A Valleys memoir, theatre about holiday homes, and mental health drama.

All on this week's Radio Wales Arts Show.

This week’s BBC Radio Wales Arts Show is now available via BBC Sounds and you can catch up with it here.

This week I talk with Brad Evans, Professor of Political Violence at the University of Bath, whose new memoir uses his own experiences of growing up in abject poverty in the Rhondda to tell a “peoples’ history” of the south Wales valleys, How Black Was My Valley. Also joining him, (as I disturb their holiday in Edinburgh), is his artist wife Chantal Meza, who contributed artwork to the book, including the cover (pictured above).

Next, I talk to Anwen Huws, writer of the new S4C drama Creises, following mental health nurse Jamie as he navigates immense personal and professional challenges (it’s also quite funny). We’re also joined by Gwydion Rhys, who lays Jamie, and we talk about Huws’ deft handling of the material and pushing boundaries in storytelling.

Lastly, I speak with Lucy Lovatt, writer of Kill Thy Neighbour, a new play showing at Theatr Clwyd in Mold and Torch in Milford Haven, and director Chelsey Gillard. I’m going somehow to catch it, as it sounds fantastic - a dark Strindbergian comedy of despair about the second home crisis in north and west Wales.