'I understand now what my Taid knew from beginning ... Eisteddfod's for everyone'

Actor and 2025 Eisteddfod president Mark Lewis Jones has praised the festival. Eryl Crump reports

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HOLLYWOOD star has paid a heartfelt tribute for the help and support he received from the residents of Rhosllannerchrugog when starting his career on stage and television.

Mark Lewis Jones' face is well known even if the name is not as familiar. His credits read like a list of the most iconic recent TV shows - The Crown, Game of Thrones, Keeping Faith, Man Up and Baby Reindeer.

His film career is equally impressive, ranging from his memorable role as First Order captain Moden Canady in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, to his role in the recent film Sweetland.

This week, he is president of the National Eisteddfod, which is being held in Wrexham, only a few miles from his home village. He noted his sincere thanks to his grandfather for insisting that the Eisteddfod was “by everyone and for everyone”.

In his speech, he said: “My grandfather, Jonathan Dafis, sang in the pavilion many times as a loyal member of the Rhos Male Voice Choir, as well as helping to organise the festival when he came to the area in 1945, but somehow when I was growing up I didn’t feel that the Eisteddfod was relevant to me.