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A film blogger who planned to upload an iconic TV series about Welsh history to YouTube has been warned that he would face a copyright bill of £143,000 if he did so.

The Dragon Has Two Tongues was broadcast by Channel 4 and HTV in 1985 with two contrasting presenters: the establishment-oriented former BBC broadcaster Wynford Vaughan Thomas and the Marxist historian Gwyn Alf Williams.

According to journalist Huw Edwards, the pair “slugged it out in one of the best history series ever seen on British television. The Dragon Has Two Tongues mesmerised viewers: each presenter vigorously promoted his own story of Wales, engaging in endless argument about people, places and events”.

But the 13-part series has been unavailable for many years and film buff Nick Stradling, who came across an old VHS tape of the programmes, wanted to give a new generation the opportunity to view it.

He said: “My initial thoughts were ‘How is this not commercially available and why had I never heard of it before?’ It’s dramatic, energetic, funny and inclusive.

“I was in no doubt that the debates presented in the series totally changed the way I thought about Wales. I visited the producer and director of the show, Colin Thomas, to pass on gratitude and admiration for his work, and he gave me his blessing to show the episodes on YouTube.”

But after uploading the first episode, Stradling was contacted by Owain Meredith of ITV Wales, who told him they needed “to discuss licensing”.

Meredith courteously told Stradling that he would be charged £7.30 a second – which would amount to a total of £143,000 for the whole series.

(Image: Escenic)

Stradling responded, saying it was his intention to upload the show under “Fair Dealing UK”, which enables copyrighted material to be used for education, comment or critical purposes.

But he was then informed by YouTube that he had uploaded material belonging to ITV which was not his, and that he had a “strike warning” on his account. The video was taken down as a result.

'A vital series which needs to be seen'

Stradling said: “In the 24 hours it was online it received nearly 500 views on YouTube alone. I also received a lot of goodwill from many individuals who have been waiting to see this show for decades - as well as Welsh societies abroad who were hoping to use the uploads to show to their patrons.

"This is still a small channel with less then 800 subscribers. Imagine how many people across Wales and the world could see this show with a larger platform.”

Meredith was in touch again, saying he agrees The Dragon Has Two Tongues is “a vital series which needs to be seen” and expressing the hope that the National Library of Wales will upload the series to their own YouTube channel in 2018 as part of a series of events to commemorate the show.

"What puzzles me is why ITV were able to allow me to upload if I was to pay them 143,000 pounds? It seems that the rights are only complex if you don’t have the means to buy them.

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Stradling said: “The Dragon Has Two Tongues is not just any old series. It should be a vital part of our national conversation, so the main thing for me is to get it available for public viewing as soon as possible.

"It is currently a dead asset for ITV, I was denying the channel no income by showing it to the public.

“I have four times more YouTube subscribers than the National Library of Wales. So if ITV and the National Library do not work together to get the series online and increase its visibility, I would request they allow a keen amateur such as myself to share it with the wider world, so we can get a vital debate going about Welsh history.”

'A groundbreaking and iconic piece of broadcasting history'

An ITV Wales spokesman said: “The Dragon Has Two Tongues has not been cleared for re-transmission or re-use beyond the original broadcasts. To do so, we would have to reach agreement with each of the many copyright holders and contributors to the series. They might well have a financial claim for the re-use of their work.

“The figures are an estimate of how much a copyright holder might charge to re-transmit clips from the series based on a price-per-minute.

“We’ve been trying to resolve these copyright and licensing issues for many years because we believe The Dragon Has Two Tongues to be a groundbreaking and iconic piece of broadcasting history. In the meantime, this landmark series, together with the entire ITV archive, is available to watch at the National Library of Wales.”