John Hefin

John Hefin MBE (born John Hefin Evans, 14 August 1941 – 19 November 2012) was a Welsh television director and head of drama at BBC Wales. He began working for the BBC in 1960, and his career at the corporation included devising the long-running Welsh soap opera Pobol y Cwm, co-writing and directing the comedy film Grand Slam, and directing the 1981 biopic The Life and Times of David Lloyd George. He was later involved with the work of Film Cymru, the Film Commission Wales, and the media journal Cyfrwng. He also worked in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University. He died from cancer in November 2012.

Hefin was born in Aberystwyth in 1941, the youngest son of Huw Evans, the headmaster of a local primary school. Educated at Ardwyn Grammar School, he trained as a teacher at Trinity College, Carmarthen. He also became involved in amateur dramatics, as his parents had been.

In 1962, he was one of two people responsible for painting the graffito "Elis Lives" on a prominent roadside rock in mid Wales, in support of a local Plaid Cymru electoral candidate. The wording was later changed from Elis to Elvis, and it became known as the Elvis Rock.

Hefin was married twice. He had two children with his first marriage, to Non, and a daughter with his second wife, Elin. He died at his home in Borth, Ceredigion, from cancer on 19 November 2012.

Hefin first became involved in television work in 1960, when he responded to a newspaper advertisement for apprentice production assistants. During the 1960s, he worked as a producer and director for BBC Wales. In 1974, he helped create the Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm, the longest-running television soap opera produced by the BBC. He also co-wrote and directed the 1978 TV rugby comedy film Grand Slam, and directed the 1981 drama series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George. This nine-part series, a biopic based on the Welsh PM, drew on conversations with Lady Olwen, his eldest daughter, and A J Sylvester, his personal secretary. In 1984, Hefin was the director for the narration for an animated version of Prince Charles's children's story The Old Man of Lochnagar.

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