MORE needs to be done to portray contemporary Welsh life on TV.

That is the view of speakers at the Wales Screen Summit.

During the summit, Channel 4’s drama commissioning editor Gwawr Lloyd (pictured), who comes from Aberystwyth, stressed the importance of telling regional stories and making them universal.

“I’m frustrated that we’re not working enough with writers from Wales, but that is going to change because there are a lot of great projects on the slate,” she said.

The move away from linear commissioning and audiences’ increasing acceptance of subtitles are encouraging signs for the future.

Lloyd highlighted the success of BBC Wales drama Keeping Faith.

“It wasn’t commissioned for BBC Network, but it became an iPlayer sensation,” she said. “The people had spoken: they wanted to see this really authentic story set in Wales.”

As the BBC continues to move towards making iPlayer the primary destination for viewers, Irving said it will “democratise the content in the way the linear schedule cannot always do.”

Acclaimed drama director Mark Evans pointed out that Wales is third in line behind South East and North West England in terms of British creative communities – but asked: “Why aren’t we seen as much on screen?”

Ben Irving, the BBC’s Acting Head of Drama, pointed to a “stark gap” between high-end Welsh productions like Doctor Who and His Dark Materials and “incredible Welsh pieces made on low budgets that go on to do well on iPlayer and get great acclaim”.

He is looking to close that gap with pieces such as The Pact, the upcoming Wolf, and Lost Boys and the Fairies, the first bilingual English/Welsh language drama for primetime BBC1.

“It feels like a real shift into filling that space,” he said.

S4C drama commissioner Gwenllian Gravelle pointed out that recent S4C drama The Museum was sold in the Welsh language to Britbox, and to Japan’s Mystery Channel.

She said Welsh-language drama can stand out as “local exotic” in a saturated market: drama that is “very rooted in Wales, with Welsh voices, the diversity of modern Wales but feels a bit exotic to the rest of the world.”

Some unscripted shows continue to be filmed “back-to-back” in the English and Welsh language to produce two separate versions commissioned by different broadcasting co-producers.

Channel 4/S4C co-production The Great House Giveaway is one such show. C4 daytime and features commissioning editor Kate Thomas said she had 14 commissions coming out of Wales.

“I’m actively looking for other projects I can commission back-to-back with S4C at the moment,” she said. She urged producers: “Come to us with a really bold idea – don’t just think about Wales-based ideas. Think about formats, think about relatable, scalable series. Everything’s in place for us to keep growing on that.”