Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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I’ve scored out the usual introduction as this month’s newsletter isn’t very newsy...

I’ve decided to pause the newsletter for a few months, partly because there’s less to report as we approach Christmas, and partly because I’m currently putting the final touches to my new book on BBC Scotland’s Hamish Macbeth, due for publication in March 2025… which also coincides with ReelScotland’s 15th anniversary.

Why Now?

ReelScotland covered a broader range of topics in its early years, with more interviews, previews, reviews and news from around the country.

As my career has taken various turns - from writing newspaper columns to recording features for BBC Radio Scotland, from publishing books to development research for radio and TV, and more recently studying for an MA in Screenwriting and working in screen training - I’ve seen the industry from different angles, which inspired me to launch the current format in October 2023.

Since then I’ve been heartened to see a consistent 60% email open rate, which suggests these updates are providing some value. However, I’m not 100% sure which parts readers find most useful among the news items.

That’s why I'll be sending out a short survey in early 2025. Your feedback will help shape ReelScotland’s next chapter - what would make this newsletter more valuable to you?

Thanks for your continued interest in ReelScotland. I look forward to sharing both the Hamish Macbeth book and the evolved newsletter with you in 2025.

Jonathan Melville

P.S. If you're still looking for Christmas presents... my books on Highlander and Local Hero are available from all good bookshops!

P.P.S. You can watch most episodes of Hamish Macbeth on BBC iPlayer, except for the one that’s never been repeated (more of which in the book…).

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Thanks for reading!

Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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🎬 Screen Scotland’s 2030 Vision faces both opportunities and challenges in its aim to become a global production centre by 2030, reports Prolific North. While the sector contributed £627.1m to Scotland's economy in 2021, industry leaders highlight the need for more studio space awareness, increased political backing and better support for local talent.

🚐 Screen Machine mobile cinema has raised almost £24,000 as part of its £100,000 crowdfunder, with just four days to go. A total of £1.7 million is needed for a new cinema to continue bringing films to remote Scottish communities.

🎭 The nominations for this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards have been announced ahead of the ceremony on November 17. Dinosaur leads with four nominations, while Out of Darkness received three. First-time nominees include Richard Gadd and Ashley Storrie, both nominated for acting and writing. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Youtube and highlights will be shown on BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer.

🏆 Edinburgh filmmaker Laura Carreira has won the prestigious Sutherland Award for best first feature at London Film Festival with On Falling. The National reports that the film follows an immigrant warehouse worker in Edinburgh and it was shot in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

📺 The BBC has appointed journalist and editorial leader Hayley Valentine as its new Director in Scotland.

🎥 Plans for a Moray film studio have taken a step forward with a proposal for 30,000 square foot soundstage and production facilities. The Northern Scot reports that the project aims to provide sustainable facilities connecting Inverness and Aberdeen.

🎥 Scottish Documentary Institute has announced the 12 participants of the 22nd edition of Bridging the Gap. They'll now participate in a series of customised workshops, working closely with industry professionals to refine their ideas.

🎞️ Inverness Film Festival returns for its 22nd edition from November 1-7, featuring premieres of Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch and Edward Berger’s Conclave. The week-long programme includes new work from directors Andrea Arnold, Mike Leigh and Mark Cousins, plus international films from Guy Maddin, Pema Tseden and Walter Salles.

🎓 Into Film Festival Scotland will provide free screenings for schools across the country from November 8-29. TES notes that the programme includes hundreds of accessible screenings in cinemas and unique venues, with curriculum-aligned resources. Opening at Edinburgh Zoo with Kensuke's Kingdom, the festival features special events including Scots language screenings and films for all age groups.

🎥 Submissions are open for the Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize 2025, offering £1,000 funding prize for filmmakers aged 18-25. The competition includes categories for both independent and formally supported films, with shortlisted entrants invited to Glasgow Short Film Festival 2025. Submit by November 18 at glasgowshort.org/submissions.

🎞️ Glasgow Film Festival has revealed the first details of its 21st edition, running 26 February to 9 March 2025. The festival’s free retrospective strand will focus on “Our Time is Now: Coming of Age in the Movies”, featuring ten classics including Gregory’s Girl, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird. Screen Scotland reports that free tickets will be available on the morning of each screening at Glasgow Film Theatre's Box Office. The full programme will be announced on 21st January.

🍿 A new community cinema has been launched in Helensburgh after the closure of Tower Digital Arts Centre. The StopGap CIC initiative, founded by Richard Fairman, will operate with support from local businesses.

📍 Glenfinnan Viaduct attracted nearly half a million Harry Potter fans in 2023, with the surge creating challenges for the village of Glenfinnan due to gridlock and infrastructure issues. The BBC report adds that Tobermory is preparing for new visitors following the announcement of Balamory’s revival.

📺 Outlander showrunner Matthew B Roberts has shared an emotional farewell to the series following filming of the time travel drama’s final season. The series has been filming in Scotland for a decade, bringing significant tourism to Scottish locations including Culloden, Doune Castle and Blackness Castle. The second part of season seven launches in November, leading into the eighth and final series.

🥃 Brian Cox has made his directorial debut with Scottish whisky drama Glenrothan, which has been picked up by Protagonist Pictures for worldwide sales. The film, which recently wrapped production in Scotland, stars Cox alongside Alan Cumming as estranged brothers reuniting over their family's Highland whisky distillery.

💀 Hit murder-mystery drama Shetland returns for a new series on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Wednesday 6 November at 9pm. DI Calder (Ashley Jensen) is thrown in at the deep end after a friend of Tosh’s (Alison O’Donnell) goes missing.

📺 The Rig returns for second series on Prime Video in January 2025, with the new season following the surviving crew to a secret Arctic facility called the Stac. Filmed at FirstStage Studios in Edinburgh, the series stars Iain Glen and Martin Compston, alongside new faces including Ross Anderson and Alice Krige.

🎬 Good Omens will end with a 90-minute finale to be filmed in Scotland in early 2025, reports Deadline. The Amazon series stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen.

📕 Filmmaker Bill Douglas’s attempt to make a big screen version of James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner - starring Sean Connery in the role of Lord Dalcastle - is the subject of an article over at Scottish Legal News which suggests it’s “The greatest Scottish film never made”.

🏰 The Daily Express looks back at the time “French screen siren” Brigitte Bardot came to East Lothian in 1966 to shoot a “saucy romp”.

📺 BBC iPlayer continues to surface archive gems, with recent additions including 1994’s Face to Face with Billy Connolly and Brian Cox’s Jute Journey from 2009.

There’s also a new documentary that looks at the life and career of Scottish singer Lena Zavaroni:

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Thanks for reading!

Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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🚐🎥 Screen Machine, Scotland's mobile cinema serving the Highlands and Islands for over 25 years, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to secure a new vehicle. Supported by actor Alan Cumming, the initiative aims to raise funds for a more accessible, comfortable and sustainable mobile cinema. The current vehicle, on loan after the original’s retirement, faces limitations in reaching all 44 communities it serves. The new Screen Machine, costing approximately £1.7 million, promises to continue bringing the latest films to remote areas, potentially saving 8,000 litres of diesel annually.

🍻 Edinburgh's Filmhouse has secured a premises licence from the City Council, allowing it to sell alcohol. This crucial step maintains the cinema's previous offerings and distinguishes it from a typical pub in the 'over-provision' area of Lothian Road. The decision aligns with the Council's support for reopening the cinema.

📽️ Staying with Filmhouse, Edinburgh Live reports that the new operators aim to reopen in March 2024, however challenges remain, including a potential refusal for an advertising screen installation.

💰 The Stirling Studios project has received a significant boost with the approval of a £6 million building contract for redevelopment at the Forthside site. The Daily Record notes that the investment, part of a £19.1 million UK Government Levelling Up Fund grant, will primarily focus on upgrading a 160,000 square-foot former Ministry of Defence building.

💻 Screen Scotland's new pilot fund, PGF Project Post, has successfully attracted major post-production work to Scotland, including HBO Max's The Penguin. The initiative, created in response to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, aims to bring large-scale film and TV post-production to Scottish facilities. Glasgow-based FixFX worked on the high-profile Batman spin-off series, showcasing Scotland's VFX talent.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 GMAC Film has reopened applications for its Little Pictures programme, aimed at nurturing new Scottish filmmaking talent. The initiative will commission eight short films up to 12 minutes long (six minutes for animation) across various genres. Successful applicants receive up to £4,000 in production funding, along with training and mentorship.

👶 Screen Scotland, in partnership with Breaking The Wall Education, is offering a comprehensive film and screen training programme for Early Years practitioners across Scotland. This initiative aims to test Screen Scotland's draft Film and Screen Curriculum in early years settings. The fully-funded programme, running from June 2024 to May 2025, includes in-person and online training, classroom support, and resource development.

📺 BECTU Vision has opened applications for its 2024-25 Producer Development Programme, aimed at nurturing Scotland's future high-end television producers. The 9-month programme offers monthly training courses, masterclasses, and bespoke individual support for senior scripted film and TV practitioners. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 8th October at 9am.

🌟 Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) has announced participants for its fifth year of talent development initiatives. Screen Scotland reports that nine Scotland-based projects have been selected for Animatic, a six-month training programme for animated feature films, series and shorts. Additionally, GFF revealed the 2024/25 participants for its New Talent Mentorship Scheme, supported by industry veterans like Ben Wheatley and Prano Bailey-Bond.

🎬 Five Gaelic short films from the FilmG competition have been shortlisted for the Scottish Youth Film Festival. Entries include Aillse Sealladh Marsaili by Sgoil Lìonacleit, winner of FilmG's People's Choice Award, and Iomlaineachd by Parker Dawes, previously named Best Film in the FilmG under-18 category. Other shortlisted films explore themes ranging from Gaelic education to a Kardashian-inspired mockumentary.

🇪🇸 The 11th Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival (ESFF) is set to run from 2-26 October, showcasing 15 Spanish-language films. This year's lineup features seven debut features from Spain and Latin America, all Scottish premieres. The festival opens with Artificial Justice, a futuristic political thriller by Galician director Simón Casal, who will be present for a Q&A.

🎬 The village of Gartmore in west Stirlingshire is set to host filming for Glenrothan, a new film starring Brian Cox and Alan Cumming. The Daily Record reported that filming took place last week, with scenes at the Black Bull pub, Gartmore Cemetery, and the village's Main Street. The story follows two estranged brothers attempting to save their family-owned distillery.

🧛 AMC Studios is set to film their new vampire drama series Talamasca in Glasgow. The Scottish Sun reports that filming will take place on Bothwell Street and surrounding areas on 12-13 October. The six-part series, which will also shoot in Manchester until February 2025, has requested road closures from Glasgow City Council to accommodate the production.

🎬 A new Gaelic horror film, Seaforth, is set to bring the legend of The Brahan Seer to life. Written and directed by John Murdo MacAulay, the folk horror will be filmed on Lewis and Harris, drawing inspiration from the 17th-century Scottish farmhand known as the "Hebridean Nostradamus". The film stars Lewis actress Sorcha Groundsell and is executive produced by ex-Good Omens showrunner Douglas Mackinnon.

🍿 Scotland's cinemas are set for an action-packed October, according to The Skinny. Highlights include film festivals such as the Edinburgh Short Film Festival and Doc'n Roll, alongside special screenings from the London Film Festival at GFT. Genre enthusiasts can enjoy GFT's "The Art of Action" series, featuring classics like Safety Last!, while Dundee Contemporary Arts celebrates 100 years of surrealism with a dedicated film season. Halloween brings a variety of horror screenings, including a unique audio-only thriller Dark Soul, designed for visually impaired audiences.

🗞️ A treasure trove of 99 vintage TV adverts for Scottish comics and magazines like The Dandy, Bunty and Jackie has been discovered in DC Thomson's Dundee basement. Dating back to the 1950s and 60s, these films offer a unique glimpse into early commercial television advertising and social history. Through a partnership between DC Thomson and the National Library of Scotland, these ads have been restored, digitised and made available online via the Moving Image Archive.

📚 Still Game has been reimagined as a comic book, adding a new dimension to Craiglang. Created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, the first book He Who Hingeth Aboot Getteth Hee Haw features six comic strips based on the show's first series and promises to bring new life to Jack, Victor and the gang through detailed illustrations and creative storytelling.

✈️ Oh deary me! Take a flight back to the 90s on BBC iPlayer as Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson’s cult comedy The High Life gets another airing. It comes as the pair pen a new stage musical version for National Theatre of Scotland, which will see the pair return as Steve and Sebastian.

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Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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🎭 “Devastating” funding cuts which could decimate Scotland’s culture industry are discussed by Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman, focusing on the news that Creative Scotland is facing a projected £47.5m budget shortfall. The creative industries are said to support more than 90,000 people and be worth more than £4.5 billion to the Scottish economy.

📺 Class, the freelancer crisis and regional snobbery were just three of the topics discussed at the 2024 Edinburgh TV Festival last week. For those interested in reading and hearing more about the fact that just 8% of workers in film and TV are from a working-class background, that broadcasters still have a London bias and about what can perhaps be done about it, Deadline’s festival summary and both James Graham’s MacTaggart Lecture and Carol Vorderman’s Alternative MacTaggart are good places to start.

📺 Rufus Radcliffe, former ITV streaming chief, has been appointed as the new CEO of STV Group reports Deadline. The leadership change comes as STV aims to further its growth as a digital-first, content-led business.

🎬✨ The Scottish Documentary Institute’s Bridging the Gap talent initiative - offering development training, a cash budget and one year of international festival distribution to emerging filmmakers based in Scotland and Northern Ireland - is once more open for applications, with a deadline of 15th September.

📽️ With an average capacity of 63 per cent, significantly above the UK average, Cromarty Cinema on the Black Isle is a bit of a success story. The Scotsman's Katharine Hay stopped off at the cinema during her epic walking tour of Scotland and found out more about how smaller cinemas in rural areas are fighting for survival.

🍿 “We’re here to show films that are not getting the space,” explains Glasgow Film Theatre CEO Allison Gardner in the Glasgow Times this week. “The audiences love us, and they need us and unfortunately many cinemas are closing.” The cinema is one of six candidates hoping to be voted Glasgow’s Favourite Business for 2024.

🍿 Fort William's Highland Cinema is running a regular film club, featuring “screenings of classic, cult and other movies of cinematic note.” Titles include Stand By Me on 16th September, Risky Business on 30th September and Gladiator on 13th October.

🍿 It’s National Cinema Day tomorrow, 31st August, with many Scottish cinemas taking part and selling tickets for just £4 each. Smaller cinemas including Edinburgh’s Cameo, Glasgow’s GFT and Dundee’s DCA are taking part along with the chains, so check your local cinema’s website for details.

🎼 Fans of Shetland, Downtown Abbey and (my favourite) Hamish Macbeth might be interested to know that their composer, Scotland-born John Lunn, is heading to Nairn Book and Arts Festival on 4th September to discuss his career.

🌊 LandxSea, Scotland’s first environmental film festival, returns from 13th-15th September and promises a showcase of climate-focused films, guest speakers and discussions, exploring the intricate connections between land and sea from global perspectives.

📺 Two new documentaries popped up on BBC iPlayer this month in the shape of The Journey to Scotland’s Remotest Pub (Inverie on the Knoydart peninsula) and The Secret Lives of Lighthouse Keepers, the latter described as “a rare glimpse into the working world of the teams who are responsible for keeping the lights on in 208 lighthouses round the coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man.”

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Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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🎞️ The full programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, running from 15th-21st August, is now online and no doubt already familiar to many reading this newsletter. The Cameo seems to be the only cinema showing films this year, with pop-up venues also participating. The Skinny has a handy What’s On guide if you’re still mulling over the programme.

🔵 The first 48 Hour Film Project to take place in Inverness has been won by the city’s Hepburn family with their short, Hoops. Parents Kim and Neil joined children Robin and Romy to make the film about two competitive hula-hoopers battling it out for the world record, as detailed in The Inverness Courier.

🍿 The team behind the revival of Edinburgh Filmhouse, which is set to reopen after securing £1.4m in UK government funding, has signed a 25-year lease for the Lothian Road building. In addition, the BBC notes that award-winning director Charlotte Wells and actor Jack Lowden have been announced as patrons for the cinema.

📽️ If you have £275,000 going spare then you might be interested to know that The Oban Phoenix Cinema has been put up for sale following its closure in May, according to the Press & Journal. The cinema struggled with declining attendance and rising costs post-COVID-19, leading to its insolvency and the redundancy of its eight staff members.

🍿 Glasgow Film Theatre's August programme will include a visit from Irish-language rap band Kneecap, a Béla Tarr retrospective, a season devoted to the work of director John Sayles, and three special screenings in memory of the legendary actor Donald Sutherland.

🎬✨ Registration is open for Screen Fringe, a free service by Screen Scotland and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. It connects film and TV professionals with Fringe talent, offering networking, show curation, and industry events. Highlights include talks from BBC Drama and Film4, focusing on transitioning stage talent to screen.

🎞️ Scottish screen companies are being encouraged to take part in Scottish EDGE, Scotland's biggest business funding competition, offering grants and loans from £10,000 to £100,000. A free webinar will be delivered on Wednesday 7th August for those interested in applying.

🍿 Cineworld is closing its cinema in Parkhead, Glasgow, following a decline in audiences and the rise of streaming services. Daily Business reports that Cineworld denies that a further 19 cinemas could close around the UK.

🎭 The Edinburgh Fringe kicks off this week and there are several film-related productions on offer, including Chris Thorburn: Cineman, Charlie Chaplin’s Late-Night Cinema and All Eyes and Ears, in which “you will learn everything about the mysterious and powerful relationship between music and cinema.”

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Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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💰 A combination of falling attendance, rising supplier costs and increased gas and electricity prices have led to a warning that the future of Campbeltown Picture House is looking uncertain. An announcement was made on Facebook earlier in the month, with locals urged to “use it or lose it” - donations can also be made on their website.

🍿 Meanwhile, the team behind Aberdeen’s Belmont Cinema have launched a £150,000 crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to help refurbish and reopen it “as a vital, unique, community-led, truly independent cinema for all.” Donations can be made until 9th August.

🎥 Pioneer Film Studios in Stepps has closed due to financial difficulties after opening in 2022. Despite the closure, some companies remain active on-site, and the original studio can still accommodate film and TV projects.

💻 BECTU Vision has launched a new website that will make it easier to find their short courses, professional development opportunities and industry development initiatives.

🎞️ Press and Industry Accreditation for this year’s relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is now open.

🇮🇳 Did you know that Scotland is Bollywood's number one filming location outside of Mumbai's Film City? Broadcaster and ‘Bollywoodwalla’ Ravi Sagoo tells all in his new radio documentary Bonnie Bollywood: 25 Years of Indian Film-making in Scotland, which is on BBC Sounds now.

📺 Actor Richard Rankin recently shared the news that the new series of Rebus has been streamed more than 10 million times on BBC iPlayer, increasing hopes for a second season.

🎬 ITV has commissioned a new six-part thriller, Cold Water, starring Andrew Lincoln. The series follows John (Lincoln), who moves his family to a rural Scottish village where they encounter enigmatic neighbour Tommy (Ewen Bremner), leading to dark and unsettling events.

🎬 HBO has joined BBC and BBC Scotland for Richard Gadd’s new series, Lions, reports Deadline. The series explores themes of masculinity through the tumultuous relationship of two brothers over forty years. Lions marks another major collaboration following Gadd’s international success with Netflix’s Baby Reindeer.

🎶 Deadline also reports that Sky, Warner Music Entertainment, and Screen Scotland are collaborating on feature documentary Average White Band: Soul Searching, directed by Anthony Baxter. The film celebrates the 50-year legacy of the Scottish funk band Average White Band, known for hits like "Pick Up the Pieces" and will feature archival footage and new interviews.

🎬 BBC Scotland has recommissioned Firecrest Films for two more series of Paramedics on Scene. Filming for series six will begin this summer across Scotland. The series, produced by Mick McAvoy, includes a Talent Development Scheme that has provided opportunities for over 30 individuals in various production roles.

🎞️ Film distributor Conic has acquired UK and Ireland rights for Mark Cousins’ documentary, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, featuring Tilda Swinton as the voice of Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. The film, which delves into Barns-Graham's neurodiversity and transformative artistic journey, will premiere on 3rd July at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and be released in October 2024.

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If you’ve found this newsletter useful and want to share it then feel free to pass it on. You can also get in touch with any comments, suggestions or news items.

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Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.

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🍿 Saturday 18th May marked 85 years since the Cosmo cinema (now the GFT) first opened its doors on Rose Street in Glasgow, leading Glasgow Times to look back at some long-gone cinemas. I’d also recommend heading over to the Scottish Cinemas and Theatres website for an even deeper dive into Glasgow’s cinema history, with details on dozens of old picture houses around the city.

📽️ It was announced this week that the Oban Phoenix cinema has closed due to “unforeseen circumstances”, with the Press & Journal noting that the move came just a few months after the cinema’s opening hours were reduced. Another paywalled news item suggests the cinema has gone into administration.

🏗️ As highlighted in the Edinburgh Culture Minute, the crowdfunder for Edinburgh’s Filmhouse has passed £300,000, while plans for refurbishment - which should bring a new Screen 4 and modern seating - are now on the council’s planning portal. Edinburgh Live goes into a bit more detail.

📽️ Staying in Edinburgh, there’s an ongoing battle to preserve Portobello's historic Art Deco George Cinema, as covered by Edinburgh Reporter. A group of locals are campaigning to save the listed building from dilapidation and potential demolition. A silent protest took place at the cinema site over the weekend, urging the owner, Buckley Building Ltd, to clean up the area. For more on the silent protest, read the full story here.

🎞️ The funeral of actor Brian McCardie took place last week in Lanark, following his death earlier in the month at the age of just 59. Best known in recent years for his appearance in Line of Duty, McCardie starred in Hollywood films such as Rob Roy and Speed 2: Cruise Control, before heading back to Scotland - here’s Brian Pendreigh’s obituary for McCardie in The Scotsman.

🎭 BBC Comedy, BBC Scotland, and Screen Scotland are teaming up to fund a new narrative comedy pilot. With placements for Development Producers and opportunities for Scottish talent, the initiative seeks to bolster the country's comedic landscape and create more opportunities for local writers and performers.

🎤 Edinburgh’s Fringe Society and TV Foundation are teaming up to discover the next generation of comedic talent, reports Deadline. Backed by Universal Studio Group, this initiative will feature comedy showcases during this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, offering six stand-ups and six scripted show creators the chance to perform and receive a full pass to the event.

🎥 The 48 Hour Film Project will hold its inaugural competition in Inverness this July, reports The Inverness Courier. Partnering with Eden Court and backed by Screen Scotland, the event aims to attract filmmakers from across Scotland and beyond to create short films within a tight 48-hour window. Registration is open at 48hourfilm.com/inverness

🎥. Creative Wales, Screen Scotland, and Northern Ireland Screen have welcomed Lord Parkinson's acknowledgement of concerns regarding Channel 4's "out of England" quota. In a statement on the Screen Scotland website, the screen agencies argue that the current 9% quota does not reflect the UK population distribution and urge Ofcom to raise it to 16%+ with individual quotas for each nation.

🧏 A year-long programme designed to “kickstart an increase in employment, representation and elevation of deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent (DDN) talent across film and TV in Scotland” has been launched. It will be delivered by BAFTA award-winning disabled-led organisation TripleC, screen practitioner Sara Harkins and an expert steering group of Scotland-based creatives.

🎭 The Border Telegraph reports that director Kirk Jones (Waking Ned and Nanny McPhee) and children's casting director Pippa Hall are searching for the lead in their next film in Scotland. They’re looking for boys aged 11-13 with a Scottish accent and hazel, green, or brown eyes, with filming scheduled from July 15 to August 23.

📺 Nest Productions, known for shows like Made in Chelsea and Celebs Go Dating, has launched a new office in Glasgow. Televisual notes that co-founder Derek Drennan has returned to his hometown to head the Scottish branch, aiming to support local production companies and attract international projects. Drennan highlighted the company's commitment to fostering local talent and contributing to Scotland’s production sector.

🎬 Leonie Rae Gasson has defended her explicit arts project, Rein, amidst controversy over its public funding, asserting it has been misunderstood and is not intended to elicit sexual arousal. Sky News reports that Creative Scotland withdrew £84,555 in funding after determining the inclusion of real sex scenes breached contract conditions, though Gasson maintains the project was transparent and intended as an artistic exploration of sexuality.

🎬 The Ayrshire Film Company has been awarded £85,970 from the National Lottery Community Fund's Young Start scheme to support young people in the creative industries. Ross Carswell, a 27-year-old mentor with the company, told the Cumnock Chronicle how the film club has opened doors for him, allowing him to develop media skills and work on his film about dementia. Funding will help young people in Ayrshire gain new skills and build community connections.

🎥 The Skinny takes a look at Edinburgh-based filmmaker Duncan Cowles' short films ahead of the premiere of his debut feature Silent Men at Sheffield Doc/Fest.

📚 With Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting back in British cinemas with a new 4K release, the BFI takes a look at some of the cinematic adaptations of Scottish novels that have captivated audiences over the years, including Poor Things, Morven Callar and Whisky Galore!

🍌 The BFI spoke to Murray Grigor, director of the recently re-released Billy Connolly fly-on-the-wall documentary film, Big Banana Feet.

🔪 Also back in cinemas for its 30th anniversary is Shallow Grave - Barry Didcock at The Herald Magazine goes into some detail on its production and subsequent popularity in this new article.

📺 Rebus, the latest adaption of Ian Rankin’s John Rebus novels is now on BBC iPlayer, starring Richard Rankin as the Edinburgh detective.

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Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in the world of Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or just enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, then this is for you.

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🎬 Scotland will soon have a brand new film studio in the shape of Stirling Studios, located on former Ministry of Defence land at Forthside. The press release explains that Stirling’s geographical location provides easy access for talent from Glasgow and Edinburgh and that there's currently 100,000 sq ft of studio space and 110,000 sq ft for production, logistics and office space at the site. An independent economic impact assessment has estimated the project will create over 4,000 jobs in 25 years in a range of occupations, with the positive impacts filtering down the wider supply chains.

📽️ Prestwick's Broadway Cinema was officially handed over to the community yesterday, 89 years since it first opened its doors, reports The Ayr Advertiser. The key to the building is now in the hands of Friends of the Broadway, the community group set up to restore the cinema that was given £328,060 from the Scottish Land Fund to buy the Main Street building at a much reduced price from former owners, restaurant chain Buzzworks.

📺 Do you want to become a TV researcher, Edit Assistant or Production Assistant? TRC's rad Scotland is a paid 8-month TV traineeship aimed at those who are underrepresented in the TV industry: those who are either deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent, from Black, Asian or minority ethnic communities or from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Find out more.

🎬 Bad news for budding filmmakers, as film talent initiative Short Circuit came to an abrupt end this month. Set up in 2020, delivered by Film City Futures in partnership with Glasgow Film, and supported by Screen Scotland and BFI NETWORK, Short Circuit offers funding to support short films into production, and the development of first feature films. A Facebook post published on 3rd April explained that Film City Futures has “opted to conclude its delivery of the initiative” on 30th June. No replacement has been announced, though the post mentions that Screen Scotland will be developing a continuation strategy "for live individual projects".

🎬 Glasgow-based production company Freedom Scripted have announced that they’re adapting Engleby, the 2007 novel by Sebastian Faulks, with Noah Jupe attached to play the lead. Set between London and Cambridge, the six-part drama is a British murder mystery and psychological character study. The series follows enigmatic outsider Mike Engleby as he graduates from 1970s campus life to 1980s Fleet Street and beyond – haunted all the while by an unsolved mystery involving a friend and fellow student during their university days.

🏆 Glasgow’s Media Co-op has won the People’s Choice bronze award in the UK Charity Film Awards for a short animated film about the Scottish Co-operative Women’s Guild. The stop-motion animation tells the story of Molly Mercer and other women’s rights campaigners in the guild 100 years ago, and the inspiration they offer to today’s feminist campaigners.

💰 The Edinburgh Filmhouse Crowdfunder will remain open until the end of June, as announced last week by the team behind the successful bid to reopen the venue. With money still being donated every day, and the costs of the refurbishment due to be high, it seems that every penny counts in the run up to the cinema’s return at the end of 2024. (And if you’re in Edinburgh, remember to sign up to The Edinburgh Minute newsletter for daily culture news)

🎞️ Restless Natives star Vincent Friel has died at the age of 64, his agent Claire Murray describing him to the BBC as "a hugely respected actor within the Scottish theatre, TV and film community." Friel also appeared in Trainspotting, The Angel's Share and TV shows including Still Game and Rab C Nesbitt.

🎭 Prolific stage and screen actor Peter Kelly has died at the age of 82. Although recognisable from many film and TV appearances, including Rebus, The Bill and multiple episodes of Taggart, he’ll be best remembered for his stage work - there’s a lengthy obituary in The Herald.

🎉 The Skinny takes a look back at 50 years of the Glasgow Film Theatre, talking to many of those involved in its success over the years.

⚔️ The National recently profiled Combat International, a Stirlingshire-based group of actors and battle re-enactment specialists who have cultivated a 30-year-long career preparing authentic fight scenes for films and TV series including Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World and HBO’s House of the Dragon. Founder Charlie Allen explained “You don’t get hired as much as we get hired if you’re dodgy or dangerous. We don’t pull our punches, but we are safe, we’re not reckless.”

🎮 It seems that the hit all-American Amazon series Fallout has its roots in Scotland. As reported in The Scottish Daily Express, the original Fallout video games were developed by Black Isle Studios, part of Interplay Entertainment, which was founded by expat Scot Fergus Urquhart and named after his home region on the shores of Moray Firth, to the north of Inverness.

🧂 One story to be taken with a pinch of salt this month is the news that the old Odeon cinema on South Clerk Street in Edinburgh, which closed down in 2003, is once again being prepared for reopening. Edinburgh Live ran a piece mentioned that workmen have been spotted outside. This is a story that pops up every few years - including in 2013 when Susan Boyle’s brother, Gerry, was going to reopen the venue - but perhaps this time it really will happen.

🎞️ The Outrun, the feature adaptation of Amy Liptrot's best-selling memoir, will be released in cinemas across the UK & Ireland on 27th September. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paapa Essiedu and Stephen Dillane, the film was shot on location in the Orkney Islands and debuted at Sundance and the Berlin International Film Festival.

🍺 Scottish actor Greg Hemphill has been spotted in the opening seconds of the trailer for the forthcoming Ryan Reynold’s film Deadpool & Wolverine telling Hugh Jackman to ‘Get the f*** out of my bar’.

📀 And a reminder that Murray Grigor’s 1976 documentary Big Banana Feet, which captures Billy Connolly on and off stage during his 1975 tour of Ireland, is in cinemas on 10th May. The BFI’s DVD/Blu-ray release of the film is on 20th May.

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💰 The doors will soon be reopening at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema following a successful £1.5 million bid to the UK Government’s Levelling Up fund, as reported by The Scotsman. Along with funds already raised from the public Crowdfunder (which remains open until 30th April) and private donations, the money will go towards refurbishing the venue, with an expected opening date of late 2024. The big question now is what film will be shown on opening night…

📽️ Edinburgh Short Film Festival will hold a Save the Filmhouse fundraiser on Wednesday 17th April, screening a programme of Scottish and Edinburgh-made shorts.

💰 Screen Machine mobile cinema has been awarded £350,000 funding by Screen Scotland that will ensure the service can continue until at least April 2026. Another £1.4 million is now needed to build a new cinema in France. (And if you’ve never had a chance to experience a film aboard the cinema, try and catch it on tour later this year)

🎬 Looking for work in the film and TV industry in Scotland? Applications are now open for BECTU Vision's Hit The Ground Running, a two-day intensive course focusing on entry level roles in the Production, Assistant Director and Locations Departments on scripted productions.

🎭 Short Circuit and GMAC are teaming up for the next Film Loop meet-up tonight, 28th March, in Glasgow. Film Loop provides a space for filmmakers to connect, share and develop ideas, stories, and scripts. This month they're facilitating a free ‘Directing Actors’ Workshop hosted by filmmaker Paul Sng - register your interest on the Short Circuit website.

🎬 Screen Scotland, Northern Ireland Screen and Creative Wales are concerned that Ofcom is recommending a new 65% London quota and renewal of a 91% Channel 4 production quota for England across the next decade. As explained on the Screen Scotland site, they’re pushing Ofcom to increase Channel 4’s ‘Outside of London’ commissioning spend to 50%, its out of England quota to 16%+, and to introduce individual quotas for each UK nation in line with those accepted by the BBC since 2009.

🎞️ Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is heading to Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews for a special in conversation with filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo. The talk will take place after a screening of the Soderbergh-produced Welcome to Collinwood on Saturday 20th April, while other guests include Back to the Future composer Alan Silvestri and casting director Debra Zane. The festival runs 19th-21st April.

🎞️ A 32-foot screen has been installed at the new Astoria cinema in Ayr as its grand reopening date approaches on 29th March, reports the Ayr Advertiser. Merlin Cinemas took over the former Odeon venue last year, which has undergone a major renovation ahead of its public reopening.

📽️ Glasgow Youth Film Festival is back from 13th -15th September and looking for Young Programmers aged 15 to 18 to help make it happen.

📽️ Meanwhile, Eden Court Theatre and Cinema in Inverness is looking for people aged 15 to 26 interested in cinema, creating blogs and online content and who want to have a say in what kind of films are shown at the cinema - there’s a short application form now online.

🏆 Friends on the Outside, a short film about a prisoner who finds joy by foraging for weeds and caring for birds, won the Scottish Short Film Awards at the recent Glasgow Short Film Festival, as reported by the BBC.

💰 Accommodation providers, local shops and caterers are all benefitting from an increase in filming across Argyll and Bute, reports Argyll and Bute Council, with an estimated local production spend of £1.3M over the last 12 months, up £720,000 compared to 2022.

🌊 The Guardian took a look at the second series of “Scottish lesbian lifeguard drama” Float this week, speaking to those behind the drama that unfolds in ten minute episodes. You can watch series one on iPlayer, with series two coming soon.

🎬 Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds are heading to East Dunbartonshire to shoot a new film version of the Bernard MacLaverty novel, Midwinter Break.

📺 Martin Compston and Anjli Mohindra are currently filming new BBC/Amazon Prime thriller Fear in Glasgow, reports Deadline. When Martyn and Rebecca move from London to Glasgow, things quickly start to go wrong…

📺 ​​Tish Murtha, a mother, fighter, and visionary photographer, used her lens to celebrate overlooked working-class lives and fight for social change in Thatchers' Britain. Her daughter uncovers her poignant story in Edinburgh-based director Paul Sng’s new film Tish, coming to BBC Four/iPlayer on Monday 1st April.

🎞️ For over two decades, New York City cinephiles had access to a treasure trove of rare and esoteric films through Kim’s Video, a store that's celebrated in a new documentary of the same name that's screening at Edinburgh's Cameo cinema this Saturday, 30th March at 6pm. The Cinetopia event includes a live Q&A with the film’s director.

🎞️ What do you get when you cross Samuel L. Jackson with a sadistic murderer and place them both in Scotland? You get Damaged, the upcoming thriller starring Jackson alongside Vincent Cassel, Kate Dickie and John Hannah…

📀 Murray Grigor’s 1976 documentary Big Banana Feet, which captures ‘The Big Yin’ on and off stage during his 1975 tour of Ireland, is heading to cinemas on 10th May, while the BFI’s DVD/Blu-ray release of the film is released on 20th May.

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🎬 The 20th Glasgow Film Festival kicks off tonight with Opening Gala Love Lies Bleeding and continues through to Sunday 10th March. Have a browse of the packed programme that also includes this year’s Frightfest horror festival. The BFI recommends 10 films to see.

🎬 The 17th Glasgow Short Film Festival opens on Wednesday 20th March and runs until Sunday 24th March. The full programme is now live and includes unseen, live-scored short films from Bill Douglas, rediscovered work by Mexican feminist group Cine Mujer (with Invisible Women) and experimental reappropriation of archive footage by Jyoti Mistry.

🇵🇱 A weekend of Polish cinema will take place in Aberdeen as part of the International Film Festival Tofifest. Organised by the Polish Association Aberdeen and running from 1st to 3rd March, it’s the seventh strand of the 2024 Polish-Scottish Mini Festival 2024.

🎞️ The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival - HippFest for short - returns for its 14th edition from Wednesday 20th to Sunday 24th March with a line-up of silent films presented with live musical accompaniment plus talks, workshops and the famous jeely jar screening. There are also various HippFest at Home screenings for those who can’t make it to Bo’ness. Head over to the site to view the programme.

💰 If you’ve not managed to donate to the Crowdfunder to revive Edinburgh Filmhouse (and if you can afford it), consider visiting the site as the target has been raised to £300,000 and now ends on 30th April. Brian Ferguson has reported in The Scotsman that City of Edinburgh Council has ring-fenced cash for the project.

📽️ Oban's Phoenix Cinema will soon be closed on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday due to falling numbers and rising costs; its energy prices have risen to over £8,000 more than they were pre-pandemic, a rise of 138 per cent. West Coast Today reports that nine jobs rely on the cinema and that there will be fewer working hours on the rota when the change comes in.

💰 The Celtic Media Festival, a three day celebration of TV, radio, film and digital media from the Celtic nations and regions, is accepting submissions for the International Pitching Forum which offers a £6,000 development prize and an opportunity to pitch to international broadcasters in one space. Full details are on the website.

🏆 Congratulations to Scottish filmmaker Bonnie MacRae who has won the best director award at the British Film Institute’s Future Film Festival. All Up There follows 20-something Eilidh as she begins to seek answers for the debilitating pain she is experiencing. The film was made with a fully female/non-binary crew and filmed entirely in Glasgow on a £2000 budget with the support of GMAC Film and Creative Scotland. The full film can be watched on YouTube.

🏆 The winners of this year’s Gaelic short film competition, FilmG, were announced on Friday. Taking top spot in the under 18 competition was Parker Dawes who won the Best Film for Iomlaineachd (Perfection), the second year in a row Dawes has picked up the award. Highlights of the awards can be watched on BBC iPlayer.

📺 New research conducted by broadcasting union BECTU that paints a bleak picture of what life is really like for ordinary workers within the British TV and film industry. Sky notes that many professionals report a dire shortage of paid work, with many saying they're stressed, some even suicidal, taking on mounting debts to keep afloat.

⏰ Long working days in film and TV have come under the spotlight in an in-depth feasibility study which assessed the financial implications of a shorter working day – 8 hours versus the standard 10 – for scripted drama production. Timewise and BECTU Vision have recommended that industry partners support a trial production where the shorter day would run across all departments.

🎂 Happy fifth birthday to the BBC Scotland channel, which reaches more people than any other digital channel in Scotland. Home to series such as Guilt, Mayflies and Scot Squad, it’s usually worth dropping in to iPlayer see what’s on there - requests for content from Scotland have grown by 250% since the channel’s launch. It’s also worth noting that flagship news programme The Nine is being scrapped due to low viewing figures.

📺 The BBC has commissioned Lions, a six-part drama about two men across the decades, written and created by writer and performer Richard Gadd and set and filmed in and around Glasgow.

😆 BBC Comedy and BBC Scotland have commissioned Only Child, a new sitcom from Bryce Hart. It stars Greg McHugh as only child and budding author Richard, who travels back to his family home in North East Scotland to look after his aging and wilful dad Ken, played by Gregor Fisher, as he slips into ever more eccentric and erratic behaviour.

🧑‍⚖️ The BBC has also announced that award-winning documentary series Murder Trial will return later in 2024 and focus on two new cases, the deaths of Caroline Glachan and Ean Coutts. In addition, a 10-part Inside The Murder Trial podcast will be presented by journalist Jane McSorley and feature powerful archive content and key contributors.

📕 Edinburgh is expecting an uptick in tourists following the launch of TV series One Day on Netflix. The latest adaptation of David Nicholls novel was filmed around the city and This Morning took a wander around the locations earlier in the week.

🎥 Netflix is also behind a new crime drama Department Q, currently being filmed in Edinburgh and starring Matthew Goode, Kelly Macdonald and Mark Bonnar. A former top-rated Edinburgh detective is assigned to a new cold case whilst wracked with guilt following an attack that left his partner paralysed and another policeman dead.

🎥 Actor Rufus Sewell has been spotted in Inveraray filming for the new series of Netflix's The Diplomat - from this report it seems a tractor driver was the real star of the scene.

📺 The teaser trailer for the upcoming series The Tattooist of Auschwitz, from Scottish production company Synchronicity Film, has been released. Based on the bestselling novel by Heather Morris, it's inspired by the real-life story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, who met while prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust of World War II. Harvey Keitel and Melanie Lynskey are among the cast.

🎞️ Andrew Cumming’s Scottish Highlands-set (and filmed) horror film Out of Darkness is now in cinemas. Set in the Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. But when they suspect a malevolent, mystical being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisioned…

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Feel free to get in touch with anything you’d like to see mentioned - hopefully there’ll be more interviews and features coming soon.

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After a quiet start to 2024, the last few weeks have seen the news items stack up, so here’s a brief(ish) summary…

🎬 The programme for the 20th Glasgow Film Festival, running from 28th February to 10th March, has been announced and it’s another packed one. From the UK Premiere of Bill Douglas: My Best Friend, a look at the lifelong friendship between Scottish filmmaker Bill Douglas and close friend Peter Jewell, to the world premiere of Janey, following Scottish stand-up Janey Godley on her final world tour, plus dozens of other screenings (and an appearance from Viggo Mortensen), there’s something for everyone. Take a look at the schedule before tickets for GFT members go on sale at 11am on Friday 26th and the rest of us on Monday 29th January - there’s also an industry pass available.

🎬 Bill Douglas will also be celebrated at the 17th Glasgow Short Film Festival, with the premiere of never-before-seen short films made by the artist in the 1960s opening the festival - tickets for the event are on sale now. GSFF24 will open on Wednesday 20th March and run until Sunday 24th March. The full programme will be unveiled on the 20th February.

🎂 Happy Birthday to Glasgow Film Theatre as it celebrates its 50th in 2024! Glasgow World takes a look back at the history of the venue in 8 old photographs.

🎬 Over in the capital, dates for the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) have been announced: August 15 to August 21 2024. Though it’ll be a while until any programme is announced, it has been revealed that prize-money will be awarded to the filmmakers of the Best Feature Film in Competition and the Best Short Film. Ten features and ten shorts – all world premieres - will compete for industry-leading cash prizes, supported by partnerships to be revealed at the Berlinale in February.

💰 Staying in Edinburgh, the fight to revive Edinburgh Filmhouse continues, with the deadline for the fundraiser now extended to April and donations still welcome over on Crowdfunder.

⛰️ The 20th Fort William Mountain Festival takes place from 15th-18th February and the programme is now online. Roger Cox interviews Hannah Bailey, director of snowboarding film Thrawn, in The Scotsman.

📺 The final season of Outlander will be filmed in Scotland this year and the Outlander Training Scheme is now recruiting up to 20 trainees to work in various departments, from Accounts to Special Effects. Find out more on the Screen Scotland website.

🌟 Ten participants have been chosen to take part in Producer Accelerator, Short Circuit's scheme aimed at those who have yet to make a funded short film - you can view the list on their website.

🌪️ Actor Jack Lowden has shared the teaser poster for Tornado, the survival thriller from director John Maclean that starts principal photography in Scotland this week. Lowden stars alongside Tim Roth in the film set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain.

🎭 And Jack Lowden will return to the Scottish stage in The Fifth Step, a new play written by David Ireland that The Herald notes will preview at Dundee Rep Theatre before opening at the Royal Lyceum Theatre as part of Edinburgh International Festival and finishing with a run at The Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow.

🎨 BBC Scotland will celebrate the life of John Byrne with a night of his work on Saturday 27th, starting with When Peter Capaldi Met John Byrne at 9pm followed by episode one of both Tutti Frutti and Your Cheatin’ Heart, then 2013’s What Do Artists Do All Day? at 11.20pm. The 1988 Arena film Byrne About Byrne is on BBC Four on Monday.

🍔 It’s been 10 years since Brian Cox starred in the short-lived BBC Four comedy Bob Servant, but the character returned at New Year in two new episodes on radio in which Bob looks back at his life. There’s just a few hours left to hear the first episode, but another week to hear the second. Jonathan Watson co-stars as Frank and Lulu also makes an appearance. You can also find the TV series on iPlayer.

🎤 Actor Gavin Mitchell will be looking back at his 30-year career, with a particular focus on Still Game, at two special events in February. He’ll be at The Stand Glasgow on 1st February and The Stand Edinburgh on 21st February.

🔟 The BFI website has listed 10 great films about Scottish history with a look at the likes of Ratcatcher, Small Faces and The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil.

📀 Mention of the brilliant Cheviot reminds me that the film is also available on DVD and Blu-ray from Panamint, a small Scottish company that’s sadly about to close down. You can buy the title for £12.99 or there’s a 3 for £30 offer on right now that’s worth taking advantage of before they go…

🗡️ Finally, series two of The Traitors has proved to be a huge success for the BBC and the final episode is on BBC One tonight, Friday 26th January. Filmed at Ardross Castle, the Studio Lambert Scotland show has pulled in upwards of 6 million viewers for most episodes and a third series has already been commissioned. Watch the series on BBC iPlayer, but beware, it is addictive…

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News

🎬 The death of screenwriter, playwright, artist and designer John Byrne at the age of 83 last Thursday has left the Scottish arts sector in mourning. It’s impossible to do justice to Byrne’s career here so please have a read of some of the numerous online obituaries, though it might also be a good idea to pop over to BBC iPlayer to watch one of his most impressive creations, 1987’s Tutti Frutti. I’d also recommend watching this fascinating interview between John Byrne and actor Peter Capaldi from a few years ago.

🏆 The results of this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards were announced on Sunday 19th November, with the cast and crew of Aftersun taking home multiple awards and Lauren Lyle winning twice for her portrayal of Karen Pirie in the ITV series of the same name. Find the full list on the BAFTA website.

🎓 Famously donating his £1.25 million pay cheque from Diamonds are Forever to establish the Scottish International Education Trust, Sean Connery’s legacy continues with news of the Sean Connery Talent Lab, a new Edinburgh-based 12-month part-time training programme for 30 emerging Scottish filmmakers that will start in April 2024. Run by the The National Film and Television School (NFTS) Scotland, each of the 30 places will be substantially subsidised to ensure the programme is as accessible to as many people as possible, with 70% of fees underwritten by the Sean Connery Foundation.

💰 City of Edinburgh Council has agreed to contribute £60,000 towards supporting the return of the Edinburgh Filmhouse building at 88 Lothian Road, stating that councillors are “committed to having a home for cultural cinema in the heart of the city and for the wider sector going forward.” The fundraiser has almost passed the £200,000 mark and has been extended until the end of February, donations are still welcome to the Crowdfunder.

🎞️ On a side note, anyone who prefers watching their films in 35mm or 70mm should follow Analogue Film Scotland on Twitter/x for regular updates on where you can see the likes of Braveheart or Oppenheimer on the big screen the way they were meant to be seen!

📽️ Scotland’s screen and performance industries are to be boosted by a new multimillion R&D lab with sites based in Dundee and Edinburgh. According to Screen Scotland, the Convergent Screen Technologies and Performance in Realtime (CoSTAR) programme is supported with £75.6 million of funding and will specialise in virtual production, a new cinematography technique which uses computer-generated imagery (CGI), augmented reality and motion capture to create virtual film and performance sets.

🤝🏽 Short Circuit will be co-hosting the final Cinetopia networking night of 2023 at Edinburgh's Traverse Bar on Thursday 7th December from 7.30pm. It'll see many of those in the local filmmaking community gather for a chat and to hear from the likes of The Rig creator David Macpherson and Girl producer Adura Onashile - join the guestlist.

✈️ A teaser trailer has been released for the second season of hit BBC drama Vigil, filmed in Scotland and Morocco. Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) and Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) look to the skies as they enter the secret world of drone warfare to catch a killer. The six-part series will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year.

🚆 Photos from another drama filmed in Scotland have been released, this time for BBC One’s Nightsleeper, a real-time thriller set on a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London while a government agency desperately tries to intervene in the rapidly-escalating events onboard. The cast includes Alexandra Roach, Joe Cole, Alex Ferns, Sharon Small, James Cosmo and David Threlfall.

🎬 A new adaptation of David Nicholls' novel One Day is coming to Netflix. Partially filmed in Edinburgh, it stars Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall as Emma and Dexter.

⛰️ Also on the BBC over the festive period is Mary Berry's Highland Christmas, in which the cook travels to her mother’s homeland for a winter break - it airs on December 13th.

📧 Thanks to Michael MacLeod for the ReelScotland shout outs in his excellent Edinburgh Minute newsletters. Paid subscribers also receive the curated Edinburgh Culture Minute which is full of film and arts news.

The Edinburgh Guardian

🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 22-28 Nov 2023

Welcome to the 21st edition of the Culture Minute, a weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. It’s for paying subscribers only, with a free preview, so thank you for supporting this and thanks to everyone who contributed…

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3 years ago · 9 likes · 2 comments · Michael MacLeod

🔥 Finally, this week marks the 50th anniversary of the classic Scottish horror film The Wicker Man, which was released on 6th December 1973. BBC Four is celebrating with a chance to watch the film on Tuesday at 10pm, followed by the 1988 Ex-S documentary on the film at 11.30pm. BBC Radio Four broadcast numerous Wicker Man-related programmes at the weekend, including a new adaptation of the story starring Brian Blessed, an episode of Desert Island Discs featuring Christopher Lee and an interview with actress Leslie Mackie, who was in the film - you should be able to find the full listings using this link.

Wicker Man fans might also want to check out new posters (including the one above) created by artists at Glasgow-based studio Float which they say updates the film’s imagery to how a more modern ‘horror’ aesthetic as The Herald reported on Saturday.

Watchlist 📺

A few films and TV series with a Scottish connection are dotted around the place right now, including:

• Edinburgh-based director Paul Sng's new documentary Tish is now in selected cinemas. Driven by a commitment to document the impact of deindustrialisation on working class communities in Northeast England in the 1970s and 1980s, Tish Murtha used her camera to expose societal inequality. However, despite early acclaim for her work, she was unable to make a living from photography and died in poverty.

• David Tennant returned to Doctor Who last week, while Ncuti Gatwa will be taking the TARDIS key from him on Saturday - watch the new episodes on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ everywhere else

• Two Doors Down has returned for its seventh series, this time promoted to BBC One - watch all episodes on iPlayer

• Loch Ness: They Created a Monster is a new documentary looking at the various people who have made their way to search for Nessie through the years - it’s now on iPlayer

• Starring Kevin McKidd and James Cosmo, Glasgow-based drama Six Four is now on STV Player

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Welcome (back?) to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in the world of Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector, are trying to enter it or just enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, then this is for you.

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News

🏆 BAFTA Scotland has announced the full list of nominations for its 2023 awards, “honouring excellence and celebrating talent across the Scottish screen industries”. Highlights include feature film Aftersun receiving five nominations in categories such as Actor, Actress and Director, while TV dramas Mayflies and Karen Pirie received three nominations each. Full details are now on the BAFTA website and the ceremony takes place in Glasgow on Sunday 19th November, also being streamed live on YouTube.

📽️ The crowdfunding campaign to reopen Edinburgh’s Filmhouse has passed the £175,000 mark, with the deadline extended until 24th January 2024. Screen Scotland has also awarded project team a development grant of £299,000. The building itself is currently undergoing some long-overdue refurbishment by its new owners, while refurbishment of the cinema interior and bar/cafe will be covered by the fundraiser, which you can donate to here.

💰 Congratulation to the six short film projects selected to receive up to £25k of funding from Short Circuit's Sharp Shorts initiative. Subjects include a journey to the moon, a home carer's first day on the job and someone cutting out their own heart... Finalists will receive guidance, mentorship and resources to help bring their cinematic visions to life.

🎬 Following recent success with crime drama, erm, Crime, Dougray Scott has committed to tell “bold, ambitious stories from Scotland” as part of his Buccaneer Scotland production company, recently hiring a Creative Director to “supercharge the scale of its productions”. Its slate includes Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting TV spin-off The Blade Artist and the development of novels ‘The Panopticon’ and ‘Luckenbooth’. Full details on Deadline.

🎬 James McAvoy will make his feature directorial debut on a movie about the true story of two lads from Dundee who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be Californian rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains. More on Deadline. The story was previously covered in Jeanie Finlay’s excellent 2013 documentary The Great Hip Hoax, search it out on various streaming sites.

🔍 Film Bang - the guide for Film and TV production in Scotland, listing Production Companies, Facilities and Technicians - has launched a Jobs Board. Film and TV productions can list job opportunities and practitioners will be notified when roles are available.

🎭 National Theatre of Scotland has announced a new short film commission opportunity for Black artists and artists from the African and/or Caribbean diaspora, including those with mixed heritage, specifically those based in Scotland. It’s part of an ongoing initiative to cross-fertilise talent between the screen and stage sectors.

📺 BBC Content, BBC Scotland and Screen Scotland are seeking to co-fund the development of a premium history series and or/singles from Scotland. They’re seeking ideas from production companies located in Scotland and they must be creatively distinctive “with strong Scottish portrayal in terms of location and voices, with talent that will resonate with both a Network audience and an audience in Scotland.” Full details.

📽️ Words On The Wind, a film about Caithness, its people and landscape premieres at Wick's Lyth Arts Centre this week and there are plans to show it four other local venues as well as at the Edinburgh Folk Film Festival and the Scottish Poetry Library. Find out more.

👵 Readers of a certain age will remember the classic ITV series Super Gran, all about a granny (Gudrun Ure) with super powers. Now Deadline reports that another Super Gran might one day enter production, the everyday story of a boy sent to live with his granny in Scotland who turns out to have secret superpowers and a spy base beneath Loch Ness. The project from writer Keri Collins has topped the annual Brit List of unsigned TV and film projects.

📖 Apologies for a piece of personal promotion, but I’ll be introducing a screening of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero at Kelvin Hall on Wednesday 29th November and there are still some FREE tickets available. I wrote a book about the film, ‘Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic’, for this year’s 40th anniversary and I’m looking forward to talking about my favourite Scottish film on the night.

🎄 A new Christmas film shot in Scotland, appropriately called Christmas in Scotland, will be broadcast on Channel 5 on Sunday 12th November. According to the synopsis, “On vacation in Scotland, a New York installation designer finds herself tasked with helping a small, rural community create a festive light display and compete in a ‘Best Christmas Village’ festival, despite the interventions of a wealthy, influential heir who sees Christmas as an inconvenience.” Starring Jill Winternitz and Dominic Wattars, the film was shot in the Fife village of Culross - beware the trailer below, which reveals most of the plot…

🎬 This is more of a rumour, but Guillermo del Toro has announced to his followers on X that he’s in Scotland, leading to fans suspecting he’s scouting locations for a new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.

Watchlist 📺

Finally, a few films and TV series with a Scottish connection are dotted around the place right now, including:

• 007: Road to a Million, the reality TV series hosted by Brian Cox, arrives on Prime Video today

• The first two episodes of Shetland Series 8, now starring Ashley Jensen, are on BBC iPlayer

• The Buccaneers, a period drama based on the unfinished novel by Edith Wharton and shot on location in Scotland, premiered on Apple TV+ this week

• David Tennant's starring role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Hamlet can now be seen on iPlayer

• Watch hundreds of episodes of classic and new(er) episode of Doctor Who on iPlayer under the new Whoniverse banner - Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan are among the famous faces to be found there

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Welcome to the ReelScotland newsletter, a deep(ish) dive into the world of Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector (or are trying to enter it) or just quite like films and TV with a Scottish connection, then this is for you.

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News

💰 The Scottish Government is imposing a £6.6 million budget cut on Creative Scotland. The organisation, which encompasses Screen Scotland, will dip into its reserves this year but won’t be able to do so again, threatening the future of Scotland’s arts sector. The Campaign for the Arts has launched a petition urging the Scottish Government to reconsider the cut.

📽️ Could Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema see its projectors flicker back into life? A campaign is underway to raise £250,000, part of the £1.25m needed to open the doors of the Lothian Road institution that shut down one year ago this week. Some big name fans have recorded video pleas for donations and you can add your pennies to the campaign via their Crowdfunder page. The organisers are also looking for memories to share on social media.

🎞️ Another casualty of the catastrophe that saw Filmhouse shut down was Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse, but the good news is that it’s a few steps closer to reopening. Aberdeen City Council recently appointed Belmont Community Cinema as the preferred operator for the cinema. Good luck to the team who tweeted enthusiastically about the decision a few weeks ago.

📽️ Edinburgh International Film Festival is recruiting a Festival Director to lead the Festival towards a sustainable business future. The deadline for applications is Monday 9th October.

💰 The six projects that will receive development funding from First Features have been announced, each of them “set to leave an indelible mark on Scotland’s screen sector” (the one about the monster in a 1950s coal mine sounds very interesting) - view the list of recipients and if you’re interested in applying the deadline for next year’s scheme has just been extended to 10am on Monday 8th January 2024.

♻️ BECTU Vision is working with Film Bang to help make film & TV in Scotland more sustainable. They’ve created a Reuse Hub to help crew to source, sell and share materials across productions in Scotland.

📅 Glasgow Film Festival’s Animatic talent development programme for animators offers successful applicants a 3-month programme of workshops to help them develop their project & pitching skills - apply by Wednesday 18th October.

📽️ The 21st Inverness Film Festival runs from Friday 3rd to Thursday 9th November and there’s a chance to join festival director Paul Taylor for a preview on Thursday 12 October. Discover the full line-up, watch trailers and get your hands on a timetable by booking your ticket.

Watchlist

Finally, a few films and TV series with a Scottish connection are dotted around the place right now, including:

• The second series of Irvine Welsh’s Crime is on ITVX…

• …and Payback, filmed in Edinburgh and Glasgow and starring Morven Christie and Peter Mullan, starts on ITVX at 9pm tonight

• Peter Mullan also pops up in documentary series Street Gangs on BBC iPlayer

• A few classic Scottish dramas have recently appeared on BBC iPlayer, including Hamish Macbeth and Monarch of the Glen (neither of which feature Peter Mullan)

• Episodes of Mark Cousins’ interview series Scene by Scene are arriving on iPlayer as well. His interview with actress Janet Leigh is up now and another with Donald Sutherland is coming soon

• Mark’s latest film My Name is Alfred Hitchcock is in cinemas around the country, visit the IMDb page to see showtimes

• Glasgow-shot coming-of-age drama Girl will be screening tonight at London Film Festival

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I had good intentions when I moved ReelScotland over to Substack in 2020, excited by plans for a new Filmhouse here in Edinburgh (more on that later), a new film studio in Leith and production on various TV series and films taking place around the country.

Sadly, I got a bit ahead of myself as I was still writing on a book on 1986’s Highlander and mulling over starting another book on 1983’s Local Hero while going back to university for an MA in Screenwriting and working part time at the Scottish Documentary Institute. What was I thinking?

The books are now published, the course is finished and I’m now working in screen education at Screen Academy Scotland/Screen NETS while doing freelance development work on unscripted radio and TV projects, so keeping busy.

But I’m still as interested in what’s going on in Scotland’s screen sector today as I was when ReelScotland started back in 2010, plus people keep signing up to this newsletter despite me not sending anything out for a wee while…

So I thought I’d flex the old ReelScotland muscles and put together a newsletter covering some recent goings-on that might be of interest to people who are either working in the Scottish screen sector in pretty much any capacity (or who are trying to enter it) or who just quite like films, TV and games made in Scotland (or with some Scottish connection that gives me an excuse to cover it).

I’m not sure if monthly or fortnightly round-ups are better, or maybe monthly with the occasional one-off newsletter with an interview, special preview or breaking news… basically anything could happen.

Thanks for being here to watch ReelScotland slowly morph into something newish, feel free to let me know what I’m doing wrong or right and I’ll adjust as I go along. Here we go…

🎂 This week marked the centenary of the BBC in Scotland, check out the video below for some classic moments from the archives and head over to BBC iPlayer to watch an hour-long celebration.

🎞️ This week also saw the announcement that Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will return in August as part of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) following the disaster that befell the former in 2022 when the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) collapsed overnight, taking EIFF, Edinburgh’s Filmhouse and Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse with it.

It’s fair to say that this newsletter wouldn’t exist without the existence of Filmhouse and EIFF, my own love of film and desire to write about it informed by the incredible films and events put on by both over the years. The fact that two cinemas and a major film festival were able to vanish overnight is still hard to believe - not only did many people lose their jobs but Edinburgh feels like a smaller place without Filmhouse and I’m sure Aberdeen is the same. Fingers crossed we get both cinemas back soon.

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🎞️ Glasgow Film Festival is in full swing right now, which has always been one of the most exciting celebrations of cinema taking place in Scotland. I’ve been lucky enough to attend as both journalist and punter, meeting some incredibly talented people and seeing some fantastic films. This year marks Allan Hunter’s last year as co-director and I’d like to pass on my thanks to him for always being so helpful and enthusiastic over the years - cheers Allan!

🎞️ The Hippodrome Festival of Silent Film returns between 22nd to 26th March in Bo’ness, tickets are on sale now.

🎞️ Tickets are also on sale for the 2023 Glasgow Short Film Festival which takes place from 22nd to 26th March. Opening event OMOS is a new moving image work that pays homage to Scotland’s untold Black history and celebrates Black performance in Scotland.

📺 Waaaaay back in 2010 I was invited along to a nondescript Glasgow office building to visit the set The Field of Blood, David Kane’s adaptation of a Denise Mina crime novel. The place had been dressed to look like the office of a 1980s newsroom belonging to a Glasgow newspaper, with typewriters, ashtrays and empty bags of crisps from the era dotted around the place. Shown on BBC One in 2011 and 2013, the series then vanished into TV history. That’s a long way of saying that today it was announced that Glasgow’s Freedom Scripted is working with Kane to bring an adaptation of Mina’s Alex Morrow novels to TV screens in the shape of Morrow. What with a new TV adaptation of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novels also in the works, it could soon be a good time for Scottish cops on the box.

📺 One of the biggest UK TV successes of 2023 has been The Rig, the Prime Video series set on an oil rig where things start to go quite badly for the crew, including Iain Glen, Martin Compston and Mark Bonnar. The series was filmed at First Stage studios in Leith and a second season was recently announced, once more filmed in Edinburgh. There’s a chance to hear more from the cast and crew, including creator and writer David Macpherson, at this Royal Television Society event on Wednesday 29th March.

🎬 For anyone looking to get into a career in TV, the Edinburgh TV Festival’s annual The Network programme could be for you. It’s a free entry-level access programme for anyone aged 18+ and it takes place every August. The 50 delegates selected for the 2023 cohort will get access to sessions, masterclasses and workshops led by industry professionals, as well as a free Festival pass, accommodation in Edinburgh, a year of mentoring and unlimited support to help them find paid TV jobs. The deadline is Friday 14th April.

🎬 BAFTA Guru Live is another event for those keen to get into film, games and TV, visit the website for full details - it takes place in Glasgow on Saturday 18th March.

Finally, a few films and TV series with a Scottish connection are dotted around the place right now, a few I’d recommend are:

• Judi Dench and Billy Connolly in Mrs Brown on BBC iPlayer

• John Byrne’s Tutti Frutti on BBC iPlayer

• Rob Williams’ Screw on Channel 4

• Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun on MUBI

• 110(!) episodes of Taggart on STV Player

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I was a latecomer to the charms of Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, my own cinema-going experiences rudely interrupted in the mid-80s by a move from Edinburgh to the Highlands and a return in the mid-90s that saw me drawn to the Cameo, just as Pulp Fiction heralded a new wave of student-friendly films.

I like to think I’ve made up for my youthful ignorance, having spent many hours ensconced in either the cafe or one of its three screens (admittedly favouring Screen One, usually somewhere near the aisle to help my 6’ 5” frame fit into the snug seats) over the last 20 years or so.

I won’t bore you with memories of all the films I’ve seen or events I’ve attended - though watching 1965’s The Hill (currently on BBC iPlayer) in the company of Sean Connery, hearing William Friedkin discuss 1971’s The French Connection, attending multiple events celebrating the career of Jim Henson, or being allowed to organise New Year screenings of archive Scottish TV come high on my list - but its a place I never tire of visiting.

The volume and variety of films it shows is second-to-none in Scotland (though we’re lucky that the likes of Eden Court, the GFT and Dundee’s DCA also offer a vital alternative to the multiplexes), and the fact its not part of a chain is something worth celebrating.

Of course the pandemic scuppered any plans the team had for festivals or special seasons in 2020, and its been sad to see the effect the frequent closures have had on staff. I’ve missed poring over the programme each month and picking out a handful of classics to watch at the weekend, particularly over Christmas.

Much as I love Filmhouse, it’s not hard to see its faults. The building is old and the screens leave a lot to be desired when it comes to accessibility. As a listed building there’s little that can be done to improve the interior without reducing the number of seats and/or the size of the cafe, meaning the business wouldn’t be able to continue.

After years of discussion and false hope it looks like things might be about to change, with the announcement earlier this year that plans are well underway for an ambitious project that would see a new Filmhouse built in the nearby Festival Square, an area that’s long been a waste of space that nobody has figured out a good use for.

The plans have evolved following discussion with City of Edinburgh Council, and while I was initially sceptical that the scale of the project would progress (our council doesn’t seem to be a fan of tall buildings) it might finally mean that Filmhouse has a future. The new building would give us more screens and more space for special events and other businesses to be in the same place. It should also offer the Edinburgh International Film Festival a proper base of operations.

A recent email from Filmhouse asked that anyone interested in seeing the cinema survive and thrive take some time to let the council know how they feel about the plans, and I’m in the process of leaving my thoughts on the website today. If you want to do the same then this page on the Filmhouse website will tell you more.

What are your memories of Filmhouse or thoughts on the new plans? Let me know in the comments below…

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Willie Melvin returns to TV!

A quick heads-up that the festive season has seen BBC Scotland go a bit crazy with the keys to the archives, resulting in a long overdue repeat run of the first series of Bob Black’s brilliant 1980s comedy, City Lights.

Gerard Kelly stars as bank clerk and wannabe bestselling author, Willie Melvin, who never quite manages to rise above his own failings. Kelly is hugely entertaining in the lead role, ably assisted by the likes of Andy Gray as Chancer, Jonathan Watson as Brian and Iain McColl as Tam.

I’ve been banging on about the need for a repeat for years so it’s good to see it’s finally come to pass, head to BBC iPlayer now to watch City Lights episode one - hopefully we’ll get the other six series in 2021, you can always email the BBC to ask for them.

It’s also worth checking out BBC ALBA on iPlayer for new documentary Cinema Gadelica, which is all about Scottish film locations, while films with a Scottish connection include the aforementioned The Hill (plus a tribute to Sean Connery), Bill Forsyth’s first feature, 1979’s That Sinking Feeling, 1985’s Restless Natives, and 2012’s Brave.

Oh, and Local Hero is on All4 for the next fortnight.

Feel free to subscribe below for more emails covering various aspects of film, TV, digital and cinemas in Scotland - 2021 marks ReelScotland’s 11th year and I hope to be writing more and talking to people involved in all of these in the coming months.

I should probably give a plug to the book I’ve been working on for the last few years that’s finally in stores, A Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander. It’s all about the 1986 film and includes interviews with all of the main cast, apart from Sir Sean - signed copies are available from the publisher, or its also on Amazon…

Happy Hogmanay when it comes!

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If you’re searching for some horror viewing with a Scottish twist this Halloween but don’t know where to start, look no further than a batch of shocking shorts now available on YouTube.

While 30 new films have been created for US streamer Hulu’s Bite Size Halloween season, two of them originated in Glasgow: Eye Exam from director Aislinn Clarke (The Devil’s Doorway) and Special Delivery from director John McPhail (Anna and the Apocalypse).

Ten of the films can be watched on YouTube right now, including the two films with Scottish DNA - scroll down this page to watch them and to read new bite size interviews with Aislinn Clarke, John McPhail and the producer of both shorts (and writer of Eye Exam) Jack Tarling.

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Watch Eye Exam

Jack Tarling - writer Eye Exam, producer Eye Exam/Special Delivery

Jonathan Melville: How did you first get involved in the Bite Size Halloween project and end up writing and producing?

Jack Tarling: I’m friends and colleagues with a couple of last years filmmakers so they put me in contact with the team at 20th Digital. I then worked up several ideas of my own and also passed the brief onto some other people that I work with. I then shared a bunch of our scripts with 20th Digital, got a steer on which ones they liked best, and then looked for directors to pitch on them.

What was the brief for writers and how long did it take to come up with the idea for Eye Exam and to write it?

The brief included some suggestions of possible sub-genres to work within as well as examples of a few films which worked well from previous years. And originally they were supposed to be two minutes long but this requirement was relaxed later.

I quite quickly came up with the idea of doing something based on an opticians appointment. I wear glasses and noticed recently how odd it was to go into a windowless room with a complete stranger who would switch the lights off, shine a light in your eyes and then whisper instructions to you! It took a bit longer to come up with what exactly should happen after that, and I had another script based on the same premise, which was also on the shortlist, but has a very different set of plot twists. Maybe we'll get to make that one next time!

How did Aislinn come to the project - did you approach her to direct and had you worked together previously?

I had met Aislinn a couple of times after our films The Devil’s Doorway (hers) and Await Further Instructions (mine) played festivals together in 2018. Once I knew which scripts were potentially of interest to 20th Digital I approached some directors that I was keen to work with and Aislinn chose to pitch this one.

Were there any particular challenges or surprises in the development and production of Special Delivery?

That was a tough shoot with three locations in one night, including child actors, creature effects and moped riding sequences. The surprise was how smoothly it all went! We had a great cast and crew.

Do you have any bite size tips for writers or directors thinking of making their own short film?

The challenge is finding something that works well over such a short time frame. You don’t have the luxury of character development or much scene setting - both of ours revolved around scenarios that would be immediately familiar to most viewers (an eye exam and a moped delivery driver). Then you need to try and find something really surprising or unusual to end on, which feels mostly complete but perhaps with some lingering questions as well to leave you thinking.

Aislinn Clarke - director, Eye Exam

How did you first get involved in the Bite Size Halloween project?

Aislinn: Jack Tarling (the writer and producer) contacted me and asked me to come on board. Given that a feature I was scheduled to make was delayed because of COVID it seemed like a fun thing to do while I wait for things to get back in gear again.

How long was the pre-production process for Eye Exam - were there any changes to Jack’s script during that period?

It was quite quick. I think we pitched to Disney in July and got the green light at the end of August. There were some minor changes, nothing huge. My biggest addition was the idea of the eye scoop and the period setting.

The film has a fantastic retro look to it, how important was that to you and the team?

Although the script was written set in the modern day I always love an opportunity to create a period look and this one screamed 1950s Outer Limits to me, so that’s where I took it. Most of my work in film and in theatre has been period or non specific period. It’s kind of my thing!

What can you tell me about the filming, how long did it take and was it quite straightforward?

We shot it in a day. It was fairly straightforward besides the new addition of COVID restrictions. It was a fun shoot. The cast and crew were all wonderful.

Do you have any bite size tips for writers or directors thinking of making their own short film?

Short films aren’t feature films condensed into a short time frame. Too many new writers make that mistake. Good shorts revolve around a single idea, theme, or image. Less dialogue, fewer characters, fewer locations, less is more. Simple is always best when it comes to shorts.

Watch Special Delivery

John McPhail - director, Special Delivery

What was the relationship like with Special Delivery’s writer Luis Adam Garcia, did you get much chance to discuss the script before filming?

John: I was introduced to Luis via producer Jack Tarling, Jack had sent me over a bunch of scripts that he liked and thought would be good fun for the Bite Size Horror competition and that would suit me. I instantly fell in love with Special Delivery, I’m a big BIG fan of Gremlins and Society and Luis’ script really reminded me of them. I think we had a few drafts of the script before it came to shooting the short, it was mostly the middle section that changed as we wanted it to feel like the delivery driver was being constantly bombarded with messages to open the box. I’m also a big fan of a fun reveal so I had to add in the joke with the shop keeper whispering behind her.

Can you talk a bit about how you chose your cast and Glasgow locations?

The location options I had was London, Newcastle or Glasgow. I’m a Glasgow boy, all the crew I know are here and if I was had to shoot a film in one day with lots of unit moves I know I wanna film somewhere I know, plus I love my city and always want to make things here.

Casting was a lot of fun and I knew right away I wanted to cast Ian Sexon as the shopkeeper, I’ve worked with him on a few different things over the years and I was adamant we cast him. The Delivery driver in the script was a male and I’m never fussed about what sex a character should be (unless it’s something that is specifically for male or females) so I opened up the casting to both men and women and Saskia just smashed it out the park. If I’m honest this is how she got the part:

Me: “I was wondering can you cross your eyes? It’s for the part where the driver falls down.”

Saskia: “Mate! I can cross just one if you want?! It’s like my party trick.”

She then crossed one of her eyes and I laughed so hard I choked, I was like “Yup, that’s my lead!”

You’re no stranger to short films, what is it about them that appeals to you?

I made my first few shorts at the start of my career to help with my development as a director, starting off with minimal characters and minimal locations and each time they would get bigger and bigger. I also wanted them to be my calling cards so folk can see what types of films I want to make. Also making them is a good excuse to get out the house!

Do you have any bite size tips for writers or directors thinking of making their own short film?

Go out and make them, go make mistakes, learn from them and be creative. Remember we are always learning when we make a film so don't be scared to try stuff and push yourself out of your comfort zone and above all have fun.

Watch more of the films on YouTube.

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The last few years have seen a number of small independent production companies spring up in Scotland, producing content for both local and national audiences.

One such indie is Very Nice, established in Glasgow in 2018 by MD Andrew Robertson and Creative Director Henry Imbert. Robertson previously served as Head of Entertainment for Mentorn Media, where he oversaw the company’s entertainment commissions, and also worked at STV, Tigress, Zeppetron and Endemol.

He took some time out of his schedule to discuss the ethos behind Very Nice, their BBC Scotland series Mirror Mirror, and what’s next for the company.

Jonathan Melville: First of all, how did you and Henry meet and what made you say “Let’s do this in Scotland”?

Andrew Robertson: Technically I come from Scotland; I went to school in Scotland and all my family are from Glasgow, my family background is basically from Glasgow, and I’m the only one that sounds like this. Even when I was at school I sounded like this and I went to school in Glasgow. I always call myself geographically agnostic, because wherever I am, I’m not from there.

I was in London for a long time, I was at university there, I started in telly there. I worked there for a long time, then had kids and my wife wanted to come back up, even though she’s not from Glasgow, because all my family were here. We came back eight years ago and it was definitely a different landscape then than it is now. With Henry, I had worked at Endemol for a long time in London.

There was a digital media department back in 2005/2006 and it was almost like a secret department that was set up to go “What can we do with this internet thing, it might be quite big.” There was a department there and it had people who weren’t TV based working in there, and then they got a commission for Bebo and they needed someone who actually knew how to make a show to go and help them make it. So I went to help out in this new internet department and got bitten by the bug.

Very early doors I remember going to Facebook developers garage when Facebook was in his infancy and suddenly seing the value of content rather than the way we used to look at it. In that department, Henry was a sort of work experience type, fresh out of university. They’d got him and his friends as a sort of, “Let's see what these young people can do, they seem to know the internet.” We worked well for so long on whatever shows I dragged him onto. Then I dragged him onto Robot Wars up here and when I left there I was like “We should just do this on our own.” And that was in Glasgow.

Looking at the launch announcement for Very Nice in 2018, it talked about “innovative, exciting shows and formats across a plethora of platforms” and somewhere else it mentioned “exciting and subversive cross platform formats” - why are you specialising in entertainment formats?

I think it's because that’s the way our brains work. Every morning, even during lockdown, we will walk for miles, up and down the Great Western Road, all we do is talk about ideas. Often I’ll say “I don’t think we should even bother pitching for that” - I know there are things that we can do better than anyone, so I avoid pitching for those sort of middle of the road, generic fact-ent ideas, they don’t go anywhere. You’ll never work again if you’ve got a Come Dine with Me, but that’s not a reality, it’s also not what really excites us.

We spend our life on Reddit, that’s where the exciting content is, that’s what makes us laugh. We’ll go, “Oh my god, we’ve got to do something around this.” We both get really bored. If something comes up and it feels straight down the line... we often just pitch ideas to each other and halfway through I get bored of my own idea and go “Oh, just forget it.” I could have stayed in a cushy job if I just wanted to do TV for the sake of it, but I don’t want to do it safe, I want to do it because it’s those things that excite you, that you’re like “God, that’s brilliant, let’s do that” and so we’re much happier in this kind of place.

That’s why Glasgow is perfect, because we can still pitch network, it’s a beautiful city, we hang out and do all the things we want to do, and it’s exciting. It’s trying to make the things that you think should be made rather than just pitching the same stuff all the time. People do that and are very good at property or antiques, but I don’t find it inspiring to think about and talk about.

That’s the thing about Mirror Mirror because that’s real people having real conversations. Did that come from you having a wander or going to the barbers?

That was literally my hairdresser, the place I get my hair cut, Safe Hands on Miller Street. The penny dropped when one guy cut my hair, then sometimes another guy cut my hair, and it made me realise that I don’t go there for the haircut at all. What I love is that I’d sit there and the chat... there are stories I couldn’t repeat because someone would definitely get arrested.

Daryl, who runs it, said you’ll get someone who’s just come out of jail on one side, and a solicitor who put him in jail two seats up. So it was a proper melting pot and the stories were fascinating. Also, real people telling real stories are brilliant, and part of what we loved about it was putting people on TV who don’t want to be on TV.

I wrote an article for Broadcast saying that TV’s become an infinity mirror of itself. The point I was trying to make was that you see people casting for TV shows and they all use casting companies. So all you’re going to get is people that want to be on TV. TV just becomes a repeating pattern of people who want to be on TV. I did Big Brother years ago and there was a guy called Marco, and he was in Big Brother 5 and for years afterwards he told me that people contacted him and he would train people how to get on Big Brother. All these people were getting on Big Brother because they knew what to say and how to react. What you end up with is that TV doesn’t reflect anyone.

Mirror Mirror is a very Scottish programme and I’m guessing you can't sell it to other broadcasters. Do you have to sell the format?

You have to sell the format, you never sell tape on that. [We film] up in Shetland, the Hebrides, we’re in all these places trying to find the real characters in life. We did the hard miles. I would get a train, or fly, or a boat somewhere and I would just walk the streets up and down looking in hairdressers and barbers, looking for ones where people were naturally chatting. I would just walk in and be like a lunatic and go “Hi, I’m making this TV show...” I got used to people staring at me vacantly.

Mirror Mirror was an original format that is ours, and we’ve worked really hard to make. We’re just coming to the end of series two at the moment and now ITV has commissioned Warner Bros-owned Wall to Wall to make exactly the same show.

For a small company like ours that’s a real problem, because we can only try and monetise it through format sales, but if suddenly Warner Bros decide they want to make our show, we’ve no legal leg to stand on because you can’t copyright a format essentially. That’s a real problem if broadcasters or big companies just go “Well, tough”, because we’re a small company, that’s where we get our money from to come up with new ideas.

We’re finishing series two, it’s on iPlayer. I did a show years ago for Hat Trick that cost six million quid and the BBC were simultaneously making a similar type show at the same time. They rushed theirs out and the six million quid show is sat on a shelf at ITV.

You also did some Sparks shorts for Channel 4.

Yes, you’ll see them across Facebook, that seems to be where they put them out, so that’s done and we’re talking to them about other stuff. Then we’ve got a thing I’m writing now, a true crime story which I’m totally obsessed with, it’s amazing. It’s things like that where we go, “That’s a brilliant story”. We do entertainment because that’s really our mindset, but if we find something else that we think is amazing, we’ll focus on that as well.

You mentioned short form, cross platform formats, is that something that’s of interest to you?

It definitely is, I mean that’s kind of Henry’s bread and butter, because I came from the TV world and he’s the sort of internet native. We’ve got a couple of things in with Channel 4 at the moment, which are again things that we make us laugh every time we talk about them.

So that makes us think “This is what we want to make, this is going to be brilliant” and sometimes commissioners will want something that’s more middle of the road. But we’re certainly in conversation about that sort of short form content, they’re funny character-based things, real people that we think have all the right credentials and that should be on TV. They’re as funny as anything I’ve seen on TV.

That idea of Facebook, and maybe Instagram and Snapchat, where you could do one or two minute content, is that something you’d consider?

Where’s the money in it? I’ve been in too many briefings where you hear people saying, “Yeah, you just shoot it on your iPhone”, but the reality is if you delivered something you’d just shot on your iPhone, it would come straight back at you, and they actually want a lot more for their money than it sounds like at the beginning.

How can you run a business if they’re like “It’s £500 for 10 minutes”, £500 goes nowhere. You’ve got a MacBook Pro for five grand to cut it, and you’ve got Adobe Premiere to cut it on, and that all adds up. Unless they create an environment where it’s profitable to make one minute videos, then it won’t work. I think they just see one minute content as great for them, but I don’t think they monetise it back the other way that you make enough money off that one minute to make worth doing.

I wanted to just briefly ask about Screen Scotland’s Broadcast Content Fund, you were awarded £100,000 in 2019. How important are things like that?

That was absolutely transformative for us. Would we still be running if it wasn’t for that? I doubt it. It helped us get through all those periods when you’re waiting for something to come in. It enables you to have the courage to keep trying to pitch the shows that you want to make, that you believe you should be making, and not slightly selling out just turning out more of the same. So yeah, it was brilliant.

Do you think you’ll be working more with BBC Scotland on any other projects?

We’re definitely chatting to them a lot about other stuff. We’re certainly talking about series three of Mirror Mirror. We’re talking about other ideas we’ve got, we always want to build something new. We loved doing Robot Wars, but it always felt like it was a missed opportunity. What’s the next iteration of that STEM-based entertainment show? We know that community of people who make those amazing things. BBC Scotland is brilliant and I think there are some really good shows on the channel as well.

So you’re based in Scotland, you’re pitching things to Scottish broadcasters, but you’re also looking internationally as well?

Yeah. We’re always aiming for network. The short form stuff we’re looking at is all Scottish contributors, because those are the ones that we’ve met and there’s a small community that we’re linked in to and where we meet new editors or new directors. So that’s the kind of thing that we’re really into working with. So it’s definitely a Scottish focus.

Is there anything else you’d like to see happen in Scotland?

One of the things with all those funding opportunities I find is that generally people who make telly are of the creative persuasion, so when creatives come in contact with what feels like the civil service, it’s very hard to navigate your way through all those funding forms.

The hardest bit is translating what you need to do and who you need to approach to apply for these funds. The funds are brilliant, but it’s a job in itself  understanding what they want, understanding the language that they’re using, because they are essentially civil servants.

Also, they still look at things as if they’re from a film-based timeline, or like a big drama. So when you talk about something, they’ll say, “Yeah, but you can’t do anything on that idea for a year” and you go, “Yeah, this idea will be dead by tomorrow”, we'll pitch things quickly and they’ll die and we’ll move on. It’s brilliant, but it can be hard to get to that point.

The other thing is the brass plating thing [whereby companies from outside Scotland set up an office here and hire local studio facilities, sending money out of the country] that gets talked about a lot that hasn’t gone away. And now there are more opportunities in Scotland, there are more angles of brass plating going on, which is always frustrating.

Thanks to Andrew Robertson for taking the time to talk.

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Related: Podcast interview - Steve Carson, Head of BBC Multiplatform

Ian Hoey takes a trip back to the 1970s, recalling the time James Cosmo teamed up with The Sweeney.

Ever since it first appeared on television screens in 1975, The Sweeney has been part of U.K. popular culture. The fourth and final series may have come to an end in 1978 but the characters and tone of the drama remain reference points for all that has followed since.

Combine that with the iconic theme music by Harry South, which is recognisable to many more people than have actually seen the show, and it all adds up to one mighty presence in British TV history.

I’m of a suitable age to have watched The Sweeney when it was first broadcast on weekdays at 9pm on ITV. It was such a fixture in my viewing habits that I was convinced I must have seen every episode, either on the first run or in the regular repeats, which carried on in the same timeslots into the early eighties.

This is why I was surprised to stumble upon an episode of which I had no recollection. The seventies and eighties were a long time ago of course, so being unable to recollect any specific instalment shouldn’t be too unlikely a thing, but this particular episode had an abundance of elements that would surely have stuck in my head had I seen it. The appearance of a specific, infamous drink should have been enough to ingrain it on my memory.

The episode in question was the second of the final series. Entitled Hard Men, it was the last of the six (over the four series) written by Troy Kennedy Martin, brother of Ian Kennedy Martin, creator of the programme.

Before The Sweeney, Troy already had an established reputation as a screenwriter, having written multiple episodes of Z-Cars, of which he was co-creator, plus the screenplays for The Italian Job (1969) and Kelly’s Heroes (1970). With Hard Men it seems Troy wanted to acknowledge the land of his birth (he was born in Rothesay) and to fill this London-based cop show with a strong flavour of Scotland, the West Coast in particular.

The premise is simple. Three violent Scottish criminals have come to London to commit an as yet unspecified crime (it later transpires it’s the kidnap of the seven-year-old daughter of a rival gangster). Pursuing them from Glasgow comes Detective Sergeant Davy Freeth (James Cosmo). Despite their clear reluctance to do so, Regan (John Thaw) and Carter (Dennis Waterman) are assigned to assist him.

What follows is a clash of personalities that walks a majestic line between cultural stereotypes and public information film. Sure it has the all-too-common for the time portrayal of Scottish men as violent alcoholics, but it does so with the kind of insight only previously seen in the exceptional Play For Today output of Peter McDougall.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of British television history should be aware that past studies of racial groups and nationalities in drama and comedy were regularly done in a lazy, often dreadfully offensive manner. It’s therefore no shock at all to see the kind of behaviour displayed by the Scottish ‘hard men’ in this episode. Yet, I believe, it’s all done with a nuance that can only be provided by someone who knows exactly what they are talking about, somebody who is simultaneously exposing the dark side and paying tribute to it.

Of particular interest is the way that Freeth is not objectified for the audience as a man to be laughed at, or even particularly disliked. Far from it. He’s the policeman on a mission while it’s the regular heroes of the series, Regan and Carter, that are seen as the potential stumbling blocks to the success of the enterprise. Caught up in their own lifestyles and habits, they are not only carelessly distracted but also resort to bullying behaviour towards their Scottish colleague.

The entire episode really is a thing to behold.

We’re less than a minute in, pre-credits, when two classic references are made in voiceover. As we watch Freeth get off the train, Regan initially refers to the Sergeant as “McHaggis: Scotland’s answer to the crimewave” before Carter, on noticing Freeth dispose of a sandwich wrapper says, “I thought they ate porridge?” to which Regan retorts, “They used to, until they discovered it was healthy.”

This isn’t the only sarcastic reference to eating habits. A bit later on, when Freeth objects to some unauthorised heavy-handed tactics by saying, “Where I come from we don’t batter down doors without a warrant,” Regan responds with, “Where you come from they’ll batter everything from fried fish to their bleeding grandmothers.”

They’ve dealt with food, so the next box to be ticked is violence. Back to the start of the episode and still pre-credits, we have Carter reading aloud the charge sheet of the men they are pursuing - “Assault with a deadly weapon. GBH. Attempted murder.” And then, in a line destined to infuriate a chunk of the Scottish populace, he asks, “What are they, Rangers supporters?”

This isn’t a plot that hangs around so, niceties over and opening credits rolled, it’s straight to the flat where the fugitives are known to be residing. Freeth bloodies his nose while charging the door down (although the prop door in question is quite obviously falling in before he hits it) and the policemen discover that, thanks to the incompetence of the Sweeney surveillance, the criminals have fled.

Two of them have anyhow, as one is lying on a bed, brutally knifed to death by his partners in crime. When Carter speculates that they might have been arguing over a game of cards, Freeth says it would have been over football or religion, clearly knowing that on the West Coast these two subjects very often go hand-in-hand. It’s a fantastic matter-of-fact observation.

The content of this scene (and the whole episode to be honest) that really caught my eye is shortly before this exchange. Glancing around the flat, Regan picks up an empty bottle from the dressing table, looks at it dismissively and reads the name at Freeth in an enquiring manner, “Eldorado?” Without a second of hesitation, Freeth counters with “Electric Soup” going on to explain to a distinctly unimpressed Regan that this is the nickname it has on Clydeside.

Eldorado is a fortified wine that was the staple diet of many a person in a reasonably limited geographical area of Scotland. I was one of them in my youth and could write a whole screed on that drink, but it’s best not to get too off-topic. Suffice to say that the only other occasions I’ve seen Eldorado get the significance it deserves is in two of Peter McDougall’s most renowned plays, The Elephants’ Graveyard (1976) and Just A Boys’ Game (1979). To see it discussed on an episode of The Sweeney is akin to hearing the actual school you went to get a mention on Coronation Street.

Booze and criminal motive discussion over, before they exit the flat Regan gets a call about another crime, an oddly contrasting one at that. Thieves have broken into Windsor Castle and stolen a painting. Regan can’t see why this should be landed at the door of the Sweeney to deal with and, truth be told, it is little more than a minor distraction from the main action involving the murderous drunken Scottish thugs.

Still, the Sweeney are expected to do something about the art theft and Freeth reluctantly agrees to help since they are short of officers. This is where the aforementioned door battering conversation comes up, as Regan and Carter want Freeth to use his physical prowess to illegally force entry into another home: a flat that is occupied by an Italian suspected of dealing in stolen art.

Perhaps mercifully, we never get to see the Italian or how he would be portrayed. This is largely thanks to them smashing in the door to the wrong flat, barging in on a posh dinner party instead. In a further delightful point of interest for the episode, Sir Henry, the host of this party, is none other than Norman Lumsden, known to many people as the fictitious J.R. Hartley from the Yellow Pages advert. We even see him on the phone in an echo of his most famous role.

With Freeth now bleeding from another door-related wound, his head this time, Regan swiftly apologises and the errant cops are on their way to the correct flat. The upper class dinner party is unperturbed however and happy to continue feasting in a style akin to the ludicrous dining scene in Carry On Up The Khyber as they politely make comments like “Jolly good pâté.”

It seems the bumbling police at least got their initial suspicions right as the painting is now retrieved. All that remains of this subplot is for Regan to apportion the blame for the broken doors on “The flying Scotsman” and for the person who turns up to collect the stolen art work to point out that Detective Sergeant Freeth has a recognition amongst rugby fans as he plays number eight for Hawick! This curious fact has nothing more made of it, begging the question of why it gets mentioned at all.

Now back on the hunt for the Scottish hard men, Freeth and Carter have a rendezvous at the canal with a dodgy character by the name of Gibson who might be able to tip them off on the whereabouts of the thugs in exchange for the handing over of his criminal records. Also known by the nickname The Preacher, when the potential grass turns up he’s none other than a young Alex Norton.

Gibson and Freeth are known to each other and Gibson attempts to wind the policeman up by revealing very little and alleging that one of the men, Stronnach, has returned to Glasgow to go after Freeth’s wife. Freeth plays it cool, although still comes out with the shocking line, “You’ve got the humour of a dead baby Gibson” before privately deducing that the two men are still in London and then tossing Gibson’s record into the water for him to scramble after.

Meanwhile, Regan listens to the tape of a tapped call between Freeth and his Glasgow superior and is unimpressed and confused when he hears Freeth say, “That Regan’s only interested in booze and hochmagandy.” That last word (Scottish slang for copulation) is a surprising choice and one that I can say I’ve never used in my life. However, a quick enquiry with friends of my age makes me suspect it’s maybe actually more surprising that the word passed me by.

It’s finally time for the viewer to see two of the hard men in action as Alan Ross and Charlie Stronnach sneak into the house of their intended victim. They’re a grim, sleazy pair and, sticking to type, Stronnach makes straight for a bottle of booze. This brutal duo hang around for a spell before the young girl and her mother return home and the woman has to put up a wild fight to enable the child to escape onto some waste ground near the house.

Shortly afterwards, with the thugs gone and the Sweeney in the house surveying the aftermath of the serious assault, Freeth turns up after apparently going to the wrong road, in Fulham. He’s confronted by an angry Regan whose fury multiplies in magnitude when Freeth correctly points out that he was, in fact, at the correct address and it was the thugs and the Sweeney that made the mistake. The drunken Scottish heavies went after the wrong child and assaulted the wrong mother.

Around this time, along with clarifying to Regan what hochmagandy means and saying he only uses it when he knows his phone his being tapped, Freeth also explains that teuchter is a “Highland expression for punter.” It isn’t. And quite why it is used a few times and then explained in this fashion is never clear. None of this linguistic conversation has eased Regan’s rage and he insists that the would-be kidnappers must be run out of London, “If they want to batter themselves to death, let them do it in Glasgow.”

To this end, Freeth finally phones, Joe Boyd, the big bad gangster in Glasgow whose child has been the target of this sloppy abduction attempt. Boyd has a truly bizarre accent of the sort that would have had viewers spitting their tea, Irn Bru or Eldorado over themselves when they first heard it. It’s a juicy bit of trivia that Boyd is played by Ian Ricketts, a drama teacher so beloved of his former students at the Guildford School of Acting, where he worked for more than 40 years, that they’ve erected a bronze bust of him at the school. Graduates from that place of learning include Brenda Blethyn (who paid for the bust), Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Isy Suttie and many others. I guess they had a separate accent coach on the staff.

Boyd knows where the thugs are and makes a deal with Freeth. It wouldn’t be good for rival gangsters to think they can mess with Boyd, so somebody has to pay the ultimate price. As the strange-sounding top-villain says, “You can have one and I’ll have one. We have to set an example.”

We’re now nearing the episode finale and yet Regan still finds time to get sidetracked in other pursuits. He’s off to see a female acquaintance of his. But “Marge” isn’t there. “Been and gone. Africa, I think,” says Susan, the attractive young woman currently resident in the flat. Regan would like to pop in regardless, to retrieve something he left when he was last there. He tells Susan that the object in question is a “German steel helmet, a very valuable antique.”

The thing about this is that Regan has previous with this item of WWII memorabilia. Back in series three, in the episode entitled Visiting Fireman (also written by Troy Kennedy Martin), Regan ends up going home with a barmaid called Helga and persuading her to wear such a helmet whilst they are getting friendly. As far as recurring themes go, it’s certainly an eyebrow raiser.

And the old steel hat works its magic once again (even though observant viewers can tell it’s a different prop) as Regan is next seen to be in bed with Susan, who’s sporting the helmet. It’s our first proper look at Susan and we can see that she’s portrayed by future Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis! We also get a very brief glimpse of a can of Younger’s Tartan Special on the bedside cabinet as an odd little further nod to the Scottish influence on this episode.

When Regan takes a phone call to update him on the situation with the pursuit of the hard men, Troy Kennedy Martin isn’t done with portraying this mildly upsetting fetish. Susan asks Regan who was on the phone and he replies, “Bit of business Marge…eh Sue…Susan, Jimmy, Hanz!” before messing around under the covers again.

In the meantime, Ross and Stronnach have been sitting around in a house, passing time, drinking of course. Stronnach has a badly scarred face from his battle with the girl’s mother and the bad guys emphasise their bad guy credentials by discussing how they “Should have finished her off.”

They’re in danger of getting finished off themselves though, since Gibson and another no-good type are staking them out in a car nearby. Gibson (who is justifying his ‘Preacher’ nickname by quoting the bible) and his colleague are clearly as bored as their targets and speculate as to when either of the thugs might finally leave the house. “They’ll be out sooner or later. They must be running out of drink.”

It’s Ross who finally hits the street and thus takes the hit. Fittingly for an episode as odd as this one, it’s no regular murder. The car drives up behind Ross, and Gibson’s cohort hangs out the passenger window to shoot Ross in the back… with a flare gun! Why this is the murder weapon of choice is anybody’s guess but it certainly upsets Stronnach.

He’s immediately got a far more upsetting problem on hand however, as Freeth has made it into the house and points a regular handgun at him. Such is the angry Detective Sergeant’s attitude that things look like they are about to take an even darker turn. Stronnach pleadingly asks Freeth if he’s going to let the hitmen away with that showy murder of Ross but Freeth isn’t interested in the hitmen. He orders Stronnach to lie on the bed and put a newspaper over his face.

Just when it looks like we’re about to witness some savage retribution, Gibson and his flare-gun-toting murder-buddy start banging on the door demanding access to Stronnach. Freeth replies in the negative, tells them he’s taking this one back to Glasgow and then informs the cowering thug, “They’ve just saved your life pal.” Was Freeth bluffing or really about to perform an execution? We can’t be sure.

Now that the hard men are either arrested or dead, it’s immediately time for Freeth to get the train back across the border himself, with Regan and Carter seeing him off and the latter handing him a pornographic magazine for the journey. All that is left is for the London coppers to reflect a little on what transpired during Freeth’s visit.

“Tell you what,” says Carter, “if you think about it, he ran rings round us didn’t he?” Regan interestingly responds with a comment that reflects the growing political movement at the time, “Yeah, thank God they’re going independent, they can put that wall up again. What’s it called, Hadrian’s?”

And then, perhaps because Troy Kennedy Martin didn’t manage to squeeze them in elsewhere, there’s still time for a few further stereotypes to get a mention. Carter throws three classics into the mix, “You know what he told me? He’s never worn a kilt, he’s never had haggis and he’s never seen Ben Nevis.” Regan meanwhile stays true to type by simply wondering out loud, “What’s that stuff they drink? Electric Soup?”

This further reference to Eldorado would, for me, have made the perfect end to the episode, but it wasn’t to be. Things come to a close with a few further lines. Finally, still smarting at Freeth’s codeword to describe his overindulgence in bedroom activity, Regan asks his colleague, “Do you know what the Scottish word for fornication is?” Without taking a breath, Carter replies matter-of-factly, “Hochmagandy,” Regan looks disgusted and the end credits roll.

Whatever anybody makes of this piece of TV history, one thing seems very clear, James Cosmo delivered a perfectly measured performance, filling the role to such an extent that it would have been worthy of an attempted spin-off, perhaps back in Glasgow. Taggart would arrive five years later in 1983 and go on to prove that viewers were eager to see straight-talking Scottish police in gritty storylines, with plenty of dark humour to complement it. It’s no stretch of the imagination to think that Freeth could have got there first. Or maybe I’ve had too much Electric Soup.

Watch The Sweeney: Hard Men on Amazon Prime.

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This episode features a conversation with Steve Carson, Head of Multiplatform Commissioning at BBC Scotland, a role which sees him work across TV, radio and digital.

Originally I was keen to talk to Steve about the first year of the BBC Scotland channel, to find out more about the approach to programming on there as well as on BBC Scotland’s other TV channels, radio stations and digital platforms, but then Covid-19 hit.

It’s obviously a challenging time for everyone in Scotland’s creative sector, so when the chance arose to talk to Steve, I was interested to hear how BBC Scotland is responding to lockdown.

But I also wanted to chat about some of the other decision making that takes place away from lockdown, about dramas like Guilt and comedies like Scot Squad, about some of the great documentaries that are on iPlayer right now and about where things might be heading in the coming year.