9 March 2026

Cameraman Rhys Williams has been in contact with a prisoner on death row for decades.

They have never met face to face – until now.

Rhys first contacted Roderick Michael Orme over 20 years ago and now, in new S4C programme Fy Ffrind ar Death Row (My Friend on Death Row), he is going on a journey stateside to learn more about the man he calls a friend.

Journalist Elen Wyn joins Rhys on the trip, after many years of working together on news stories.

The documentary airs on S4C at 21.00 on 10 March and will be available on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer with Welsh and English subtitles.

“I don’t want to be friends with a murderer, but I’ve found myself as a friend with a murderer. Maybe at the end of this journey, I’ll re-think that idea,” Rhys said.

“The letters date back 20 years, and then they became emails after some years, then in the last year or two he’s been able to phone me.”

Orme has been on death row since 1993 for murdering Lisa Redd, and he’s still awaiting a date for his execution.

The friendship between Rhys and Orme began when the former worked as a freelance cameraman, searching for stories to offer to news editors.

He read an article with the headline “Welshman on death row” which mentioned that Orme was looking for pen pals in Wales.

“In saying that, there wasn’t much of a Welsh connection,” according to Rhys, but the two continued to communicate.

In the programme, Elen and Rhys meet Carol, Lisa’s sister who says she will “never forgive” Orme for what he did.

Carol said: “She and I had gone out. He stopped us the whole time we were out because that Sunday, when he showed up at her house to see her, I told him, ‘Lose her number, she doesn’t want to see you’. He said, ‘If I can’t have her, no one can’ and I asked him, I said ‘What does that mean?’ He said, ‘Take it as you will’. She was dead two days later.”

Elen and Rhys also meet Sigrid Wade, who has established a pen pals website for inmates.

“I remember one of my pen pals just told me, ‘I really love your letters because you make me feel like I’m right there with you’,” Sigrid said.

“One of them I did end up being really close to him and now we’ve been married for nine years.”

After he hears evidence from the trial and from one man who worked as an executioner, will Rhys still feel that he has a friend on death row?