Book and BBC documentary takes news anchor down memory lane…at Christ College Brecon

Jamie Owen, BBC Wales Today news anchor, gets a lesson in history next week when he goes back to Christ College Brecon, where he spent his youth, for the BBC programme Jamie’s Welsh Journey’s.

The programme, which airs on 6th December at 7.30 pm, sees Jamie rediscover his former school with headmaster Phillip Jones and dine with today’s pupils at the same table he shared with his friends over 20 years ago.

The programme also sees Jamie meeting up with his old history teacher, Edward Parry, who decides that it is never too late to try and teach him a thing or two about history.

Jamie’s book, Welsh Journeys, which complements the television series, also records his time at the school which he remembers fondly.

As he spent his childhood there, the school played a major role in Jamie’s life: “This boarding school was home for seven years. In many respects, I am what this place made me” he said.

In his book he recollects colourful anecdotes of model air-plane making, a possibly suicidal sheep, PE lessons with a former SAS soldier, and inspiring or terrifying Masters in academic gowns. He also recalls facing a punishment for being late of either 60 lines or two whacks of the slipper – and opting for the latter as it was quicker. Such punishments, of course, long gone in today’s Christ College.

Jamie said: “The setting for education couldn't have been more perfect. Sport was played, albeit reluctantly by me, on beautiful playing fields surrounded by mountains. Cross-country runs could be inspiring, a walk to breakfast took you past ancient monastic buildings, and choir practice took place in a thirteenth-century chapel that looked like a film set. In short, it was easy to write an essay when the view out of the window was a work of art.

“The chapel, library, School House and weeping willow, surrounded by immaculate lawns, look as beautiful today as they did the day I arrived in 1979.”

Jamie sits at a very different desk today as he reads the news. “I know that without Christ College, I’d be stacking shelves somewhere,” he said.