Stylish pop art of Rachel Thomas, part of the Welsh Ffilm collection by Art & Hue.

This pop art print features the archetypal Welsh Mam Rachel Thomas, whose first film was “The Proud Valley” with Paul Robeson, in full song in “Valley of Song“.

Based on Cliff Gordon’s radio play “Choir Practice”, first broadcast on the Home Service on the 7th of March 1946 with a cast including Rachel Thomas alongside Glynis Johns and Ivor Novello, “Valley of Song” is a simply charming story of star-crossed lovers and family rivalries in a community choir.

Before the story made it to film, Rachel Thomas appeared in a television adaptation which was broadcast on the 30th of July 1949 with Stanley Baker and Donald Houston.

Born in Alltwen in the Swansea Valley, and later moving to Cardiff (Rhiwbina to be precise), Thomas performed in local eisteddfodau and the National Eisteddfod. She caught the ear of BBC radio when her bible reading broadcast during a Church service in 1933 lead to her casting in the first Welsh-language radio comedy “Y Practis”.

Rachel Thomas also appeared in the Wales-set film “The Halfway House” with Glynis Johns, “Under Milk Wood” with Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor, “Tiger Bay” with Meredith Edwards, mining film “Blue Scar”, TV productions of “How Green Was My Valley” in 1960 & again in 1976 with Stanley Baker, “Taxi!” with Sid James, “Dixon of Dock Green” with Jack Warner, and as Bella Davies in the long-running Welsh soap opera “Pobol y Cwm” from 1974 to 1992.