26 June 2025

In a special two-part series, S4C steps inside the world-leading science laboratory CERN, delving into its history, its major scientific breakthroughs, and the Welsh people at the heart of it all.

In a special two-part series, S4C steps inside the world-leading science laboratory CERN, delving into its history, its major scientific breakthroughs, and the Welsh people at the heart of it all.

The first episode of Gronyn Gobaith – Cymry CERN will broadcast on Tuesday 24 June at 9pm, followed by the second a week later, 9pm on 1 July on S4C, Clic and BBC iPlayer with English subtitles.

"This August marks 80 years since the first atomic bomb was dropped. The impact and dire consequences of the bombs were the catalyst for CERN.”  Explains Elin Rhys, series producer at Telesgop.

"After the war, and after supporting Oppenheimer to create the world’s first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, many European scientists lived with the guilt of what they’d done. They desparately wanted to return to Europe to establish a science centre for peace, and a centre that would share all its results publicly. This was the beginning of CERN - Europe's first and largest particle physics experiment."

To this day, CERN in Geneva is a unique organisation that unites 17,000 people, and represents 110 nations across the world, including Wales. It is the extraordinary contributions of these Welsh scientists that come under the spotlight in Gronyn Gobaith - Cymry CERN.

In addition to the Welsh series, international and theatrical versions have also been produced. The Peace Particle, a feature-length documentary will be shown at CERN on 4 July to mark the anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs Boson, and will air soon on ARTE. Gronyn Gobaith – Cymry CERN and The Peace Particle is a Telesgop production, with support from S4C, S4C Commercial Fund and the Welsh Government via Creative Wales. The Peace Particle is distributed worldwide by Off The Fence and co-produced by Featuristic Films.

One of CERN’s largest ever scientific experiments was the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The complex machine replicated what happened less than a second after the Big Bang, which led to the ground-breaking discovery of the Higgs Boson. And who was at the helm of the historical experiment? None other than Welshman, Dr Lyn Evans.

“This really was one of the biggest and most complex scientific projects ever,” says Dr Evans on the programme. Dr Lyn Evans, originally from Aberdare, came to CERN in 1969. Remembering back to 2008, and the fateful day when they fired up the LHC for the first time, Lyn Evans said: 

"I think some of the great interest of the public was not about the science, it was about the fact that the LHC would basically blow up the universe! Of course, we knew very well that it wasn't true at all, but I did say that if anybody was going to blow up the universe is it might as well be a boy from Aberdare!"

On Gronyn Gobaith - Cymry CERN, we also hear from Dr Rhodri Jones, who spent the first few months of his life in Carmarthen, before the family moved to live in the Netherlands. Today, Rhodri heads up a team of six hundred people at CERN, and claims the prestigious job title, Head of Beams. Rhodri's team is responsible for the provision of beams for all CERN experiments.

The series highlights the incredible number of people from Wales who have made unparalleled contributions at CERN and introduces us to a new wave of young scientists. One of these, who possesses the same palpable curiosity as his predecessors, is Dr Ynyr Harris from Felinheli, an ATLAS Research fellow at CERN.

"Physics is fantastic," says the former Oxford University student with a smile, bursting with the same palpable curiosity as his predecessors. "Physics is the limit of humanity's curiosity so far. CERN is almost like a city, and the only laws are physics.”