In December 2010 Chris guest edited Radio Wales’s Friday phone-in presented by Jason Mohammed which was also filmed for BBC 2W’s The Politics Show. The same week, with co-producer Steve Groves, Chris also produced content for BBC Radio Wales’s shows Jamie and Louise and Roy Noble to celebrate International Day of Disabled People and his own Turning Points project
Radio 4, Radio 3, Radio Wales and Music
2007: Chris’s first programme for BBC Radio 4, My History of Falconry, was a 15 minute stand-alone exploration of his enduring love of birds of prey and 10 year relationship with a cantankerous Harris Hawk called Sparky. Click the picture to listen to an extract.
Film & TV
Chris’s short film, Clicker, was broadcast live on the outdoor Big Screens in 24 towns and cities across Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England over the 2010 Christmas period and again in 2011. Click on the robot to view Clicker and here to view other films in the series, Tales of First and Second Sight.
Previous TV credits include:
Edge of Dylan, 2009, BBC2
Define Normal re-edit on the Community Channel, 2008
Chicken Tonight digital story, BBC 2W, 2007
Produced and directed 5 short training films for the Welsh Assembly Government’s Potentia project, 2006
Define Normal, BBC 2W, 2005
One in Six, HTV series, 2003
On Show, BBC Wales arts show, 2003
Written Off, Adrian Mourby, for BBC TV’s Playhouse Wales, 1988
Journalism
3rd December 2010, guest edited The Friday Phone-in with Jason Mohammed for BBC Radio Wales to celebrate International Day of Disabled People
2007-2009, Feature Writer for The Big Issue Cymru
2008, Guest Editor of Disability Wales‘ journal, More Than Words
2007, Guest Editor, Art Disability Culture Magazine, London
1994-2000, Editor, ADWaith, Arts Disability Wales’s magazine
1995-2000, Editor, Cardiff and Vale Coalition of Disabled People’s News
Articles contributed to other magazines including New Welsh Review, Choice, Mailout, Forum News, Drama Association of Wales’s News, Folk Roots, Taplas, Venue and What’s Happening
2009-2010: Chris wrote and presented a 5 part series for BBC Radio 4. My Mile of the River explored his relationship with one reach of the River Wye during the turning of a year. Click the picture of the river to listen to all episodes.
Writing
2021, Talking Books, written by Chris and read by Caroline John at Disability Art Cymru’s Manifesto launch on the 3rd December, International Day of Disabled People, an event attended by 29 different countries
2010, poetry, haiku, published in Dancing Pilgrimage of Water, (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
2010, Words to Wales, edited and contributed to an anthology of poetry and prose
2005, short story, Low Monitor, published in Hidden Dragons anthology (Parthian)
In 2015 Chris worked with National Theatre Wales on their Big Democracy Project in partnership with Celf o Gwmpas, exploring the issue “Are disabled people an easy target for the cuts?” - an evening of performance and debate at Celf, Llandrindod Wells. The evening was recorded by Radio 3.
The Big Democracy
In Search of Captain Cat
2022-2023: For Dylan Thomas Day Chris uses dramatic imaginings and historic investigations to explore the back story of the writer’s infamous disabled character from Under Milk Wood. Chris takes to the water with a world-champion blind sailor, follows the Dylan Trail to a graveyard populated with the graves of dozens of Welsh mariners, and talks to the person who first cast him as Captain Cat. Broadcast on BBC Radio Wales in May 2022 and February 2023. Click the picture of a windswept Chris to listen.
COOKING BLIND
The new album deals with themes of love, loss, disability and mental health and is available to stream on your favourite platform or get in touch for an old fashioned CD.
My Mile of the River
My History of Falconry
Not Really Human: The Fight for Disability Rights in Wales
On April Fool’s Day in Cardiff almost 30 years ago, Chris Tally Evans walked in front of a bus while others chained themselves to vehicles and trains. They had taken the fight for civil rights for disabled people onto the streets. This was happening within a generation of the label “Not really human” being attached to the notes of a 12-year-old boy at a Welsh institution. But soon after the action the first Act outlawing discrimination against disabled people passed through Parliament.
So that’s OK then? Not according to the people still campaigning on behalf of disabled people. Chris re-unites with the people who encouraged him - as he struggled to come to terms with losing his sight - to join the Direct Action Network and he speaks to today’s campaigners abut modern discrimination against disabled people and why they are still fighting.