0:00:00 > 0:00:02We first got television in Scotland in 1952.
0:00:02 > 0:00:041952! That's the year the Queen became...
0:00:04 > 0:00:08..well, Queen, the first-ever passenger jet flew across the Atlantic,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10the Americans dropped the first H-bomb,
0:00:10 > 0:00:15and the BBC children's TV series Flower Pot Men debuted.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Just that last fact seems a little smaller than the other ones, no?
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Just compared to the other ones, a wee bit small?
0:00:21 > 0:00:24You sure? OK, your funeral.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38The best television is character-driven.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42Sure, movies might be able to wow you with special effects and car chases,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46but in TV budgets are smaller and it's always about telling somebody's story.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Over the years in Scottish drama,
0:00:48 > 0:00:50we've met some astonishing characters,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52people who burn up our screens,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54who we feel as if we know as well as our own family,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58men and women who are unforgettable.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Tonight we raise a glass to a few of them.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04You see, if this was a film, that'd be a whisky.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07I'm not complaining, I'm just...I'm just saying.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11For me the king of them all is Danny Boy in Tutti Frutti.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15He's big, he's rude, he's poor, but you can't take your eyes off him.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Plus, he gets to play pat-a-cake with Emma Thompson.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21I can honestly remember sitting down with Em
0:01:21 > 0:01:24and reading the first draft of Tutti Frutti
0:01:24 > 0:01:27and just laughing till we cried because it was so funny.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Tutti Frutti opens with this classic funeral scene,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38filmed in a great location - the Eastern Necropolis cemetery in Glasgow.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Danny arrives late for his brother Jed's funeral.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45He was the lead singer in The Majestics.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49And there's this funeral and everyone thought, "Oh, God,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52"what is this Scottish, dour, blah-blah-blah?"
0:01:52 > 0:01:57And then when they start singing as the group in the funeral,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00that was it. I thought, "We're away."
0:02:01 > 0:02:07# Now there are just three steps to heaven
0:02:07 > 0:02:11# Wa-wa-woo
0:02:11 > 0:02:19# Just wish and you will plainly see
0:02:20 > 0:02:24# That as life travels on
0:02:24 > 0:02:28# And things do go wrong
0:02:28 > 0:02:30# Just call them
0:02:30 > 0:02:31# Three steps to heaven
0:02:31 > 0:02:34# Steps one, two and three
0:02:34 > 0:02:37# Wa-wa-oooh... #
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Tutti Frutti was written brilliantly by playwright, artist,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43living legend and original slab boy John Byrne.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50What John did was make Tutti Frutti alternatively drama and comedy.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54I mean, there was proper acting, proper relationships,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56and there were tragedies and so forth,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00but also, at least half the time, it was hilarious,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02and no-one had done that before.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06If you must know, I was leaning over the chip pan
0:03:06 > 0:03:09listing the shortcomings of a self-styled lead guitarist
0:03:09 > 0:03:11when one of my front teeth fell out.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Naturally, I tried to recover it before the plastic melted
0:03:14 > 0:03:17and contaminated the chips, as any sensible person would.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19One more remark about left-hand rolls and try-oots
0:03:19 > 0:03:23and your ugly kisser's going straight through that windscreen!
0:03:23 > 0:03:25Danny replaces his brother and joins The Majestics
0:03:25 > 0:03:27on their 25th anniversary tour.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31And let's just say the rest of the band don't exactly warm to him.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34# I don't run around with no mob
0:03:34 > 0:03:37# Got myself a steady job... #
0:03:37 > 0:03:40John Byrne was inspired to write Tutti Frutti
0:03:40 > 0:03:42by the real Glasgow band The Poets,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45who had one hit before disappearing into obscurity.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49# Anyway we're almost grown... #
0:03:49 > 0:03:54There's a strong sense of the grotty reality of life on the road here.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57London, Paris, Rome, Buckie!
0:03:57 > 0:04:00But although the stuff with the band is ace...
0:04:00 > 0:04:01I love you.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05..there's no doubt that what brought the audiences back week after week
0:04:05 > 0:04:09was the tricky, compelling relationship between Danny and Kettles.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11What you mean is you lust after me.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14No, no, that's OK, that I can understand.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16You're single, you're away from home...
0:04:16 > 0:04:18and you've just had two smokies.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Look, can we discuss this some other time? I'm going out to get some toothpaste.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24That puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Guy just admits to being nuts about you
0:04:26 > 0:04:28and you're going out to buy toothpaste.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30That says it all, Kettles, doesn't it?
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Gives me some idea about where I rate in your list of priorities, doesn't it?
0:04:34 > 0:04:38- We need toothpaste, Danny. - That'll be the royal we, cos it certainly isn't you and me.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41- How? Have you got your own? - No I haven't got my own damn toothpaste!
0:04:41 > 0:04:44That's what I thought, I'm going out to get us some - bye.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Come back here, damn it!
0:04:48 > 0:04:50Aren't they great together here?
0:04:50 > 0:04:52"When Harry Met Sally" great.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55For younger viewers, Edward and Bella-great.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Don't get the stripy stuff, it stings my gums.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00But the secret of Tutti Frutti
0:05:00 > 0:05:05was the chemistry between Robbie and Emma Thompson,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07and nobody to this day
0:05:07 > 0:05:11knows who cast Emma Thompson, nobody.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13I have to say that I suggested her.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15And she wasn't their first choice
0:05:15 > 0:05:18because they thought she was very posh and English,
0:05:18 > 0:05:19and I said "No, no, no,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22"her grandparents come from Ardentinny,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26"she can do a perfect Glasgow voice, she's the girl for the job."
0:05:26 > 0:05:30# Love is strange
0:05:30 > 0:05:35# Love is strange... #
0:05:35 > 0:05:37'She was supposed to play the guitar
0:05:37 > 0:05:40'and she'd never lifted a guitar in her life,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43'and she took three weeks' tuition
0:05:43 > 0:05:47'and she was giving it the chords - talented wee bag she is.'
0:05:47 > 0:05:49# How do you call your baby home?
0:05:49 > 0:05:53# Well, I guess if I wanted her back real bad
0:05:53 > 0:05:56# I'd call her something like this
0:05:56 > 0:05:57# Baby
0:05:59 > 0:06:01# My sweet baby
0:06:01 > 0:06:04# My sweet baby... #
0:06:04 > 0:06:07The big man can really carry a tune.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11# Please, come on home... #
0:06:12 > 0:06:16In Tutti Frutti and his follow-up country and western series Your Cheatin' Heart,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18John Byrne creates unique worlds.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Maybe it's because he's one of Scotland's best painters
0:06:21 > 0:06:24as well as a writer, but everything here is one man's vision.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Sometimes television drama can feel as if it was made by committee.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31This is the opposite - John Byrne's done everything himself,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33He's so hands-on, his DNA's on every frame.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40In Your Cheatin' Heart, John Gordon Sinclair gets to play opposite Tilda Swinton.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43- Look!- Where? - That means you can make a wish.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Oh, I thought you'd spotted a phone box.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Tilda Swinton's brilliant.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58Cissie?
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Go on, snog her, you big Jessie!
0:07:02 > 0:07:04God, see when you look at me like that,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07you put all thoughts of turnips and raisins right oot my head.
0:07:12 > 0:07:13# And lay you under
0:07:13 > 0:07:15# Its ever-lovin' embrace
0:07:15 > 0:07:17# You feel the thunder
0:07:17 > 0:07:21# As it warms your face... #
0:07:21 > 0:07:23I couldn't resist showing you this.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Eddi Reader and 200 Hell's Angels line dancing.
0:07:26 > 0:07:27# Just let your love flow
0:07:27 > 0:07:29# Like a mountain stream
0:07:29 > 0:07:31# And let your love grow
0:07:31 > 0:07:34# With the smallest of dreams... #
0:07:34 > 0:07:38John Byrne always makes the most of a musical number.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40# That's the season
0:07:40 > 0:07:41# Woo-hoo hoo-hoo
0:07:41 > 0:07:45# So, let your love fly
0:07:45 > 0:07:47# Like a bird on the wing... #
0:07:47 > 0:07:50MUSIC: "Hey Jude" By The Beatles
0:07:50 > 0:07:51SHOUTING AND BANGING
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Keep away fae me!
0:07:53 > 0:07:57In 1994, Takin' Over The Asylum told the story of a wannabe DJ
0:07:57 > 0:08:00who sets up a radio station in a psychiatric hospital
0:08:00 > 0:08:03and falls in love with one of the patients.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06This is the first time our hero sees Francine -
0:08:06 > 0:08:08it breaks your heart.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13# The minute you let her under your skin... #
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Great use of music here, too.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19SCREAMING OVER MUSIC
0:08:22 > 0:08:25I mean, I started out with the fact that, um,
0:08:25 > 0:08:30you know, I've had mental health problems and I knew people who did.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32There isn't...
0:08:32 > 0:08:34There's only one story
0:08:34 > 0:08:37that wasn't in the orbit of people I knew.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41You all right?
0:08:41 > 0:08:43How would I no' be all right?
0:08:43 > 0:08:45'I actually wrote the part for Katy Murphy,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49'nobody else was in the frame for that part.'
0:08:49 > 0:08:50You're a patient here?
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Nah, I'm the new minister of health for Scotland.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55What's your name?
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Francine.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03So you're the new DJ, eh?
0:09:04 > 0:09:06That's me.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10We're starting up a request show with the patients.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13If you want to request something, I'll play it for you.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16What about Help!
0:09:16 > 0:09:19There's a lot of humour in Taking Over the Asylum.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Authentic, believable characters,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25and a sort of underlying meaningfulness, I suppose,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27a soulfulness, you know.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31So, it could make you laugh, and then it could make you cry.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34And it could really make you cry because there was such depth
0:09:34 > 0:09:37and authenticity to the characters.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42- Eh, I don't think I've got that one. - Disnae matter.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45- No, it's stupid, I should have that one.- Disnae matter.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48- What did you do that for?! - I was putting out my cigarette.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50On your arm?!
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Well, I couldnae find an ashtray.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Ken Stott and Katy Murphy aren't the only Scottish talent in this.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59The producers really struggled to find the right actor
0:09:59 > 0:10:02to play Ken's sidekick until director David Blair
0:10:02 > 0:10:06said he had a young Scottish actor who was Second Hitchhiker
0:10:06 > 0:10:08in a thing he'd done a year or two back,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10and the guy had been no' bad.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12Here's the audition.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15My life's work, my soul's passion, is gonna be...
0:10:17 > 0:10:19..this.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22You see even from this that it was all in front of him.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24No, a DJ, a radio disc jockey, Dad.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26And I can get all the experience I need
0:10:26 > 0:10:28right here in the hospital station, is that no brilliant?
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Look how little that performance has changed.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32I'm 19 years old,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35and I'm staying in Glasgow to work in the station!
0:10:35 > 0:10:37I'm gonna be a professional DJ whether you like it or not!
0:10:37 > 0:10:41You stand there, shouting at the top of your voice,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44throwing your arms about like some mad scarecrow,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46and you're telling me your not ill?
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Five years after Takin' Over the Asylum,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53another Scottish TV series was set in a psychiatric hospital.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56This time, though, the focus wasn't on the patients,
0:10:56 > 0:10:57it was on the doctors.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Takin' Over the Asylum won awards
0:10:59 > 0:11:02for its sensitive portrayal of the mentally ill.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Psychos, on the other hand, was roundly condemned
0:11:05 > 0:11:07by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10But, hey, what does the Royal College of Psychiatrists
0:11:10 > 0:11:11know about television, eh?
0:11:11 > 0:11:15He's isolated, he lost his job, his marriage ended...
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Symptoms of the root cause which is Motherwell Football Club.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21- The rest's just details. - Oh, of course, how silly of me.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Colin's lost the only thing
0:11:23 > 0:11:25that ever really, truly, actually mattered to him -
0:11:25 > 0:11:27he cannae go to the games any more...
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Douglas Henshall plays a psychiatrist
0:11:29 > 0:11:31who's as mad as any of his patients.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33He threw himself into the role.
0:11:33 > 0:11:34..he watched the games on Sky.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Football is the last shred of community spirit
0:11:36 > 0:11:40left in this country, and that poor bugger's been shut out for good.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42It's no wonder he tried to do away with himself.
0:11:42 > 0:11:43You sound like a textbook.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Psychos' surreal humour about the medics was groundbreaking.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49This was years before Scrubs or Green Wing.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51'Come on.'
0:11:51 > 0:11:52BANGING ON A DOOR
0:11:52 > 0:11:55'Colin, what are you doing? Open the door!'
0:11:55 > 0:11:57'Colin!!'
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Colin Goodall took his own life.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02At nine o'clock this morning, he jumped of a roof.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05No-one is more sorry than I.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08This was Scottish writer David Wolstencroft's first telly.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12After Psychos, he did a show called Spooks.
0:12:12 > 0:12:13He's in New York now.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Bet he really misses us.
0:12:17 > 0:12:2037 years ago, a very different Scottish medic
0:12:20 > 0:12:23was a massive hit across the country.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Unlike Dr Nash, Dr Finlay didn't take drugs,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28rant about football or pump his patients.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33And yet, somehow, in spite of this, the show became a huge popular hit.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37It ran for nine years and drew audiences of 12 million a week.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Is that all you wanted me for, Dr Finlay?
0:12:42 > 0:12:44Thank you very much, Dr Cameron, yes.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45Then I'll be away -
0:12:45 > 0:12:47don't scratch it, boy.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Bill Simpson played Dr Finlay
0:12:49 > 0:12:52and Andrew Cruickshank was his senior partner.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54If you go into the kitchen, Janet'll give you some tea.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56'They were very nice, very, very good,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58'and you could direct them.'
0:12:58 > 0:13:00It wasn't a question of being stubborn,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03deciding, "This is the way I'm always going to do it."
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Even Andrew, you could actually shift him a bit.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08Not a great deal, but you could.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Bill - I always had a great deal of time for Bill,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12I think he was a very good actor.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Samuel Oddie, that's down here,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18"Samuel Oddie, Black Farm - £4!"
0:13:18 > 0:13:20We haven't had that many potatoes!
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Dr Finlay was set back in the '30s
0:13:23 > 0:13:25in the fictional town of Tannochbrae.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28It seems a bit couthie to us now.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Where did Miss Scott get that figure?
0:13:33 > 0:13:36I can't remember the last occasion on which I saw Oddie.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39It wouldn't be from the time his son was born, Doctor?
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Bless me, Janet, I think you're right.
0:13:41 > 0:13:42How old is he now?
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Oh, he must be getting on for 12, Dr Finlay.
0:13:46 > 0:13:4912?! And he still hasn't paid for him?!
0:13:50 > 0:13:53'We used to watch Dr Finlay's Casebook regularly.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56'You know, it was kind of blanket coverage in Scotland.'
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Just about everybody who had a telly
0:13:58 > 0:14:00would have watched Dr Finlay's Casebook.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02It was a real phenomenon, you know?
0:14:02 > 0:14:05We'll have to have it dressed and cleaned until we're absolutely sure
0:14:05 > 0:14:07there's no further infection.
0:14:07 > 0:14:08Can she no dae it?
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Because Dr Finlay was set before the NHS,
0:14:11 > 0:14:13the good doctor spends a fair amount of time
0:14:13 > 0:14:15trying to get money out of his patients.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18Oh, it was like it was written by Nostradamus.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20That'll be seven and sixpence.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22- What's that for?- That's my fee.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Five shillings for attending you and two and six for calling me out.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Dr Cameron never charges me on the nail.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Ahhh, well they call me Pay-As-You-Go Finlay.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Mind what I told you!
0:14:33 > 0:14:37Watch this scene and see if you can recognise the young actor buying an apple.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Have you any farthing apples, Mr Grant?
0:14:42 > 0:14:43Eh, aye.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47This? For a farthing?!
0:14:47 > 0:14:50It was gobsmacking to be asked to do that.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52I mean, I was reeling with the thought
0:14:52 > 0:14:54that I could actually be on the telly.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57I mean, I came from a very working-class background.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01You know, people from my street didnae normally get on the telly.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Aye, and you can take that one as well, eh?
0:15:06 > 0:15:07Cheers!
0:15:07 > 0:15:10'I mean, my head was turned completely.'
0:15:10 > 0:15:13There was no going back to being an apprentice plumber.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15That wisnae gonnae happen.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Dr Finlay's casebook closed in 1971,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22although it lived on for another seven years on the radio.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25That same year, the BBC adapted one of Scotland's greatest novels
0:15:25 > 0:15:28for the screen - Sunset Song by Grassic Gibbon.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30This is the story of Chris Guthrie,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34a young girl with a quiet presence and a will of iron.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38Chris, do you like me a bit?
0:15:38 > 0:15:41I can't thole you at all.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44That's why we're out here, lazing in this place together.
0:15:49 > 0:15:50'Like him?
0:15:50 > 0:15:55'It was as though my blood ran so clear
0:15:55 > 0:16:00'and with such a fine, sweet song in my veins,
0:16:00 > 0:16:01'that I must hold my breath to hear it.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06'And so it was that I knew I liked him.
0:16:06 > 0:16:07'Loved him.'
0:16:07 > 0:16:10- Ewan?- Hm?
0:16:10 > 0:16:13It's got a very good narrative through it,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17with the central character of Chris being the narrator.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22And it's in a part of Scotland which is not terribly well-known,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26outside Scotland. And it's where I grew up.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29So it's like going back to my roots, in fact.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33'But for all my reading and schooling,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37'two Chris Guthries there were that fought for my heart
0:16:37 > 0:16:39'and tormented me.'
0:16:39 > 0:16:42This is the first-ever drama from Scotland made in colour.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Sunset Song is passionate
0:16:45 > 0:16:48about the landscape of the Northeast.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53Chris Guthrie has an intense relationship with the land
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and the series makes us share that.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59'..with the smell of the earth in your face.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04'Almost you'd cry for that. The beauty of it.'
0:17:04 > 0:17:07There are the interior thoughts which are going on,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09so I would carry those thoughts,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11because very often I would be filming a piece in silence
0:17:11 > 0:17:15but I was aware fully of what voiceover accompanied it
0:17:15 > 0:17:19and had to look like that was what I was thinking.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23It also showed BBC Scotland's first-ever nude scene,
0:17:23 > 0:17:25but you don't want to see that.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29Oh, you do? All right, we'll show it.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32For historical purposes only, we'll show it.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38'But then I would laugh at the daft thoughts
0:17:38 > 0:17:39'and look at myself in the glass.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44'I was growing up.'
0:17:44 > 0:17:46OK, it's not exactly full-frontal,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50but this is Sunset Song, not 9½ Weeks, remember.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53She sees perhaps more than she should.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57She understands perhaps more than other people want her to understand.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00She's an outsider in that community, if you like.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Aye, he died fine.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Young Ewan'll grow up to be proud of his father.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09You've the consolation of knowing that he died for King and country.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11King and country?
0:18:11 > 0:18:14- You're havering. Havering! - Now, Chris...
0:18:14 > 0:18:16He died for nothing!
0:18:16 > 0:18:19For nothing! Hurt and murdered and crying for me!
0:18:19 > 0:18:24And you bitches sit there and talk about King and country?!
0:18:24 > 0:18:25Get out! Get out!
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Get out of Blawearie!
0:18:27 > 0:18:31The TV version made a whole new generation of readers
0:18:31 > 0:18:32discover Sunset Song.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Some of the best of Scottish television is adapted
0:18:35 > 0:18:37from Scottish literature. That might feel a bit lazy.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Can't these TV Johnnies make their own stories?
0:18:40 > 0:18:42But just think what we'd all have missed out on
0:18:42 > 0:18:45if this next heroine hadn't leapt off the page.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Miss Jean Brodie is one of the great creations of Scottish literature
0:18:51 > 0:18:54and as you can see here, Geraldine McEwan translated her
0:18:54 > 0:18:57into one of the great creations of Scottish television.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02One's prime is the moment one is born for.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05And you shall have the fruits of mine.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Sandy? You're squinting again.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Is your mind wandering? What have I been talking about?
0:19:11 > 0:19:14A lot of people remember Maggie Smith
0:19:14 > 0:19:16in the film adaptation and forget the TV version.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20But I think Geraldine McEwan gives her a run for her money.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23But I am determined that when I am finished with you,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25you will be life's elite.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29Which is to say,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31the creme de la creme.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33Most of this was shot in a studio,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36but when they let Miss Brodie out into Edinburgh,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38the series really comes alive.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41My feet are freezing, Miss Brodie!
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Mary, Queen of Scots never complained,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46though her feet where entirely numb
0:19:46 > 0:19:49as they paraded her through the streets in her petticoat.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54My next TV hero you'll almost certainly never have heard of, much less watched.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57But it's a blinding performance in a great piece of drama.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00It's called The Dunroamin' Rising. It was a play on BBC One
0:20:00 > 0:20:04and it was only ever shown once on 9th February 1988,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06and no-one's seen it since -
0:20:06 > 0:20:10which is a pity, because it's sheer genius.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Hey, BBC guys! Get it repeated!
0:20:13 > 0:20:15Are you OK?
0:20:15 > 0:20:16KNOCKING ON DOOR
0:20:16 > 0:20:21Russell Hunter plays Ian Sinclair, an old Glasgow Red.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24He's collapsed and needs to go into a nursing home.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Oh, my God!
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Watch how the director tells us how grim and difficult
0:20:35 > 0:20:38this is for Ian just by showing you his point of view
0:20:38 > 0:20:40as he is carried into Dunroamin'.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Moira Armstrong started directing television in Scotland in 1965.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04She made six episodes of Dr Finlay, made her name on Sunset Song
0:21:04 > 0:21:06and Testament Of Youth, then made this.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08She's still directing now, at 82.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Her latest credit was Lark Rise To Candleford.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14She's made 149 hours of television drama.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22'It's a very good piece. I really loved doing it.'
0:21:22 > 0:21:26In fact, it's the first time I had been back in Glasgow
0:21:26 > 0:21:28for ages when I did it
0:21:28 > 0:21:31and it was a lovely cast.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Free pills!
0:21:34 > 0:21:38Ian organises a kind of civil disobedience at the home
0:21:38 > 0:21:40and it's brilliant.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44The women that provide your food...
0:21:45 > 0:21:47- ..are being sacked. - MURMURING
0:21:47 > 0:21:50It's a kind of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest for pensioners
0:21:50 > 0:21:52and personally, I've always been partial to a pensioner.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55No right to anything.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Because the people that run this home
0:21:58 > 0:22:02think it's cheaper to employ private caterers.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07Now, you may all think that there is nothing wrong with that,
0:22:07 > 0:22:08that there is nothing immoral.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12- How very true.- Where's the pills?
0:22:12 > 0:22:13That's just the start.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20As soon as a service starts looking for profit,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24it ceases to be a true service.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Right, have a guess who's up next.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Go on, guess. You got it yet?
0:22:32 > 0:22:34DOG YAPS
0:22:34 > 0:22:36That's right, Hamish Macbeth.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Here he is, channelling a little bit of Gary Cooper
0:22:44 > 0:22:46from all those Saturday afternoon Westerns.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53I fancied him and all my mates fancied him. He was gorgeous.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55I had this idea that he could work for a mainstream audience.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59People were a bit nervous at the time as he'd been Begbie in Trainspotting
0:22:59 > 0:23:00and a psycho in Cracker.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Say nothing just now,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07because we'll have a mass panic on our hands here.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Robbie is utterly convincing as a village bobby.
0:23:10 > 0:23:11Maybe even a lynch mob.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17I'll be sending these to Inverness.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19For analysis.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25So one of the things which sealed it for me
0:23:25 > 0:23:27was we had these great scripts, really unusual scripts,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32and the idea of Bobby playing this mainstream, network character, I thought was fantastic.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38'Bobby Carlyle didn't actually like dogs very much, so getting him to act
0:23:38 > 0:23:40'with the dog was always a bit of a challenge for him.'
0:23:42 > 0:23:43Ah, Jock.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48How can people no' be like wee dogs, eh?
0:23:48 > 0:23:49Simple.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51Uncomplicated.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57What's really great about Hamish Macbeth is the way
0:23:57 > 0:24:01it has its cake and eats it. It's perfectly subverted Sunday night TV.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04So you get beautiful countryside,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06quirky locals...
0:24:08 > 0:24:11..and ceilidh dancing, if you like that kind of thing.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15But it's self-aware and so is its hero.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21I remember reading this script late at night and bursting out laughing
0:24:21 > 0:24:23because it was so crazy and such surreal humour
0:24:23 > 0:24:27and was such a leftfield take on what Sunday night TV drama should be.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31I just thought "I can see this, I can make this," and it made me laugh.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Did you know that an adult blue whale
0:24:34 > 0:24:36has seven-litre testicles?
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Well, I must confess to being ignorant of that fact up till now.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43And its penis is nine foot long.
0:24:43 > 0:24:44Nobody we know.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Nine and half million people watched Hamish Macbeth,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49it was a huge hit for BBC Scotland.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53BAGPIPES SKIRL Something we covered on the course in Inverness.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Audiovisual ambience. Tourists love it.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00You know, some day we'll do something in this country
0:25:00 > 0:25:01because WE love it.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Looking After Jo Jo was filmed in 1998,
0:25:08 > 0:25:10the year after Hamish Macbeth ended.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13It shows the effect of the coming of heroin to Edinburgh.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15It's set in the '80s, it's a period piece.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19High unemployment, brutal economy, Tory government...
0:25:19 > 0:25:21wait a minute!
0:25:22 > 0:25:24MUSIC: "In The City" by The Jam
0:25:26 > 0:25:27Look how the title sequence
0:25:27 > 0:25:30neatly nails the period of the world it's set in.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38# In the city there's a thousand things I wanna say to you... #
0:25:38 > 0:25:39In Looking After Jo Jo,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42I think Frank Deasy wrote a really complex character.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46I think he wanted to show someone who was really human
0:25:46 > 0:25:47in that situation.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50He didn't want him to be an incredibly smart drug dealer
0:25:50 > 0:25:53who was ahead of the game, he didn't want him to be just a victim.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57It was a combination of those things. I think the thing with Jo Jo
0:25:57 > 0:25:59was that there was a strange innocence about him.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Jo Jo starts off dealing heroin and ends up using.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05This series rode in on the back of the buzz
0:26:05 > 0:26:07around the hit film Trainspotting.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10See if they get your words, when you pi them thegither,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14they've got your voice. They fit you up with a statement like that.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Telling you, they're choking to do me.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19But do they know it's you?
0:26:20 > 0:26:22Christy, what they know disnae matter.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25What matters is what they can prove and they cannae prove anything.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27So you sit blind and you say nothing.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30In spite of all his villainous characteristics,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33we can't help rooting for Jo Jo. Carlyle makes sure of that.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Dinnae talk like that in front of Christy, John Joe.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37Sorry, I forget.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40He's an East Coast Tony Soprano before Tony Soprano.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42- Hey!- How ye doin', woman?
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Hey!
0:26:45 > 0:26:47I phoned you, but your weren't there.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52This series shows the destruction of a community, a family and a man.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59Bobby Carlye also makes one of the scariest rabbits I've ever seen.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02SCREAMING
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Thugs Bunny!
0:27:08 > 0:27:11Begbie Bunny!
0:27:11 > 0:27:13Rampant Rabbit?
0:27:13 > 0:27:14No!
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Bobby Carlyle was, I think, almost, the only person
0:27:20 > 0:27:24who could play that character. The only person in Scotland at that time
0:27:24 > 0:27:28who had the charisma, the range of acting ability,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31who would go on that journey in the way that Frank had written it.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34The Broadcasting Standards Commission upheld a complaint
0:27:34 > 0:27:37that Looking After Jo Jo glamorised heroin use,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41which seems bizarre. Look how grim this is.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45You can come a wee bit closer if you like. I huvnae got any fangs.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48You look even skinnier.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54I'll end up like my da.
0:27:56 > 0:27:57Found deid somewhere.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Don't say that.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03Director John Mackenzie and writer Frank Deasy both died recently.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07Frank was only 50. They were major talents.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10John directed The Long Good Friday and Frank wrote Prime Suspect,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13but I'd think Looking After Jo Jo is up there in their greatest hits.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15If I've no got a villa in Spain by the time I'm 30,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18I'll dae business with ma partner in crime.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Great TV characters are invented by writers, nursed along by directors,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25and brought to life by extraordinary actors.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27Over the last 60 years in Scotland,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30we've been lucky enough to see a fair few of them.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34When everything comes together like this, it's sheer magic.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37# Bye-bye, love
0:28:37 > 0:28:40# Bye-bye, happiness
0:28:40 > 0:28:42# Hello, loneliness
0:28:42 > 0:28:44# I think I'm gonna to cry-y
0:28:44 > 0:28:47# Bye-bye, love
0:28:47 > 0:28:50# Bye-bye, sweet caress... #
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd