Jamie tunes in to war of words (From Barry And District News)

Jamie tunes in to war of words

BARRY celebrity Jamie Shaw will hit the small screen tomorrow.

The Popstars: the Rivals winner is taking part in reality programme Love for Language at 8.25pm on S4C.

He has been been drafted in to learn his native language and will be joined by other celebrity beginners.

Cameras will follow the Welsh language novices as they study Welsh for six hours each day.

Those taking part include actress Ruth Madoc, Janet Street-Porter, who is famed for her outbursts against the Welsh, paralympic athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson and singer-songwriter Amy Wadge. They will all be in the women's house.

Eighties music icon Steve Strange and actor Bernard Latham (Mr C in Hollyoaks and Ron Unsworth in Pobol y Cwm) share the men's house.

All the contestants will be under the tutelage of Nia Parry and Ioan Talfryn who use an innovative language learning technique called 'suggestopedia' which uses visual imagery to teach the basics.

There will be limited contact with the outside world during filming, and throughout the week celebrities will also be asked to perform a number of different tasks.

Jamie, who lives at Pencoedtre's Gellyn U Cler, told the News: "I think it's a really great idea and I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to treat this as a boot camp to get fit and learn Welsh at the same time.

"One thing I'm not looking forward to is not having contact with my friends and family and my girlfriend, Lucy. That's going to be the difficult part."

The series is the next step on the road to stardom for Jamie. The 18-year-old shot to fame as one of the finalists in the ITV series, Popstars: The Rivals broadcast in autumn 2002, becoming a member of the band One True Voice.

He's had his heart set on stardom since he was a toddler and released an album of classic songs, When You Believe, at the age of 14.

l Follow Jamie online via s4c.co.uk/cymraeg and viewers can also vote via telephone for the learner they feel makes the greatest effort.