Harry Tipping of Rhydyfro, South Wales

A portrait by Geoffrey Thomas - also of Rhyd-y-fro - of a man who attributes his inner peace, contentment and good health to his Christian faith. He reads the Bible and shares his philosophy of life from his seat by the fireside of his home in Gwrhyd Road and his comments are also heard over footage showing him working, socialising (playing the accordion) and performing the various duties of a Church Warden/Caretaker at the church of St. Ciwg, Llangiwg, Rhydyfro.

When he made this film, Geoffrey Thomas, aged 22, was working as an assistant film editor for HTV. His subject, Harry Tipping, was 64 and they both lived in Gwrhyd Road. Thomas had graduated from the Film Unit at Newport College of Art & Design in 1969 and went on to form Scan Productions in 1971 with Fran Gallaher. Scan had regular contracts with the Welsh language channel S4C, which was established in 1982, and would produce ‘back to back’ versions of a film (i.e. one with Welsh soundtrack, the other with English) in order to be able to offer work to other channels e.g. ‘Citizen Kane a Cynan’ for the opening night of S4C, and ‘Mr Hearst and Mr Kane’ for Channel 4, launched a day after the Welsh channel.