I was a stage and television actor for forty years until October, 2006 (when I  retired from my career as an actor); I am also a published author, a dramatist and a radio and television scriptwriter, as well as being a director – and I intend continuing with my writing, if I have time. (I wrote JENNIE, for example, a drama-documentary about the life of the legendary Jennie Eirian Davies during last year’s summer holidays: that’s the last time I took a break!)

I also wrote the film PORC PEI (Pork Pie) which was awarded the main prize in the Vürzburg International Film Festival in Germany, 1998 – and which later developed into the highly successful and popular award-winning television series PORC PEIS BACH (Mini Pork Pies) on S4C. I also chronicled the nightmare of the alcoholic in my stage and radio play, GWIN COCH A FODCA (Red Wine and Vodka) premiered by Theatre Powys at the 1998 Bro Ogwr Royal National Eisteddfod. And I am to blame for creating ac co-writing (with Mici Plwm) the cult television series for children under a hundred, TELIFFANT and ANTURIAETHAU SYR WYNFF A PLWMSAN (The Adventures of Sir Wynff and Plwmsan) – programmes which strongly influenced whole generations of Welsh children – for good, hopefully! My stage performances range from Fferi Nyff (Fair Enough!) the weird fairy in the early pantomimes of Cwmni Theatr Cymru( The Wales Theatre Company) to Antonio Salieri in Ken Owen’s translation of AMADEUS by Peter Shaffer, Graham Laker’s final and meritorious production for Cwmni Theatr Gwynedd; and the reverend Donald Parry, the eccentric father, in O DIAR! SIOE LWYFAN PORC PEIS BACH! (O Dear! – The Stage version of Mini Pork Pies) which was performed during the Eryri and District Royal National Eisteddfod; and the roles of The Player King and Voltemand in Michael Bogdanov’s 2005 award-winning production of HAMLET by William Shakespeare, with Welsh translation by Gareth Miles and Michael Bogdanov. The production played in both Welsh and English Languages.

I was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, Penygroes ac then at the Cardiff College of Education, Cyncoed and the Welsh National College of Music and Drama, Cardiff before I joined the production department at the BBC in 1969. One of the earliest from the media world to become self employed (I left the BBC in 1971 after being awarded a scholarship by the Welsh Arts Council to train as a theatre director); I’ve been chairman of the Welsh National Committee of Equity; and I continue to be a member of the Welsh Academy and a patron of Rhoserchan, the treatment centre for addictive illnesses in Capel Seion near Aberystwyth. I returned to college in 2006 and was awarded a degree in Addictions Counselling by the University of Bath. Since then I have worked briefly as an Addictions Counsellor in Rhoserchan and as the Chief Executive of the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs from October 2008 onwards.

I spent my early days in Llansannan in the old Denbighshire and the remainder of my childhood in Llanllyfni in the old Caernarvonshire, where my father, Robert Owen, was a minister with the Calvinistic Methodists. I’m Rowenna Thomas’s little brother, and my big brother is Arwel Ellis Owen – who produces my television and radio scripts, as chief executive of Cambrensis Communications Ltd. Married to Meira the heroine of my autobiography, RASLAS BACH A MAWR! – I’ve been blessed with two daughters, Bethan and Rwth, a successful actress and a medical registrar respectively. I am also a proud grandfather to Begw Non and Efa Grug; and I live in the village of Creigiau on the outskirts of Cardiff.

My latest book, No Room to Live, offers a positive way out from the hell, told through the personal experiences and thoughts of a high profile former addict, Wynford Ellis Owen, who is now the Chief Executive of the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

This is a personal reflection, and one that will appeal to anybody who wishes to escape from addiction but feels hopelessly trapped. The book is written with warmth and humour by a man who had it all, lost it all, and then, after much soul searching, successfully found lasting freedom from his own demons. If he did it, so can you...