Rob Brydon’s Welshman

Rob Brydon freely admits he has not lived in Wales for twenty years. Despite this, the creator of Keith Barrett is a proud Welshman, and notes early on that he is always introduced as `Welsh comedian Rob Brydon'. However, having relocated to London, he felt that maybe he was losing touch with his Welsh roots, and set about finding them again in BBC Four's Rob Brydon's Identity Crisis.

Brydon's aim was to look at why the Welsh are, as he saw it, “pessimistic, gloomy and depressive”. Straight away, as a Welshman myself, I had a think. Am I pessimistic, gloomy and depressive? I don't think so, but knowing my luck I probably am. Brydon presents a fairly strong accusation, not to mention generalisation, but his goal is not to convince us that it is true but to ask questions and find out whether it is, with the eventual aim of giving a stand-up routine of his discoveries to a Welsh audience.

There are two factors of Welsh humour that really become the focal points of the documentary. The first is what Gavin and Stacey actress Ruth Jones describes as “not mild intolerance but actual hatred” towards the English. For most Welsh people this point of view does not extend beyond the Six Nations rugby, though there are those tiresome few who see the English as the mighty oppressors. I've met them, I've heard the spiel from them in pubs, but this kind of melodrama should surely be a thing of the past and indeed Brydon finds it easy to caricature this perceived aspect of Welsh character.

The second, more controversial, subject is the Welsh language. One clip shows a young Brydon on a chat show hosted by Britain's favourite pompous arse Jeremy Clarkson, who cackles along as Brydon pretends he's on a Welsh version of Countdown. “I'll have a consonant please Carol, and another, and another…” Whatever your thoughts, be it too many consonants or if you've attended the Anne Robinson `stupid, made-up language' school of idiocy, if you can't speak Welsh, even if you yourself are Welsh, then it's wise to steer clear of knocking the language. Indeed, in the first two routines, Brydon finds that material on this subject is not well received; even his best friend is unimpressed. Brydon himself declares he was a bit too ‘mean', and resolves to present his material in a more positive manner for his final two performances, having found that most people he spoke to were actually quite chirpy and cheerful.

Your own thoughts on Brydon's findings will depend largely on whether or not you're Welsh. The crowd at his final venue in Aberdare were, and they seemingly enjoyed every minute, even if his best mate did have a sulk at the language mockery again. As for me, was I overcome with a sense of patriotism as I watched? No, not really. Was it funny? Most definitely.