The woman who founded the Welsh company that produces Ffermio, the popular S4C TV programme which deals exclusively with agricultural issues, has been presented with the Farmers’ Union of Wales Bob Davies Memorial Award.
The award – in memory of Farmers Weekly Wales correspondent Bob Davies, of Welshpool, who died in November 2009, aged 69 – is offered to a media personality who has raised the public profile of Welsh farming.
Receiving the award – a shepherd’s crook specially carved by Aberystwyth stick maker Hywel Evans – from FUW president Emyr Jones, Swansea-based Telesgop managing director Elin Rhys said: “Being chosen for this prestigious award is a great honour.
“To be acknowledged in this way means a lot to me and I’m deeply grateful to the FUW for considering that I’m worthy of the award.”
After leaving college, Mrs Rhys started work as a scientist with Welsh Water, travelling around South Wales taking water samples from rivers and sewage works to monitor water quality.
By the mid-1980s she had moved to a completely different career. Starting as a researcher for HTV on a weekly Welsh language science programme, she soon turned her hand at presenting and very quickly became one of the most famous and recognised faces on TV in Wales.
She went on to present a wide range of entertainment and outdoor pursuits programmes for HTV in Welsh and in English, including the National Eisteddfod for the BBC 2 network. Soon she was a regular face on BBC network programmes fronting science and education series.
After the birth of her daughter Ffion in 1992, Elin changed tack and formed her own company – Teledu Telesgop – which started life in 1993 in the back room of the family home near Llandeilo.
Within a few years the company was operating from an office in Llandeilo and then moved to Swansea in 2004. Today Telesgop is based in Ethos at SA1 in Swansea and employs 35 full time staff specialising in agricultural, science and wildlife programmes.
During her TV career Elin has been chair of TAC, the body that represents the independent TV companies in Wales and had represented the industry on a number of committees and other bodies.
Mr Jones said: “Elin Rhys fully deserves to receive this award, not only for giving us the ever-popular Ffermio programme since 1997, but also for ensuring that her company provides so much important information to farmers and the wider audience.”
Last December Telesgop retained the contract for BBC Wales’s coverage of the Royal Welsh Show, after winning it back for another two years in an open tender. The company’s relationship with the Royal Welsh goes back over 15 years, having pioneered S4C’s live Welsh language coverage and winning the contract for the BBC in 2008.
In May Telesgop received the Live Event Coverage nomination for this year’s BAFTA Cymru awards for Richard Rees and Branwen Davies’ work at last year’s Royal Welsh Show.
