THE Wild West of Wales is home to several family bus companies and a brand new documentary series on S4C follows the day-to-day running of three of them including one in Cardigan and one in Crymych.

Ar y Bysus (On the Buses) raises the curtain and goes behind the wheel at Richards Brothers, Cardigan; Midway Motors of Crymych and Taf Valley Coaches, Whitland.

Three brothers - Malcolm, Marteine and Nigel - are the Richards Brothers who have more than 100 vehicles while Elan 'Mother' Rees is the head honcho of Midway Motors, Crymych, and her sons Iwan, Aled and Shôn also work for the company.

Clive Edwards is the owner of Taf Valley Coaches with a fleet of 30 buses.

Although the cameras have caught plenty of laughs, the series also shows how much work needs to be done to get the buses ready for the passengers - especially if you have more than 100 vehicles like the Richards Brothers.

"I come in about 5.20 in the morning to open up," said Marteine Richards, who has been working in the industry for 56 years.

"Every bus is checked by a mechanic and is cleaned each morning and they've all gone out by around 7.30. But I love it, you see or I wouldn’t have stuck with it!”

The Richards Brothers run service buses in Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire and in the first programme of the series we follow one of their drivers, Maldwyn Davies, as he drives Y Cardi Bach service through villages and towns of the west coast between Cardigan and New Quay.

But the bus companies also sell their own coach trips and holidays across the UK and beyond. At the Pembroke Show we have a taste of the friendly rivalry between two of the companies when Shôn ‘Midway’ has an opportunity to tease Clive Edwards, owner of Taf Valley Coaches, while both of them try to sell trips to the crowd.

So take a tour along the country lanes of West Wales and beyond with the Ar y Bysus crew, which will be shown on S4C on Wednesday, November 15 at 8.25pm.