literally thought that worshiping God 1 day a week then putting him back in a box is what makes you a christian? 😂 nope. And they were following the old testament aswell which again bible says not too.

[@deadpool3982]

Where does the bible say not to follow the Old Testament? The bible is the old and new testament otherwise we’d just be calling the OT the Torah You know the commandments are OT, yeah? And Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” literally referring to Mosaic law aka stuff in the old testament I mean it’s all bollocks anyway but what you said about the teachings is incorrect

[@steve00alt70]

@deadpool3982 2 Corinthians 5:17 Jesus said the old has passed away, behold the new has come. As Jesus paid the price with his life so that nobody will be under the old testament law anymore which focused on only good works.

[@deadpool3982]

@@steve00alt70 Matthew 5:17 (ESV) Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. (KJV) Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

[@steve00alt70]

@@deadpool3982 so which is it? Cause doing good works to please him is under the old testament not the new one.

[@deadpool3982]

@@steve00alt70 that question is irrelevant, as I said the old and New Testament are what make up the bible…majority of it is Old Testament It doesn’t have to be one or the other Just accept the loss, you don’t know your own damn holy book..even messed up the part you tried to quote. And didn’t actually address what I said just totally avoided it, typical theist…can’t respond do you throw up the deflector shields

[@samsia7637]

First here

[@JN003]

.. 1950's & 60's was the lowest cancer rates on record... plenty of old people around..

[@PSI-qf8bq]

Not sure where you have taken your figures from. Male life expectancy 1950's average 69, 2024 average 81. 😮 According to a Select Committee report published in 2023. Over half individuals diagnosed with cancer are over 71.

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

"Foreign element", imagine why they'd think about the UK now! 😂

[@Thomas-px2lh]

Gammon for supper father?

[@cct7558]

That’s fine, but the Sabbath is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Monday isn’t the first day of the week.Sunday is.

[@JJONNYREPP]

1961: SUNDAY OPENING - A Threat to the WELSH WAY OF LIFE? | Panorama | BBC Archive 0832am 1.12.24 these austere and grim geezers will have you all on bread and water before you can say: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!!

[@Knappa22]

Not for Christians.

[@JJONNYREPP]

@@Knappa22 Comments on ‘1961: SUNDAY OPENING - A Threat to the WELSH WAY OF LIFE? | Panorama | BBC Archive’. 1.13.24. I'd say yer limiting people, for some reason....why?

[@cct7558]

@@Knappa22 Do you know the history behind it? Obviously, originally it was on the same day as the Jewish sabbath, but it was changed by Constantine in the fourth century because he was originally a sun worshiper and he wanted to give honour to the venerable day of the Sun(day). Pagan worship.

[@Knappa22]

@@cct7558 No. Non adherence to the Jewish sabbath was earlier than that - the proclamation of Antioch in the 2nd century. Either way it was a very *very* long time ago and the majority of christians now acknowledge the Lord’s Day (so named because of the Resurrection on Easter Day (a Sunday) as their Sabbath. There are some sabbatarian sects who disagree of course but it isn’t a mainstream view