Bolton Gogglebox stars don’t get recognised in town

But in the borough, the duo remain under the radar and live a ‘normal life’.

Mark Rogers, who lives in Bradshaw, stars alongside friend Carwyn Davies, who lives in Salford, in Gogglebocs Cymru – or Gogglebox Wales.

The duo, who met in college in 1996, react to English and Welsh language programs in the series – even cheering on Bolton’s own Gladiator contestant when Betti Worth appeared on the programme earlier this month.

Gogglebocs Cymru airs on Wednesday nights on Welsh public broadcaster S4C, and can be streamed on BBC iPlayer with English subtitles.

Originally from Bangor in North Wales, Mark moved to Bolton in 2015 for work, and encouraged Carwyn, originally from Pen-y-groes, to move to the area with him.

Mark said: “Carwyn having a bit of a social media presence knew a few people in the Welsh TV industry who then approached us after Carwyn applied for it.

“Initially I was saying ‘no, I don’t think it’s something I’m going to do’, but eventually we got to filming from my house with TV crews.”

“I kind of forced him to do it, I saw them advertising for people to audition who would be interested to take part, so I applied for both of us – a lot of friends were saying ‘you should do it’,” Carwyn said.

The duo react to TV shows from Mark’s sofa in Bolton (Image: S4C)

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With more than 20 episodes of the programme under their belts, Mark and Carwyn now find themselves recognised when they go out in Wales – and they’ve even had people buy drinks for them in pubs.

Mark said: “It’s a big change, when we go back to Wales, we only really notice it then.

“It’s quite nice, if you go around supermarkets you get really nice positive feedback and greetings.

“If we’re in a pub, somebody might want to buy us a drink, so that’s always really nice as well.”

Carwyn said: “It’s nice to come back to Bolton and have a normal life and nobody knows who you are.”

“We were walking down the street in Wales and somebody shouted ‘Gogglebocs Cymru, you’re fantastic’, and we were laughing on the side of the street,” Mark added.

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Programme valuable for ‘showing diversity’

Carwyn said he values the diversity of Welsh-language speakers shown by the programme, and thinks it could be a useful learning tool for those looking to join the Welsh community in Greater Manchester.

He said: “There’s so many Welsh things going on. There’s a Welsh Manchester choir, a Welsh café, there’s groups that meet up – a lot of Welsh learners.

“If there are any Welsh learners in Bolton or Manchester, I would highly recommend that they watch this show, because it shows people who aren’t really fluent, people who speak ‘Wenglish’ as we call it, a bit of both.

“It’s the diversity, I think that’s what appeals to a lot of the Welsh learners.

“People have watched it in Manchester, I go about in Manchester and people say ‘oh are you on that Welsh Gogglebox?’

“It’s strange, it is weird. I’m glad that I applied for it and I’m glad that I forced Mark to come along for the ride because it’s life-changing, it’s a great experience.”

Mark added: “As well as it being the language, it’s the culture as well which is really interesting. We just love the fact that we can speak our own language and everybody else can enjoy that too.”

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Bolton. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.