He lived in Llansannan, Denbighshire before moving to Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire. Educated at Dyffryn Nantlle, Cyncoed College of Education, Cardiff and the Welsh College of Music and Drama. He went to work for the BBC in 1969. His father, Robert Owen, was a Calvinistic Methodist minister at Llanllyfni. Since he was a child he had experimented with drugs stealing his mother's medicines and his father's church members. As an adult he was addicted to alcohol and valium. He was treated for a
