BROMSGROVE- BORN Michael Ball has shared his love for Wales in a brand new travel series.

Wonderful Wales With Michael Ball, explores the valleys, mountains, and coastlines of the country.

Along the way, he discovers the country’s traditions, history and culture, while also sharing his own Welsh ancestry.

Michael Ball was four years old when the Aberfan disaster happened but, growing up around his Welsh family, there was always an understanding of the “appalling devastation” it caused.

The 59-year-old singer’s uncle was among those who went to help on that day in October 1966, when an avalanche of coal waste engulfed a primary school in the village, near Merthyr Tydfil, killing 116 children and 28 adults.

Bromsgrove Advertiser: Michael Ball standing looking over the valleys where his family came from. PA Photo/Wildflame Productions. Michael Ball standing looking over the valleys where his family came from. PA Photo/Wildflame Productions.

But what really brought it alive for the star – whose mother was born in the Rhondda valley, where his grandfather was a coal miner – was an episode of Netflix drama The Crown, which details how the royal family responded to it.

When it came to filming his new documentary he decided he wanted to visit and pay his respects.

Micheal said: “You have the Memorial Garden – which is on the site of where the school was – and right next door is a playground for the kids."

“It was half term, and all these kids were playing in it, and so you could hear the sounds of kids laughing and enjoying themselves. And it just struck me; those kids, another generation, and they would have been there.

“The actual gravesite itself was amazing. It’s done with such dignity, love and respect.”

Viewers will also learn about his grandmother – who was an inspiration for his singing career – as he returns to where she lived, in Cadwaladr Street in the village of Mountain Ash.

Michael added: “She was a real central character within the community,” he gushes. “She was the one who organised things, the one you went to when you had a problem, the one you would have a laugh with.

“She recognised, from an early age, my love of performing – and she always encouraged me to do that. It was never, ‘Oh, sit down, be seen and not heard’; she would push us forward.”

Ball hopes this new series will help people see that “there are so many layers to the Welsh landscape, to the Welsh people, to the Welsh heritage, to just dive into”.

The four part series, is due to air on Channel 5 on July 9.