0:00:02 > 0:00:05We first got television in Scotland in 1952. 1952!
0:00:05 > 0:00:07That's the year the Queen became, well, the Queen.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10Prime Minister Winston Churchill scrapped identity cards.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14The first ever passenger jet flew across the Atlantic.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17And Al Martino topped the first-ever UK singles chart
0:00:17 > 0:00:22with Here In My Heart. # Heeeeere in my heeeeaaaart.... #
0:00:33 > 0:00:35Tonight, we're celebrating the arts.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38We've a long tradition of "doing a turn" here in Scotland -
0:00:38 > 0:00:40it's what the original ceilidhs were all about -
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and over the years we've produced more than our fair share
0:00:43 > 0:00:45of world-class artists, musicians and writers.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Forget investment bankers, this is a real fiddle!
0:00:49 > 0:00:51FIDDLE MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:58 > 0:01:02Arts programmes give us a close-up view of the creative process
0:01:02 > 0:01:05and a chance to peek inside the minds of our great artists.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08They also give programme makers the chance to be, well...
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Arty.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Arty.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Arty.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16This was made in 1966, as the BBC was walking a line
0:01:16 > 0:01:19between tradition and modernity.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22And the Corries were walking wherever they damn well pleased.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25THEY SING: "The Braes O' Killiecrankie"
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Come on, guys. I know you wrote Flower Of Scotland,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33but surely that doesn't give you the right to break the Highway Code.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51What is this? Some kind of crazy three-wishes routine?
0:01:51 > 0:01:52Yep, looks like it.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54SHE SINGS
0:01:57 > 0:02:02Early art shows like this gave directors a chance to have some fun.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07The man calling the shots here was producer/director W Gordon Smith.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Blimey. I wonder how they sneaked this one past Mary Whitehouse.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Smith was a respected playwright and author and he appears to have
0:02:17 > 0:02:20had a knack for getting people to do the strangest things.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22I started off in a body stocking
0:02:22 > 0:02:26but Gordon said that...
0:02:26 > 0:02:29He said, "No, no." He leaned over
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and said, "No, I can see the straps of that, it's spoiling the shot,
0:02:33 > 0:02:38"get out of it," so I had to wriggle out of it.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40And you do feel a bit vulnerable
0:02:40 > 0:02:43in icy-cold water with no clothes on.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45SHE SINGS
0:02:50 > 0:02:53MANIACAL LAUGHTER
0:02:53 > 0:02:56This is Muriel Spark, author of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59interviewed by W Gordon Smith in her Rome apartment.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04I can't imagine her doing this on Parkinson!
0:03:04 > 0:03:08She's clearly much more relaxed here than she'd ever be in a studio.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11As long as you don't mess with her stationery.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13I haven't got a lot of eccentricities,
0:03:13 > 0:03:16but I am eccentric about my pens.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19I always use these black Biro pens.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22I get a new set for every book,
0:03:22 > 0:03:27and if by accident somebody picks up one of these pens
0:03:27 > 0:03:32to write a telephone number or write something and then puts it down again
0:03:32 > 0:03:35I notice that and throw that pen out of the window -
0:03:35 > 0:03:37I don't want to touch it for my book any more.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Nobody's allowed to touch the pens - I lock them up.
0:03:45 > 0:03:46One of the best-known faces
0:03:46 > 0:03:49from the early days of TV was Mary Marquis.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52Before going on to become the Scottish Angela Rippon
0:03:52 > 0:03:56on Reporting Scotland, Mary built a reputation as an unflappable
0:03:56 > 0:04:00and intelligent interviewer on her own show, First Person Singular.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02I kinda like her.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Gordon Jackson, I know that the very first film you ever made
0:04:07 > 0:04:10was The Foreman Went To France, and that was exactly 30 years ago.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14I was an apprentice in an aircraft factory in the drawing office
0:04:14 > 0:04:16and I got this part in the film and it was about a boy
0:04:16 > 0:04:18who was in the army who had been an apprentice.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21I remember years later, after I'd given up drawing offices
0:04:21 > 0:04:24and everything and was concentrating on acting, Meg Buchanan,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26dear late Meg Buchanan, a wonderful actress,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29she said to me, "Are you still keeping up your engineering?"
0:04:29 > 0:04:32This was 20 years later. And I said, "No, I'm an actor full time now,"
0:04:32 > 0:04:34and she said "Oh, pity, pity."
0:04:34 > 0:04:36He was a most delightful man
0:04:36 > 0:04:41and he thought a great deal about acting and actors.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46And it wasn't all facile stuff, he really thought about it.
0:04:46 > 0:04:52And he was totally without pretension or side or anything -
0:04:52 > 0:04:56he was just genuinely a charming man.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Naomi Mitchison is a very remarkable woman.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06She's a farmer in Carradale in Argyll, and in her 76 years
0:05:06 > 0:05:09she has also produced more than 70 books.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11The mother of a large and brilliant family,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16and the adoptive mother of the 30,000 members of an African tribe.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19You've certainly had one of the fullest lives
0:05:19 > 0:05:22that any man or woman could hope to have,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26but has there ever there been a turning or a situation
0:05:26 > 0:05:30which you didn't take or didn't react to and wish you had?
0:05:31 > 0:05:35Och, well, at times I think of people
0:05:35 > 0:05:39I might have slept with and I didn't. THEY LAUGH
0:05:39 > 0:05:44It was so much like Naomi to be completely forthright
0:05:44 > 0:05:46and just come out and say it.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49There must be a number of people
0:05:49 > 0:05:53who feel that as they approach their old age,
0:05:53 > 0:05:59and she was just expressing it for a lot of people, I think.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Interview shows are still as popular as ever,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04but over the years programme makers have been keen to try
0:06:04 > 0:06:07more imaginative and playful ways of portraying their subjects.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10In my eye I have no apple.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15Every object enters in there with hands in pockets.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21I welcome them all just as they are -
0:06:22 > 0:06:25everyone equal, none a stranger.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29It's hard to imagine, say, one of our politicians
0:06:29 > 0:06:30allowing themselves to be filmed
0:06:30 > 0:06:33in such microscopic and unflinching a fashion as Norman MacCaig,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36although I'd be surprised if one or two of them wouldn't like to
0:06:36 > 0:06:39take a leaf out of Alasdair Gray's book and interview themselves.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Mr Gray.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44I have heard people call you a piss artist,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46one who by hard drinking
0:06:46 > 0:06:52converts the profits of his artistry into piss.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54That's partly true.
0:06:54 > 0:06:55But my use and abuse of alcohol
0:06:55 > 0:06:59has not yet stopped me working hard and well.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02That may be an alcoholic delusion.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Posterity will judge!
0:07:13 > 0:07:16In 1988, the BBC let John Byrne go one better than Alasdair Gray
0:07:16 > 0:07:21by giving him free rein to tell his own life story.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Left to his own devices, Byrne came up with a mindboggling collage
0:07:24 > 0:07:27of visual styles and shifting realities.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32Hey, it was the '80s, everything was up for grabs.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35As portraits go, this was more Cubist than Old Master.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41He had created these characters in his plays and in his paintings
0:07:41 > 0:07:44and so on, and he had created
0:07:44 > 0:07:47those characters as a kind of...
0:07:47 > 0:07:48not extension of himself,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51but as a way of exploring different sides of himself.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55And so in this documentary he was going to get them to tell him,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57to help him discover himself.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Sort of reverse the process.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02So what he does is goes through the film
0:08:02 > 0:08:05and encounters the characters he has created.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08And there is this incredible dialogue going on.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11My name's McCann, Phil McCann. I'm a fictional character
0:08:11 > 0:08:13inhabiting a world of artifice and illusion -
0:08:13 > 0:08:15it's over there, ya dummy -
0:08:15 > 0:08:17besides which, I don't even look like this guy.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19What guy?
0:08:19 > 0:08:21The guy that dreamed us lot up.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Not even in 1957 did I look like this jerk.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29I regard it as that rare thing - a programme about the arts,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33or an artist, that is actually a work of art in itself.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36I think it's just...mind-blowing.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Stop moving your lips.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45# I thought of you and thought of you
0:08:45 > 0:08:48# Until the morning light... #
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Almost ready.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53It's funny how as you get older
0:08:53 > 0:08:55you hanker after the things you enjoyed as a child.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01One of the great things about being an artist, of course,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03is it gives you a licence to make mischief,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05no matter what age you are.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08George Wyllie, one of Scotland's great contemporary artists,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11didn't really hit his stride until he was in his 60s.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Wyllie had a playful approach to his work, but his message was serious.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22Where I live, I can observe and try to comment
0:09:22 > 0:09:24on what we are allowing to happen
0:09:24 > 0:09:27to one of the most beautiful estuaries in the world,
0:09:27 > 0:09:28the River Clyde.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32One of Wyllie's most famous sculptures is The Paper Boat,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35and, as these pictures show, it was a real crowd pleaser.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Wyllie wanted his work to appeal to as many people as possible,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41and he made the Paper Boat to draw attention
0:09:41 > 0:09:43to the decline of shipbuilding on the Clyde.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47George was a multi-talented artist.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51For instance, he wrote this fantastic early attack on monetarism
0:09:51 > 0:09:54and the banks, called A Day Down A Goldmine.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58In this film, The Why?sman, we managed to get Bill Paterson
0:09:58 > 0:10:00and we re-staged parts of it in very strange places
0:10:00 > 0:10:03like the workshop where he made these things.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Murray Grigor worked in close collaboration with Wyllie to produce
0:10:06 > 0:10:09a programme that brilliantly combines art and television.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12This is the golden attitude of mind
0:10:12 > 0:10:16that this trip is designed to encourage.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19I'm giving you the earliest possible warning that this mine
0:10:19 > 0:10:22is rich only in visual falsehoods.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25George for me is a psychotic surrealist,
0:10:25 > 0:10:26very west of Scotland, I think,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29because a lot of artists, a lot of comedians
0:10:29 > 0:10:33and a lot of traditions come from this idea of a kind of surrealism.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Chic Murray had it in spades, Billy Connolly certainly had it.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38It's a great tradition of Clyde humour
0:10:38 > 0:10:42which goes way back to the early days of music hall, even.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Never mind Connolly and Murray - this is the kind of madcap carry-on
0:10:50 > 0:10:53that Dali and Bunuel would have been proud of.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55I just can't understand why he's not taken more seriously -
0:10:55 > 0:10:58he deals with a wide spectrum of things.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Anyway, I think psychotic surrealism really pins him down.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09This living room belongs to the poet Hugh MacDiarmid.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12It's being filmed by the artist/filmmaker Margaret Tait.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Tait described this style of close-up filming as mantelpiecing,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18and she believed that experimental films such as this
0:11:18 > 0:11:21were the modern answer to the oil paintings of the past.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30I'm just using the camera in a way as a sort as extension of myself.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34I'm not really a cameraman, or camerawoman.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37I couldn't do camerawork for anybody else.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40I can only do my own camerawork, really.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45Margaret made films utterly for herself, in a way.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49She wasn't interested in scenery, which was going out
0:11:49 > 0:11:52and taking beautiful shots of sunrises and...
0:11:52 > 0:11:56you know, heather on the moors and so on.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00She was interested in landscape, which for her could be anything -
0:12:00 > 0:12:03a real interior landscape or it could be
0:12:03 > 0:12:07the light falling on a flower in her garden.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10So of course we went out and filmed her
0:12:10 > 0:12:12running around the beautiful landscape of Orkney
0:12:12 > 0:12:14in her little van, totally ignoring it,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18with a camera on the seat beside her!
0:12:18 > 0:12:20WOMAN SINGS
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Although she was filming in the real world,
0:12:25 > 0:12:27Tait wasn't making documentaries.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32Like many great artists, she found poetry in the everyday.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Art isn't made in a vacuum.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43When it's at its best, it tells us something about the world around us,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45and it isn't always a pretty place.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47The artist Peter Howson made his name
0:12:47 > 0:12:50painting dark and violent images of Glasgow's hardmen.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Then in 1993, he went to Bosnia
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and discovered they weren't that hard after all.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Art doesn't get any more challenging than this.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Nothing can prepare you for Bosnia.
0:13:05 > 0:13:06There's nothing like it.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24What people see on the television is basically just a snippet.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28What you don't see is the continuing nightmare.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35I've got to be ultrasensitive, I suppose, to what's going on here,
0:13:35 > 0:13:41and notice everything and keep it inside my head for a few weeks
0:13:41 > 0:13:44until I can do the work.
0:13:44 > 0:13:52And, um...if I let it out through... the way other people do it,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56by, like, humour or bravado,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59then I wouldn't be able to produce the paintings.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11The sketches Howson made in Bosnia don't make for easy viewing.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14They're the work of a creative mind at the end of its tether.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21I think they might have got his job description wrong.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23They should have called him an anti-war artist.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31In 1994, Billy Connolly presented The Bigger Picture,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34a six-part series about the history of art in Scotland.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36One of the things that made this series so engaging
0:14:36 > 0:14:39was the way it brought the art of the past to life
0:14:39 > 0:14:41by telling the stories surrounding it.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45These are the Falls of Clyde.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47It's not the picture you usually get when you think of the Clyde,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49but Glasgow's a few miles downstream.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51We're at the source of the river here.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54In the late 18th century,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58when the Industrial Revolution was just starting to bite in Glasgow,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02this place became Scotland's first big tourist destination.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06People arrived here in droves to gaze upon the wonders of nature.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11And, of course, the painters weren't far behind them.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22'It came right out of the blue, The Bigger Picture.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27'Douglas Rae got in touch with me. He was the guy who produced it.'
0:15:27 > 0:15:29And I think it was, as far as I can see,
0:15:29 > 0:15:34his basic idea to take the history of Scottish art
0:15:34 > 0:15:37and give it to somebody like me
0:15:37 > 0:15:40instead of someone in a velvet jacket.
0:15:40 > 0:15:46You know, people are so used to that velvet jacket, limp-wristed,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50armful of brochures, "Come this way,"
0:15:50 > 0:15:55and flitting over things you would like them to linger on, you know.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58And leave it in the hands of me,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01who was just as naive as the audience most of the time.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Believe it not, this windswept and interesting,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12svelte and interesting character standing before you
0:16:12 > 0:16:14used to look like this.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16And it was voluntary!
0:16:16 > 0:16:18And when I wore these
0:16:18 > 0:16:21I had little idea that one day they would end up in a museum.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26But had I the choice, this is the museum I would have chosen.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28This is the People's Palace.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31In the middle of Glasgow Green, in the heart of Glasgow,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34on the banks of the beautiful River Clyde.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37When we were children, we were brought here on a Sunday
0:16:37 > 0:16:39to gaze upon Glasgow's illustrious history.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43But in recent times there's been another great reason to come here.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46The city of Glasgow commissioned one of the Glasgow Boys,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Ken Currie, to produce a series of murals
0:16:48 > 0:16:50depicting Glasgow's socialist history.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Glasgow's always been one of the most left-wing cities in Britain.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58As a matter of fact, in the 1920s,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00the government sent the troops up here
0:17:00 > 0:17:04just in case the Communists won the political battle.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08The Riot Act was read on the steps of the City Chambers,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11and the red flag was raised.
0:17:11 > 0:17:12The revolution and the West
0:17:12 > 0:17:15came a great deal closer than you might imagine.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Ken Currie and Peter Howson were part of a group of artists
0:17:23 > 0:17:27known as the New Glasgow Boys, who kick-started the cultural renaissance
0:17:27 > 0:17:31that led to Glasgow becoming the 1990 European City of Culture.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42This studio belongs to another of the Glasgow Boys, Steven Campbell.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44I'm not sure about the feng shui in here.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48But at the time this film was made, Campbell was living and working
0:17:48 > 0:17:50in New York, where he was the toast of the art world.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52He was incredibly focused on his work,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55and had more or less locked himself away in his studio.
0:17:55 > 0:17:56But he allowed the cameras in
0:17:56 > 0:17:59for a rare glimpse into his creative process.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08Yeah, yeah, I usually just rough it in like this.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12And I have an idea of where the pose is going, where it's moving.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Usually I start with the highlights.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20The eyes, just the sockets and the bones and things.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Usually I use bones the exact same as mine, which is kind of high,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27high bones over the eyes and big bones on the cheeks.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29If he turns out quite well
0:18:29 > 0:18:32then he'll make his own little story, more or less.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36It's rare for an artist to be this open about their work on camera,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38but all is not as it seems.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Don't go looking for this painting in a gallery. You'll never find it.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43The thing was, he did paint this picture
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and it looked pretty good to us, and finished,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49and then it appeared in the gallery
0:18:49 > 0:18:52and it was a completely different picture.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57This, believe it not, as the painting we've just seen
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Campbell working on. Who says the camera never lies?
0:19:00 > 0:19:03When I was painting in the studio when the cameras were there,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06it was like a piece of showing off or something.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09You learn a lot of tricks, and it's quite easy to do the tricks
0:19:09 > 0:19:11but because people are there
0:19:11 > 0:19:14you don't have the same privacy to get nervous.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16I became dissatisfied with the figures
0:19:16 > 0:19:18so I put the painting away and I did another one
0:19:18 > 0:19:21and when I took the painting back again it looked dreadful.
0:19:21 > 0:19:22I painted all that out
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and turned the head of one and the arm and head of another
0:19:26 > 0:19:29into part of an archway, which is in the painting,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31and I painted out all the wall and stuff.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34There is a little bit...
0:19:34 > 0:19:37In the first attempt at the painting,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40there's a little green bit in the middle, which is there,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43just above the eye, I think, of one of the guys, a tiny green bit.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46I think it's about this size. Which hasn't been touched.
0:19:46 > 0:19:52It's such a private process, the creative process,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55so to be able to take the camera in and just get a glimpse
0:19:55 > 0:19:56of how that works is extraordinary.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00But of course not all artists... Probably the majority
0:20:00 > 0:20:04would not want to expose themselves in that way, because even to them,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08I guess, a lot of the time what they are doing is a bit of a mystery.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Getting visual artists to open up about their work
0:20:12 > 0:20:15can sometimes be like getting blood from a stone.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17They like their work to do the talking.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Well, what have you got to say for yourself?
0:20:20 > 0:20:22My thoughts exactly.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26However, there's one branch of the arts in which self-promotion
0:20:26 > 0:20:27has never been much of a problem.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30I'm talking, of course, about the movies.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34- Do you have anything you want to make, a story?- Yeah.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36- Something that's driving you crazy? - Yeah.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38- Write the script, that's number one. - We've got the script.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41This is the screenplay Shallow Grave.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44It's a film about love, trust, and friendship.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50It's also about sex, violence, evil, greed, anger, betrayal,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54duplicity, death, dismemberment and disposal.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Last year my brother Andrew and I took our script
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Shallow Grave to the Edinburgh Film Festival
0:20:59 > 0:21:02hoping to attract moneymen and stars.
0:21:02 > 0:21:0512 months later, low-budget finance was in place
0:21:05 > 0:21:08from Channel 4 and the City of Glasgow.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11But, in true Hollywood fashion, I was jettisoned from the project
0:21:11 > 0:21:14just a few weeks prior to shooting.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Instead of suing the hell out of him, I decided to exact my revenge
0:21:17 > 0:21:19by filming him as he produced
0:21:19 > 0:21:24his first feature film, to catch him in the act of digging his own grave.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Just imagine it! Bumped off your labour of love
0:21:29 > 0:21:32to be replaced by some two-bit TV director.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35Who just turns out to be Danny Boyle.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Kevin MacDonald used his close relationship with his brother
0:21:46 > 0:21:49to shoot some remarkably candid stuff.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54It's almost like he's making a home movie on a movie set.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56What are you worried might happen to the fight scene?
0:21:56 > 0:21:59I'm worried that we might not have planned it out sufficiently
0:21:59 > 0:22:02to be able to do it in the time we've got.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06And it made end up being, you know, too arty.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08DOOR OPENS
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I want it to be completely real.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13It's got to be really, really horrible.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15It's not an art movie.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17It certainly is not an art movie.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Even though some of it might look suspiciously like one.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23So you need to enjoy the fact that you're killing them,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27and it's at that moment, as you get there,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29you're on the knife
0:22:29 > 0:22:32then we cut back to Ewan's face, then we cut back to you,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and she rushes in and goes "whack".
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Shallow Grave went on to become a massive hit both here
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and in the States, and don't worry about poor wee Kevin.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44He's gone on to win an Oscar for his documentary One Day In September.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46Moviemakers aren't the only ones
0:22:46 > 0:22:50with dreams of making it big in the States. Ever since the Beatles,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53musicians have been obsessed with cracking the American market.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56In 1990, Scotland's most reclusive band, the Blue Nile,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00emerged from hiding to embark on their first-ever tour.
0:23:00 > 0:23:01Nine years after they formed.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04The words "light" and "bushel" spring to mind.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14# The rivers in the distance
0:23:14 > 0:23:18# Must be leading somewhere
0:23:18 > 0:23:20- # Heatwave- Heatwave
0:23:22 > 0:23:23- # Heatwave- Heatwave
0:23:25 > 0:23:28# Why is it rolling down? #
0:23:28 > 0:23:30At the time the song was written,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34the band were living in a damp Glasgow tenement with no hot water.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Yet, as this film shows, the songs they created
0:23:36 > 0:23:39were just as at home on the streets of New York.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42- # Heatwave- Heatwave
0:23:44 > 0:23:48# Are we rich or poor
0:23:48 > 0:23:49# Does it matter... #
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Flags And Fences, the Blue Nile documentary,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55I think was one of those programmes that goes beyond being
0:23:55 > 0:23:58a mere documentary about a band and their first tour -
0:23:58 > 0:24:00it becomes almost a piece of televisual art,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02if that doesn't sound too pretentious.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07American music fans took to the Blue Nile like mustard to a hot dog.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10But how would they react to a big daud of broon sauce?
0:24:10 > 0:24:11Very well, as it turns out.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16In spring 1993 The Proclaimers' song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
0:24:16 > 0:24:18climbed to number 3 in the US Charts
0:24:18 > 0:24:22after featuring in the Johnny Depp film Benny and Joon.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25When the Reid brothers went over to the US on a follow-up tour,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28it wasn't exactly Beatlemania, but they did create quite a stir,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30even if no-one had a clue what they were talking about.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32What the hell is haver?
0:24:32 > 0:24:36# I'm gonna be the man who's haverin' to you... #
0:24:36 > 0:24:38It's havering.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Can we get a spelling on that?
0:24:40 > 0:24:42- H-A...- H-E...
0:24:42 > 0:24:44- A.- H-E-E?
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Can we get a translation on the letters, please?
0:24:47 > 0:24:49Everybody in Cleveland wants to know -
0:24:49 > 0:24:51what does it mean when you haver?
0:24:51 > 0:24:53It just means to talk rubbish.
0:24:53 > 0:24:54Talk rubbish?
0:24:54 > 0:24:57There's always been that Scottish love affair
0:24:57 > 0:25:02with all things American, and here it was reciprocated.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04America loved and continues to love the Proclaimers.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Their music has been featured on countless soundtracks,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09they still sell a lot of records over there.
0:25:09 > 0:25:10There's just something about them.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13It's a huge country, as people know.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15A lot of bands just don't do it
0:25:15 > 0:25:19because you don't spend enough time there. It was funny going back in '93
0:25:19 > 0:25:22because then it was a situation where we were getting national prominence
0:25:22 > 0:25:26because of the single, and basically you didn't have to do anything.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28We just sort of turned up and people were there.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31The Proclaimers were used to their songs being hijacked by sports fans,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33but, America being America,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37even A-list celebrities were keen to get in on the act.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39The twin on the left is Mike Myers.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41- # Michael Jordan- Michael Jordan
0:25:41 > 0:25:43- # Michael Jordan- Michael Jordan
0:25:43 > 0:25:46# Michael hey, Michael ho Michael Jordan... #
0:25:46 > 0:25:48Of course, it's not all been one-way traffic.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51At the same time as we've been striking out into the world
0:25:51 > 0:25:53the world has been coming to us.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58I feel very much like the domesticated dog
0:25:58 > 0:26:01who yearns for the prairie,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05and every so often takes a sniff of that wilder air
0:26:05 > 0:26:07to refresh himself and
0:26:07 > 0:26:12to give him the strength and courage to renew himself.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15One of the best things about traditional music
0:26:15 > 0:26:18is the way it connects us with the past.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22This is Yehudi Menuhin, the world's greatest classical violinist,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24arriving in Blair Atholl for a bit of rough.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Sorry, "to reconnect with the violin's folk roots".
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Here at Blair Castle he would learn something of the authentic style
0:26:31 > 0:26:33of the folk fiddlers of Scotland,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36and his first lesson would be from an Aberdeenshire gardener,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40perhaps the greatest living exponent in Scotland, Hector MacAndrew.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50That's more like it. Put an emphasis on your B.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00MacAndrew was extremely nervous about dealing with Menuhin,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03but Menuhin immediately put him at ease,
0:27:03 > 0:27:11and the wonderful exchanges between the two were marvellous.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13Will we try it together?
0:27:13 > 0:27:15I wasn't born a Scot, but I do my best.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17Maybe one day.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20But you can do the Beethoven concerto, whereas I can't.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23You were born to do that.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25He just couldn't get the...
0:27:25 > 0:27:27IMITATES VIOLIN
0:27:27 > 0:27:30..the one down, three up, couldn't manage it,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33cos that's not the way that classical players play.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35But he had a good go at it.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46It's not too bad, you're coming quite near it, you know,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48quite near it!
0:27:48 > 0:27:50To end, we're going right back to basics.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55In 1980, legendary folk musicians Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
0:27:55 > 0:27:57travelled to Blairgowrie
0:27:57 > 0:28:00to document the songs and stories of its travelling people.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Scottish culture doesn't get any more authentic
0:28:02 > 0:28:04or closer to its roots than this.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07# When berry time comes round each year
0:28:07 > 0:28:10# Blair's population swellin'
0:28:10 > 0:28:13# There's every kind o' picker there
0:28:13 > 0:28:15# And every kind o' dwellin'
0:28:15 > 0:28:18# There's tents and huts and caravans
0:28:18 > 0:28:20# There's bothies and there's bivvies
0:28:20 > 0:28:23# And shelters made wi' tattie bags
0:28:23 > 0:28:27- # And dugouts made wi' divvies... # - 39!
0:28:27 > 0:28:31# ..Noo there's families pickin' for one purse
0:28:31 > 0:28:33# And some wha pick alane
0:28:33 > 0:28:36# And men who share and share alike
0:28:36 > 0:28:39# Wi' wives that's no' their ain
0:28:39 > 0:28:43# There's gladness and there's sadness tae
0:28:43 > 0:28:46# There's happy hearts and sare
0:28:46 > 0:28:49# There's comedy and tragedy
0:28:49 > 0:28:52# Played on the fields o' Blair
0:28:52 > 0:28:55# Noo there's some who earn... #
0:28:55 > 0:28:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd