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Radio 1 DJ proud to bring north Walian accent to rest of UK

BBC Sian EleriBBC
Sian Eleri says people often ask about her accent

BBC Radio 1 DJ Sian Eleri has said she is proud to bring her north Walian accent to a national platform.

The presenter, from Caernarfon, Gwynedd, said she enjoyed getting the chance to tell people she was a Cofi - a term for people from the town.

"It's nice. We don't often hear the north Walian accent nationally, I feel very proud. Even though I can't take any credit for the way I speak," she said.

"It's often interesting how I'll get comments from people saying 'oh, what accent is that? Where are you from?'

"And I like the idea that I can proudly say ‘well, I'm a Cofi, I'm from Caernarfon, and this is what we sound like'."

BBC | TWENTY TWENTY | RORY JACKSON Sian Eleri with headphones on looking at the camera, there is a cardboard box next to herBBC | TWENTY TWENTY | RORY JACKSON
Sian Eleri has returned to the screen for the second series of Paranormal

Sian was talking to Lucy Owen ahead of the second series of Paranormal, in which she investigates the famous Pembrokeshire UFO sightings.

In 1977, 14 pupils at Broad Haven primary school claimed they had spotted a UFO in a field in near their playground.

"The headmaster asked them a few days later to sit down in exam conditions and draw what they say they saw," she said.

"They all had remarkably similar depictions of what they claim they saw in the field, and it became international news really quickly."

A wave of reports of "close encounters" and sightings in the area followed, leading to claims of Britain's largest-ever mass sighting.

Broad Haven School drawings
Pupil drawings taken from Broad Haven School's 1977 UFO scrapbook

The host of Radio 1's Chillest Show said working on the show really made her challenge her beliefs.

"I've always thought I was an open-minded sceptic - which sounds like a cop out - but it's the unknown.

"I feel like we actually have no idea about how the world works.

"There's definitely moments I've had while filming that I've either got really spooked, I'm feeling really paranoid, or even getting a sense of dread that you might experience something that can change your worldview."

The first series of Paranormal, named The Girl, The Ghost and The Gravestone, won a Celtic Media Award for best factual series and has been streamed more than 2.7 million times on BBC iPlayer.

It saw Sian investigate more than 300 allegedly paranormal occurrences at Penyffordd Farm in Flintshire, widely considered to be the most haunted house in Britain.

Now, Sian said she left no stone unturned when trying to solve the mystery of the alleged UFO sightings.

"It's been so cool with this series - we've gone above and beyond, talking to some amazing people all over Wales.

"We go to the House of Lords at one point to try and talk to the minister of defence. We go to the National Archives in London looking at classified documents. So it's a real journey," Sian said.

"There's an enormous level of archive that I ended up sifting through in the course of a couple of months, trying to just unpick what exactly is going on.

"None of this is about debunking - it's about comparing fiction and fact, and what could have possibly happened or what could potentially explain what people saw - if there is any logical explanation," Sian said.

You can listen to Sian Eleri's interview with Lucy Owen on BBC Sounds and watch Paranormal: The Village That Saw Aliens on BBC iPlayer