In 2014, residents of Fairbourne in Gwynedd discovered the local council had decided that maintaining sea defences was longer be tenable. Instead, as part of a process of “managed retreat”, this small coastal Welsh village would be abandoned to the sea by 2055.
This timeline has since shifted and been disputed, but while the village is not identified by name, it serves as the inspiration for Emily White’s Atlantis. Focusing on fisherman Bryn and his wife Gwen (Richard Elfyn and Vivien Parry), the action extends from 2011 to 2039, dramatising what has already occurred and imagining what comes next as weather systems and a community both are undone.
