Daryl Perrins

Daryl's primary research interests revolve around the representation of the Welsh and more specifically the Welsh working class in popular film and TV. His work has looked at for example, how the mining cycle of films from the mid twentieth century struggled to capture the radical nature of this class, instead turning again and again to the cliches of a Celtic twilight. His most recent work has focused on language in Welsh film and TV culture and how it effectively works through 'two cultures'. Comedy is a central tool in our negotiation of this plurality and Daryl's most recent project, a chapter entitled 'Now Say Something in... Welsh': Gavin and Stacey in Translation' was published in Irwin, M. and Marshall, J. eds., 2023. UK and Irish Television Comedy: Representations of Region, Nation, and Identity. Springer Nature.'UK Television and Post Television Comedy Cultures'. It considers how Welsh writers use the carnivalesque space of the sit-com form to negotiate a place for a monoglot South Walian working class within an offically bilingual nation. Daryl's secondary area of research interest is in British music culture and he has previously published on David Bowie (and the music video) and also created a Podcast on the passing of The Fall's Mark E Smith in 2018. In November 2023 Daryl successfully defended his PhD thesis: 'They Can't Stop Us Singing': Film, Television and the Representation of the Welsh Working Class' at Royal Holloway, University of London and now holds a doctorate from that institution. This thesis is being reworked into monogragh commissoned by University of Wales Press. It is scheduled for publication for late 2026. 

Daryl is a semi-retired Senior Lecturer in Film Studies who works at both post and undergraduate level. Daryl is a Module Leader on MA Film and is a second supervisor on a PhD on work practices in the Welsh film industry. He is also Module Leader on Global Cinema and teaches on the first year module What is Cinema.  He has previously taught courses on British cinema, TV drama, film history and cult cinema. Ouside of the University he has taught silent cinema at the Young Peoples Film School at Chapter Arts Centre and creative writing for mature students in The Arts Factory Ferndale in the Rhondda.