092102 Western Mail

September 21, 2002
The Western Mail
Dylan pub ready to welcome Scottish star
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THE Scottish actor who is to play Wales's best-known poet in a forthcoming multi-million-pound film is being urged to get into character and prop up the bar at one of his favourite drinking dens. Dougray Scott is already said to be putting on weight and learning a Welsh accent for his upcoming role as Dylan Thomas.

Now the landlord of a favourite Dylan watering hole in Laugharne has offered the actor a warm welcome when he starts filming in the Carmarthenshire village early next year.

Tom Watts, 71, of Brown's Hotel, who knew the poet personally, said, "If he's going to get the part then he will probably be spending a lot of time here anyway.

"We've had a lot of people from films in here so he's very welcome at any time."

The one-time hotel, now a pub, whose regulars are said to have inspired the characters of Under Milk Wood, will be among the poet's haunts to star in the new £10m film being made by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger's

production company, Jagged Films.

The Map of Love will focus on the poet's somewhat turbulent relation-ship with his wife Caitlin, played by actress Emily Watson.

The nearby boathouse, where he and Caitlin lived from 1949 until his death in New York in 1953 is also expected to feature. The couple are buried in the churchyard at St Martin's in Laugharne.

"He spent more time here than in the boathouse," said Mr Watts. "It was his favourite place. He used to sit in the corner smoking Woodbines and when someone would make a remark he would pull out a packet and write down in it what they had said."

"All the characters came from the bar here."

But Mr Watts, who still owns the original bed on which the couple slept in the boathouse, said contrary to legend, Dylan was no alcoholic.

"I can only remember him drinking half pints of beer. I knew the family quite well. I could tell you some tales about them but I would have to leave Laugharne if I did. She was a wild lady.

"Marriages are made in heaven but so is thunder and lightning. I have seen some arguments."

Dylan enthusiast and author George Tremlett, on whose book In the Mercy of his Means the film's writer and director Cardiff-born Chris Monger based his script, said he had no doubt about the quality of the film.

The author, who lives in Laugh-arne, said, "It's a very committed project, everything about it is serious in intent. That's apparent from the script, which I have read.

"Mick Jagger is not in the business of making fly-by-night films and everyone involved, including Dougray Scott and Emily Watson, is very serious.

He said Mr Scott, who studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, was a very flexible actor, who worked his way into a part much like Robert De Niro. For Enigma for instance, in which he played the mathematician Tom Jericho, he learnt how the Enigma coding machines worked.

"I gather he's been putting on weight for the last four or five months," he said.

"I would not be surprised if he had a few drinks at Brown's Hotel when he gets here."

Shooting of The Map of Love is due to start in Laugharne next January with filming also expected to take place in Swansea, where the poet was born and brought up, and New York where he died. It had been hoped to release the film next year to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, but whether this date can still be met is uncertain.

Jagged Films is due to make a formal announcement about filming schedules at the end of October.

Although neither Carmarthenshire nor Swansea council have yet been approached about filming in their areas, Mr Tremlett said it was in the nature of film companies to leave it until the last minute and then move very fast. "My understanding is that the film will begin in January," he said.

He said the village was very laid back and would cope well with the expected influx of stars and film crew. "Laugharne has coped for 50 years with one of the major poets of the last two or three centuries and it can cope with that," he said.