Visitors to Caerphilly Castle are being urged to step back in time with a new video promoting the iconic building.
In the first of four 90-second videos, starring comedians Chris Corcoran and Elis James, Chris is being persuaded by Elis to stop playing on his PlayStation and go with him to Caerphilly Castle.
The videos are part of a new campaign by historical body Cadw.
Chris, an ex-history teacher, admitted he was guilty of not exploring the historic sites on his doorstep.
He said: “It’s classic isn’t it? You never go to the stuff right under your nose.”
He made his first visit to Caerphilly Castle to create the film, despite having grown up near Pontypridd and living only 20 minutes away.
He added: “This has been a great campaign to be involved in. It’s ridiculous really that we all go to historic sites when we go abroad but never go to our local ones. The characters we play in these little films are fairly realistic in that Elis has been to the majority of these sites and I haven’t.
“I guess the point is that you can have fun at these sites as well as enjoy the history. For example we got to hold up a tower which out-leans Pisa and pretended to be a warrior princess. What’s not to like? It’s been a good laugh.”
New statistics, cited by Cadw, reveal that only 17% of 16 to 24-years-olds know what what made Llewelyn the Great famous. This compares with the 57% who are familiar with reality TV star Joey Essex’s path to fame.
Cadw hopes the campaign will inspire people to step back in time and explore the stories of Wales’ historic characters.
Cadw plan to release the other videos in the series over the next two months via social media.
Elis, a history graduate who wrote and performed an Edinburgh Festival show about castles, said: “There are so many brilliant stories about our Welsh history and lots of it lends itself brilliantly to comedy.
“I really hope it does encourage people to get out there and visit the historical attractions that make Wales such a special place.”
John Griffiths, Minister for Culture and Sport, said: “We hope people will use the Easter and Summer holidays to see for themselves what a fun day out can be had at our many unique historic sites in Wales.”
Video: Chris Corcoran and Elis James visit Caerphilly Castle
Comedians elected to Caerphilly council have been doing this for years, what`s new?
Why is everything being described as iconic these days? Caerphilly Castle is not iconic, the Taj Mahal maybe, the Eiffel Tower perhaps, the Sydney Opera House possibly….but not Caerphilly Castle, very few people outside of Wales would be able to recognise the building, so stop with the iconic label, it may be a lot of things but iconic it is not.