# 2001 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 2001 to Wales and its people.

## Incumbents

* First Minister – Rhodri Morgan
* Secretary of State for Wales – Paul Murphy
* Archbishop of Wales – Rowan Williams
* Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Meirion Evans

## Events

* 1 March – Peter Clarke is appointed Children's Commissioner for Wales.
* 1 June – Official opening of Cardiff Bay Barrage.
* 7 June – In the UK general election:
** Plaid Cymru retain a total of 4 seats. They lose Ynys Môn to Labour but Adam Price gains Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from Labour's Alan Williams.
** Newly elected Labour MPs include Hywel Francis (Aberavon), Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Ian Lucas (Wrexham) and Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
** Kevin Brennan replaces Rhodri Morgan as MP for Cardiff West.
* 16 June – Entrepreneur Terry Matthews is knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
* 11 July – Welsh language pressure group Cymuned is launched at a meeting in Mynytho.
* 1 August – Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) is created through the merger of The Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) and Coleg Harlech.
* 16 September – To commemorate "Glyndwr Day", actress Siân Phillips unveils a memorial statue to Catrin Glyndŵr in London.
* 26 October – A memorial service to celebrate the life of Harry Secombe is held at Westminster Abbey and attended by the Prince of Wales (now Charles III).

## Arts and literature

* 15 March – Julien Macdonald is chosen as fashion house Givenchy's new designer.
* 24 March – Opening of the exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! in Cardiff.
* 15 December – Rob Brydon wins Best TV Comedy Actor award in the British Comedy Awards.
* 25 December – Matthew Rhys and Tom Ward star in a TV adaptation of The Lost World.
* November – John Bourne establishes the Wrexham Stuckists group of artists.
* Jessica Garlick makes the last ten in the first series of Pop Idol.
* Andrew Vicari sells a collection of 125 paintings of the First Gulf War to Prince Khaled of Saudi Arabia for £17 million.
* Irish photographer Paul Seawright is awarded a personal chair by the University of Wales, Newport.

### Awards

* Prix Hélène Rochas – Rebecca Evans
* Cardiff Singer of the World – Marius Brenciu
* Glyndŵr Award – John Meirion Morris

### National Eisteddfod (held in Denbigh)

* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Mererid Hopwood (first woman ever to win the chair)
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Penri Roberts
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Elfyn Pritchard
* Wales Book of the Year:
** English language: Stephen Knight – Mr Schnitzel
** Welsh language: Owen Martell – Cadw dy ffydd, brawd
* Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen -

### New books
#### English language

* Malcolm Pryce – Aberystwyth Mon Amour
* Alastair Reynolds – Chasm City
* Jon Ronson – Them: Adventures with Extremists
* Carole Seymour-Jones – Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T.S. Eliot

#### Welsh language

* Roger Boore and Rhian Nest James – Hoff Hwiangerddi
* Gwynfor Evans – Cymru o Hud
* Tudur Dylan Jones – Adenydd
* Angharad Tomos – Cnonyn Aflonydd

### Music

* Feeder – Echo Park (album)
* Hilary Tann – The Grey Tide and the Green, commissioned for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms and performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes
* Catatonia – Paper Scissors Stone (album)
* Goldie Lookin' Chain – Don't Blame the Chain (album)
* Melys – Chinese Whispers (album)
* Terris – "Fabricated Lunacy" (single) and Learning to Let Go (debut album)

## Film

* John Rhys-Davies makes his first appearance as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
* Sara Sugarman writes and directs Very Annie Mary, featuring Welsh stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Kenneth Griffith, Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Mary Hopkin and Ruth Madoc.
* Rhys Ifans co-stars in The Shipping News.
* A Bollywood film, Mein Dil Tujhko Diya (I Gave You my Heart), is shot in Aberystwyth and the Elan Valley.
* In Gosford Park, Jeremy Northam plays a fictionalised version of Ivor Novello. Several of Novello's songs feature in the film's soundtrack.
* Nia Roberts stars in A Day Out.

### Welsh-language films

* Against the Dying of the Light
* Y Delyn

## Broadcasting
### Welsh-language television

* Y Stafell Ddirgel (drama serial)

### English-language television

* The Bench

## Sport

* BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Joe Calzaghe
* Football – Liverpool F.C. win the FA Cup the first time it is played in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

## Births

* 23 March – Dream Alliance, racehorse bred near Blackwood

## Deaths

* 11 January – Lorna Sage, critic, 57 (emphysema)
* 20 January – Crispin Nash-Williams, mathematician, 68
* 18 February – Claude Davey, Wales international rugby union captain, 92
* 22 February – Cledwyn Hughes, Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos, former Secretary of State for Wales, 84
* 11 April – Sir Harry Secombe, singer and comedian, 79
* 16 April – Henry Morgan Lloyd, clergyman, 89
* 26 April – Dafydd Rowlands, minister and writer, 69
* 30 April – Brian Morris, Baron Morris of Castle Morris, poet, critic and politician, 71
* 25 May – Delme Bryn-Jones, operatic baritone, 67
* 10 June – Samuel Ifor Enoch, theologian, 86
* 17 July – Val Feld, the first member of the Welsh Assembly to die, 53 (cancer)
* 19 July – Roderic Bowen, MP, 87
* August – Valerie Davies, Olympic swimmer, 89
* 19 September – Rhys Jones, archaeologist, 60
* October – John Owen, television writer (suicide)
* 6 December – Eryl Stephen Thomas, former Bishop of Monmouth and of Llandaff, 91
* 7 December – Ray Powell, MP, 73