Of all foreign types, the Welsh are among the most difficult to dislike.
They live somewhere with weather as inclement as ours, and they lose to us in the rugby without complaint.
They have an accent that is quaint.
Best of all, they seem harmless.
They have though, of late, been edging towards centre stage.
In the United Kingdom, a small group of foreign islands north of here, they have also been poking their heads up.
It is not fully clear as to why, but all British television now appears to be made in Wales.
Doctor Who and Torchwood are proof of that probably wildly untrue statement.
But more importantly, Wales has also become the home of the division of United Kingdom television that develops heart-warming comedy.
Gavin and Stacey had something to do with Wales.
Gavin and Stacey was a heart-warming comedy that followed the long-distance relationship between Gavin, from England, and Stacey, from the Vale of Glamorgan, in Wales.
People in Gavin and Stacey spoke with quaint Welsh accents.
The show was cute, funny, nice and saved by just a little naughtiness and earthy humour, in case you began to feel sick.
It starred Rob Brydon, who is very funny.
He is Welsh, and he went to school with Ruth Jones.
Ruth Jones co-wrote Gavin and Stacey.
Ruth Jones also plays Myfanwy, the world's best lesbian barmaid to Daffyd Thomas, the only gay in the village on Little Britain.
Ruth Jones was also the wonderful Linda, in Nighty Night, who ended up with a fish lodged somewhere unfortunate, and was inclined to kill people by mistake.
Now, Jones both writes and stars in Stella, a heart-warming earthy Welsh comedy that is cute, funny, nice and saved by just a little naughtiness and earthy humour, in case you begin to feel sick.
It begins on UKTV from September 5.
Stella opens with our heroine visiting her son in jail.
He reassures her he is not being abused.
"Well that's something, i'nt it?" she responds.
Her chum, Paula, is a funeral director who drinks too much, and carries a breathalyser with her to make sure she can drive.
Her ex-husband is a lovable rogue, now hooked up with a woman who is slimmer and has a bigger cleavage than Stella.
Stella is worried about getting old, overweight and being single.
The show has just the right mix of amusing euphemisms for ladies' bits, amusing kinky sex, amusing heart-warming family relationships, rugby, pregnant 16-year-olds, knock-about working-class Welshness and odd-ball chums.
It is funny.
And heart-warming.
- Charles Loughrey.
