0:00:00 > 0:00:04We first got television in Scotland in 1952.
0:00:04 > 0:00:071952 - that's the year the Queen became, well,
0:00:07 > 0:00:09the Queen, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
0:00:09 > 0:00:13scrapped identity cards, the first ever passenger jet flew across
0:00:13 > 0:00:17the Atlantic and a pound of haggis would only cost you four pence.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Now that's what I call a happy meal.
0:00:30 > 0:00:36# The rank is but the guinea's stamp
0:00:36 > 0:00:42# The man's the gowd for a' that. #
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Once a year, every year, throughout Scotland,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49we raise a glass to the work and legacy of one man.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Need I say his name?
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Put it this way - there isn't a Shakespeare night down south.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Robert Burns created a wealth of culture
0:00:58 > 0:01:02and posed a daunting challenge for TV makers who, every year,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05are forced to come up with a fresh way to celebrate his immortal memory.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Tonight, we look at the best of, the most eccentric,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13the most groundbreaking, the downright sonsiest of Robert Burns television.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17When we hear the words Burns and television,
0:01:17 > 0:01:18one great name springs to mind...
0:01:18 > 0:01:23I've taken a whim to give you a history of myself.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24..John Cairney.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27He was the first actor to play Burns on television in There Was A Man,
0:01:27 > 0:01:33back in 1966 and since then, he made a life out of playing Rabbie.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35I decided to publish my poems.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Proposals of publishing my subscription poems
0:01:38 > 0:01:40cheaply in the Scottish dialect by Robert Burns.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44The work to be elegantly printed in one volume, octavo,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46priced - it's three shillings.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49'I really was hired, first of all, to play Burns'
0:01:49 > 0:01:53because I supposedly looked like Burns or people's idea
0:01:53 > 0:01:55of what Burns looked like.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02'There Was A Man originally started out as a one-man theatre show.'
0:02:02 > 0:02:07I rehearsed for a month, played it for a week, it was extended for a further week...
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Within a month, it had sold out.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14And it was extended for another 40 years.
0:02:14 > 0:02:1640 years!
0:02:16 > 0:02:21And so, out of the noise and nonsense of the city,
0:02:21 > 0:02:23I look my future in the face.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26'And I was on a quest after Burns that took me'
0:02:26 > 0:02:30to every country in the world, except Chile.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I didn't want to go to Jamaica, I wanted to live,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35I wanted to live in Scotland...
0:02:35 > 0:02:38'It absolutely ruined my career.'
0:02:38 > 0:02:43It gave me ulcers, it gave me a week,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46years in hospital.
0:02:46 > 0:02:52But it gave me an identity with the Scottish people that I've never been able to throw off.
0:02:52 > 0:03:01Ae fond kiss, and then we sever Ae farewell, and then forever!
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17Television never misses a chance to debate the love life of the Bard.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21This programme from 1979 sees singers, Jean Redpath
0:03:21 > 0:03:24and Kenneth McKellar, getting into a bit of a stooshie
0:03:24 > 0:03:26about Rabbie's rabid sexual shenanigans.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Watch how it's Jean that ends up
0:03:29 > 0:03:32sticking up for the infamous womaniser.
0:03:32 > 0:03:33I'm surprised to see you
0:03:33 > 0:03:37so ready to overlook his treatment of your own sex.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41I mean, here's Burns in bed with one woman, Jean Armour,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45and at the same time, he is writing to another woman in Edinburgh,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Mrs Maclehose, and he's telling her that Jean Armour disgusts him.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53And at the same time, Jean is lying in bed expecting a second set
0:03:53 > 0:03:56of illegitimate children fathered, of course, by Burns.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Illegitimate children weren't all that unusual in Burns' day,
0:04:00 > 0:04:05but instead of denying his, he welcomed them. In fact...
0:04:05 > 0:04:08According to Jean, Burns was more the romantic than the rogue.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11He took John Anderson, My Jo a classic dirty, old song
0:04:11 > 0:04:15about erectile dysfunction and changed its meaning.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19And turned it into, what must be, one of the loveliest hymns
0:04:19 > 0:04:21to lifelong marriage ever penned...
0:04:22 > 0:04:25..and he gave it to a woman to sing.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29# Now we maun totter doon, John
0:04:29 > 0:04:32# And hand in hand we'll go
0:04:32 > 0:04:38# And we'll sleep thegither at the foot
0:04:38 > 0:04:43# John Anderson, my Jo. #
0:04:45 > 0:04:46Beautiful.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50But you have to ask yourself why so many of Burns' defenders are women?
0:04:50 > 0:04:52Could it be that the lasses love a scoundrel?
0:05:01 > 0:05:05'Then again, maybe it's all just good, clean, flirty fun.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07'TV simply can't resist a Burns singsong,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11'often with our best loved performers in curious costumes.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16'Here's Moira Anderson getting a little rustic with some ale.'
0:05:16 > 0:05:19# My gallant, braw John Highlandman
0:05:19 > 0:05:22# Sing hey my braw John Highlandman!
0:05:22 > 0:05:24# Sing ho my braw John Highlandman!
0:05:24 > 0:05:28# Well there's no' a lad in a' the lan'
0:05:28 > 0:05:31# Was match for my John Highlandman... #
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Singing and drinking at the same time, now there's a neat trick.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37# They banish'd him beyond the sea. #
0:05:37 > 0:05:40One of the most unexpected and powerful television tributes
0:05:40 > 0:05:44to Burns came, again, from a woman - the African-American poet,
0:05:44 > 0:05:45Maya Angelou.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47Here she is arriving in Scotland for the first time to meet
0:05:47 > 0:05:49members of the Burns Society.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52They've put on a special show for her to celebrate her lifelong
0:05:52 > 0:05:53love of the Bard.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57This bold programme charted Angelou's personal history
0:05:57 > 0:06:02from being a young girl, turned mute by violent abuse,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05to her discovery of poetry through Burns.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07The thing that really resonated with her
0:06:07 > 0:06:11was Dick Gaughan's singing of Sic A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation.
0:06:11 > 0:06:19# We're bought and sold for English gold
0:06:19 > 0:06:27# Sic a parcel of rogues in a nation! #
0:06:30 > 0:06:33APPLAUSE
0:06:35 > 0:06:37That's it!
0:06:37 > 0:06:40That's it.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42That is exactly it.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46That's what I mean - that human beings are more alike
0:06:46 > 0:06:48than we are unalike.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51There are the sellers and there are the sold.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55'For Angelou, Burns' poems about slavery
0:06:55 > 0:06:57'and inequality resonated deeply.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03'She responded by reading one of her own poems about a maid.'
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Seventy years in these folk's world
0:07:07 > 0:07:11The child I works for calls me girl
0:07:12 > 0:07:15And I say, "Yes, ma'am!"
0:07:15 > 0:07:19'You can see her struggling to contain her emotion in this powerful reading.'
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Ha-ha-ha, I laugh
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Until I start to crying
0:07:25 > 0:07:27When I think about myself
0:07:27 > 0:07:29And my folks
0:07:29 > 0:07:31And the little children
0:07:31 > 0:07:34But then
0:07:34 > 0:07:35We wear the mask.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39APPLAUSE
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Television cameras through the years
0:07:45 > 0:07:49have shown adoration of the Bard cropping up in the strangest places.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53How about Russia, where he was seen as the People's Poet?
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Khrushchev made it standard practice to teach Burns in schools.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59A tradition that continued, even after the collapse of Communism,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03as this news story from 1996 shows.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06'Burns is a fixture in the Russian curriculum
0:08:06 > 0:08:11'and here in school number 1,634, they even have a Burns club.'
0:08:11 > 0:08:14My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing a deer;
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26The Soviets even sealed their approval of Burns
0:08:26 > 0:08:29with a commemorative stamp in 1956.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33So, for a' that, not only do we have Bad Boy Burns, the seducer,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36but Red Radical Burns, the global revolutionary.
0:08:38 > 0:08:39It's not just Burns' poems
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and politics that have spread around the world, but his songs.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46This programme from 1996 dug out some very interesting
0:08:46 > 0:08:48and alternative versions of Auld Lang Syne.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Burns, you see, was all about the brotherhood of man,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53and not the Eurovision variety.
0:08:56 > 0:08:57Hmm, and just off-camera,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00the TV crew are bashing those balloons back into shot.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09These striking steelworkers in 1980 are giving it laldy.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11- # For auld lang syne... # - Take that, Maggie!
0:09:11 > 0:09:13# For auld lang syne... #
0:09:13 > 0:09:16After all, Auld Lang Syne is part of socialist history
0:09:16 > 0:09:19and was sung at every Labour Party Conference.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Well, at least until Tony Blair decided it was, too Old Labour.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25# For auld lang syne... #
0:09:25 > 0:09:27It took the turn of the millennium
0:09:27 > 0:09:30and the Queen to get Tony singing it again, even if
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Her Majesty did not quite grasp the crossing of arms bit.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Tony's missus, however, well, she knows how to party.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39# For auld lang syne, my dear... #
0:09:39 > 0:09:43And here an actor and his wife struggle to remember their lines.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Of course, not everyone on telly has treated the Bard with such reverence.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Burns has come in for some pretty sharp mockery,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57usually from our fine folks down south.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Some of these dissenters aren't even people, but hand puppets.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02BA-DOING!
0:10:05 > 0:10:10- What is it?- It's a haggis, a traditional Scottish dish.- Yeah?
0:10:10 > 0:10:14- And once a year, all true Scots have a Burns supper. - Only once a year?
0:10:14 > 0:10:17They're lucky, every time you do the cooking, we have a burnt supper.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20- LAUGHTER - I said Burns Supper.- Oh, yeah?
0:10:20 > 0:10:23In honour of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns.
0:10:23 > 0:10:24Burns night is a great occasion.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28They recite Robert Burns' poetry and they sing old Scottish songs
0:10:28 > 0:10:30and there's nothing so stirring as seeing
0:10:30 > 0:10:35somebody like Kenneth McKellar sing Comin' Thro' The Rye
0:10:35 > 0:10:37- in a kilt.- Coming through the rye in a kilt?
0:10:37 > 0:10:39Cor, I bet that's a ticklish business.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42LAUGHTER Boom-boom!
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Then there are those with no previous experience of Burns nights
0:10:45 > 0:10:47who are willing to brave the exotic.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52That taste of our national dish was too much, even for the live cameras.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55In this epic, big-budget Burns supper from the '80s,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57the TV legend, Russell Harty, means well,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00but just can't stop putting his muckle foot in it.
0:11:00 > 0:11:01He's got part of the sheep under his arm,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04so sheep are very necessary to this country, are they not?
0:11:04 > 0:11:06They provide the food and the noise.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Thank you very much for providing food and noise and thank you.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12He's like some foreign dignitary visiting the provinces
0:11:12 > 0:11:14who can't wait to get the next train home.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17From Scotland and from Culzean, bye-bye to you all and auld lang syne.
0:11:17 > 0:11:18Bye-bye.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21It's funny though, how in the history of Burns TV,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24dissenters have always tried to poke fun at the Bard
0:11:24 > 0:11:27by reducing him to a very particular foodstuff.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31I mean, you write one awful poem and...
0:11:31 > 0:11:35Sorry, that should be one brilliant poem about offal. Yeah.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Every Scotsman knows what's going on here.
0:11:41 > 0:11:42Scots everywhere,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46and in and around London alone there are about 120 Scottish societies,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49are waiting for the great night and, of course, the dish to celebrate it.
0:11:51 > 0:11:56'Anxiety over the Burns night haggis was fairly widespread in the otherwise progressive 1960s.'
0:11:58 > 0:12:01We're about to reveal the secrets of one of life's great mysteries.
0:12:03 > 0:12:04What is a haggis?
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Apart from the fact that it's a thrifty dish,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11what else is it about the haggis that appeals to Scotsmen?
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Well, I think that is very well answered in the immortal words
0:12:13 > 0:12:17of our famous Scottish bard, Robert Burns, when he says -
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!
0:12:21 > 0:12:23Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
0:12:23 > 0:12:24Painch, tripe and thairm:
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
0:12:26 > 0:12:27As lang as my arm.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Well, I didn't quite follow all of that,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32but is it essential to drink whisky with it?
0:12:32 > 0:12:36No, but I should think it wouldn't do any harm.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38What should you eat with haggis?
0:12:38 > 0:12:39Chappit tatties and neeps.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Chappit tatties and neeps?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Thank you very much, Mr Cooper.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52All this in memory of the birth of a national poet 202 years ago.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Some people may have sold Burns short as the haggis poet,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00but the branding of the Bard is a money-spinner for the tourist industry.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05Alloway, where Burns was born brings in over a quarter of a million tourists a year.
0:13:05 > 0:13:06Hey, hey. Get yersel to...
0:13:08 > 0:13:10This is the famed cottage, and this is the kaleyard.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Over the last 60 years, a lot of famous people have come to this spot.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Many of them were caught on camera. There have been world leaders.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22From the Soviet Union, here is one of the Politburo in 1966
0:13:22 > 0:13:24being shown a carving of the Brigadoon.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Here's Prince and Princess Masahito from Japan in 1965.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34President Eisenhower took time out from the Cold War to inspect
0:13:34 > 0:13:39the latest developments in 18th-century Scottish roofing.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41And who's this sonsie lass?
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Some of the people who visited the cottage were also Scottish.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Here are the controversial opinions of poet Edwin Muir
0:13:50 > 0:13:52in an arts programme from 1980.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56It was so unlike my expectation of a visit to Burns' cottage
0:13:56 > 0:13:59that I could hardly believe in it.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01It's difficult to see what makes it so ridiculous,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05for the whole business is excellently organised.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Behind the turnstile, I found a long, low,
0:14:07 > 0:14:13ugly, shed-like erection where one could have tea and buy mementos.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16In a setting of green fields, it would be as charming as many
0:14:16 > 0:14:19a little farmhouse in the remoter isles.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22In a suburban street, it is one of the most ludicrous
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and pathetic sights in Scotland.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30Contemporary writer, William McIlvanney, delivered Muir's final, destructive conclusion.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33His final judgement on this place was,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36"The best thing would be for the whole nation, reluctantly and reverently,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40"to pull the poet's birthplace down on a day of decent mourning."
0:14:42 > 0:14:44I think when he talked about Burns' cottage,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48he saw that as a kind of touristy pretence.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52And also, he wasn't a great lover of Burns, I think
0:14:52 > 0:14:54he misunderstood Burns almost totally.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57He said he was a sham bard of a sham nation,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59which I think is preposterous.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS
0:15:02 > 0:15:07But for those who love their Burns night with a huge dod of sugar,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10once a year there was the couthie, the dainty, the twirley and burley
0:15:10 > 0:15:15and thoroughly wholesome, White Heather Club Burns Night Special.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Andy Stewart presented with wit, style and impeccable timing.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27Cue the man himself, singing the drinking song,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Willie Brew'd A Peck O' Maut.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31# Wha first beside his chair shall fa'
0:15:31 > 0:15:34# He is the King amang us three... #
0:15:34 > 0:15:38Over ten million viewers tuned in to watch this live Burns night special.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42The series ran for 11 years and had 285 episodes.
0:15:42 > 0:15:50# And aye we'll taste the barley bree. #
0:15:50 > 0:15:52APPLAUSE
0:15:55 > 0:15:58After that, the BBC decided they'd have to find new ways
0:15:58 > 0:16:01to freshen up the Bard for modern audiences.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Over the years, there are those who've gone to extraordinary lengths
0:16:04 > 0:16:07to make it appeal to a new generation.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09This is an NB special from the '90s.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14Yeah, man, check this rappin' Rabbie! In the hoose!
0:16:17 > 0:16:20HE SCRATCHES DISC
0:16:20 > 0:16:24I remember, for example, we made one Burns special which was called,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Supper Man.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28It used some of the ingredients that we like to use which was
0:16:28 > 0:16:32to bring elements of traditional culture with modern.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34So, for example, we were there dressed in slightly, oh, dear,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38cringe, cringe, sort of punky style tartan and then we had another
0:16:38 > 0:16:41friend who was from Hong Kong who was one of the world's
0:16:41 > 0:16:47most talented bagpipers, Tony Ho, playing the pipes, but wearing a Glasgow-designed outfit,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50which I think had a map of Glasgow and the Finnieston Crane on it.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53So we were mixing up all of those elements.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55We weren't taking the mickey, no way were we doing that,
0:16:55 > 0:17:00but we were just trying to present it in a slightly, sort of, off-kilter way.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04I didn't mean to say kilt and kilter there, but you know what I mean.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Alongside the gratuitous violence and the punky tartans,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14the programme made some more innovations with actor Forbes Masson
0:17:14 > 0:17:19using the talents of a real mouse to help perform the famous poem.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22No animals were harmed in the filming of this section, by the way.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
0:17:26 > 0:17:28Gang aft agley,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33For promis'd joy!
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me...
0:17:36 > 0:17:39And here's another cute, wee indigenous creature
0:17:39 > 0:17:40reciting the same poem.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Wi' bickering brattle!
0:17:52 > 0:17:54I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Wi' murd'ring pattle!
0:17:57 > 0:18:00The Burns recital has also come in for the satirical treatment.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03In 2009, BBC Scotland broke with tradition
0:18:03 > 0:18:07and sent up the cliquey tendencies of Burns clubs with
0:18:07 > 0:18:11a mockumentary about a fictional Burns recital contest in No Holds Bard.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16- Burns night is the biggest night of the year, isn't it?- Oh, aye.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20And I mean, oh, hey now, look, I'm not knocking Christmas.
0:18:20 > 0:18:21That is very popular, obviously,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26and I'm not knocking Jesus, either, he was a good man, too.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29But Burns, well, he's known worldwide.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32People did say, "Ooh, you're tackling something that's
0:18:32 > 0:18:35"a really sensitive area, you'll need to be careful."
0:18:35 > 0:18:38We were never, ever, looking to try and take the piss,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40or anything, out of the work.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43But we do poke a little bit of fun at the Burns society
0:18:43 > 0:18:45that's featured in the show.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48- That most precious of prizes - the Cup O'Kindness.- Here we are.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Shh, will you let him get on wi' it?
0:18:51 > 0:18:54And, and, erm, and let us not forget the man whose...
0:18:54 > 0:18:55AUDIO FEEDBACK
0:18:55 > 0:19:00It doesn't take itself too seriously, there's a, sort of,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04ribald spirit in it and we take the poetry seriously.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08In fact, there's a moment in No Holds Bard where Tony Curran's character,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12Stevie, the sort of jailbird character who represents that
0:19:12 > 0:19:15sort of naughty, troubled side of Burns the man.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19He recites, at the competition, My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22and that moment has to have a lot of power, it's taken incredibly serious.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25We're not poking fun at all, it is a genuine moment.
0:19:25 > 0:19:26It's about the power of those words.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30And fare thee weel, my only love
0:19:30 > 0:19:32And fare thee weel, a while
0:19:33 > 0:19:36And I will come again, my love
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Though it were ten thousand mile.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43APPLAUSE
0:19:43 > 0:19:45SHE WHOOPS
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Tony Curran plays an inmate from Barlinnie who's been doing
0:19:50 > 0:19:54poetry therapy and makes his counsellor fall in love with him.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Thanks very much. I really need that piss.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01- Ach, you're all right. On your way. - Aye?- Aye, go on.- Cheers.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03He wins the prize, then makes a run for it
0:20:03 > 0:20:06leaving the honourable proceedings in chaos.
0:20:06 > 0:20:07CLAMOURING AND SHOUTING
0:20:09 > 0:20:11No!
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Would Burns have been insulted? I don't think so.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16He often sought to provoke controversy
0:20:16 > 0:20:20and had an irreverent sense of humour. Just look at Tam O'Shanter.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22In 1970, STV - on a very limited budget -
0:20:22 > 0:20:25created this imaginative interpretation,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29once again with the great John Cairney. Ooh!
0:20:29 > 0:20:31And, wow!
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Tam saw an unco sight.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Warlocks...
0:20:38 > 0:20:39and witches...
0:20:41 > 0:20:43..in a dance.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Look at the clever ways the director got round
0:20:45 > 0:20:48the problem of not actually having any witches.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50Instead, there's dancing shadows
0:20:50 > 0:20:52and actor Phil McCall's face says it all
0:20:52 > 0:20:56as Cairney's voice tells the tale in his inimitable style.
0:20:56 > 0:20:57..and fidg'd fu' fain
0:20:57 > 0:20:59And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main
0:20:59 > 0:21:01Till first ae caper, syne anither
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Tam tint his reason all thegither
0:21:03 > 0:21:04And roars oot:
0:21:04 > 0:21:07"Weel done, Cutty-sark!"
0:21:08 > 0:21:13And in an instant, all was dark.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16There's also wild, experimental camerawork.
0:21:16 > 0:21:17Even with no witches,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20this is terrifying stuff.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23As eager runs the market crowd
0:21:23 > 0:21:25When "catch the thief!" resounds aloud...
0:21:25 > 0:21:28The most devotional piece of Burns TV is undoubtedly
0:21:28 > 0:21:31an animation of Tam O'Shanter by another Tam, Tom Steel.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35An unemployed man who taught himself how to animate from scratch.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Take a frame, out like that.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42'I worked from morning to night at it every day.'
0:21:42 > 0:21:46I may be getting on in years but I can still produce something
0:21:46 > 0:21:49and I'll produce something nobody else has produced, either.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53I think it's been a lifesaver. He's a creative man.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58He had to have something to fill that gap.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02He had to have ideas, he had to have something to use his head.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04It's an incredible magnum opus
0:22:04 > 0:22:07with models and sets entirely of Tom's own homemaking.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09He developed techniques that were all his own
0:22:09 > 0:22:11taking "make do and mend" to a new level.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15This was the most complicated model I ever made of a horse.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18It was made out of a biscuit tin, actually.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20I went through about three or four dozen biscuit tins
0:22:20 > 0:22:24in the course of making these models.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27From beginning to end, the entire project saw Tom move house twice
0:22:27 > 0:22:31as he needed more space in his quest to perfect the animation.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34The entire film took 25 years to complete
0:22:34 > 0:22:35and here's a wee clip from it.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37The fient a tail she had to shake!
0:22:37 > 0:22:39For Nannie, far before the rest
0:22:39 > 0:22:41Hard upon noble Maggie prest
0:22:41 > 0:22:44And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle
0:22:44 > 0:22:47But little wist she Maggie's mettle
0:22:47 > 0:22:52Ae spring brought off her master hale
0:22:52 > 0:22:56But left behind her ain gray tail
0:22:56 > 0:22:59The carlin claught her by the rump
0:22:59 > 0:23:04And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09There's been devotional animations, songs, readings,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11satirical mockumentaries but perhaps,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13in all the television that there's been about Burns,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16the most moving thing of all is the simple sight of a child
0:23:16 > 0:23:19learning one of his poems for the first time.
0:23:19 > 0:23:25In 2003, Rabbie's Bairns charted the Burns Annual Recital Contest
0:23:25 > 0:23:30at Bridgeton, Glasgow with over 800 kids in competition. Ah, bless.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34What do you kids want, an autograph? Beat it, get out of here.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36What's so moving about this documentary is the way
0:23:36 > 0:23:39the international egalitarian spirit of Burns shines through.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41One competitor, Sivan,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45is a Kurdish refugee living in a housing scheme in Glasgow.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48Sighthill, I think it's the baddest place in Glasgow.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Here, Sivan talks about her family's flight from the Iraqi guards
0:23:53 > 0:23:55across the border.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58There's, like, lights. And the lights hit you.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01And if the light hits you, then there come "woof, woof",
0:24:01 > 0:24:04there's dogs and then police with trucks and things
0:24:04 > 0:24:05and they all come and get you.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Once they got us as well, they sent us back to...somewhere.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13I don't know, it was somewhere. It was like a camp.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16I was very scared when I was in my country
0:24:16 > 0:24:19but when I came here, I was a bit better.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21It's a competition but it's the learning of the words,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25the whole family support, and the commitment that matters.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29A year before, Sivan couldn't even speak English, let alone Scots
0:24:29 > 0:24:31but now, on the day of the competition
0:24:31 > 0:24:33she sings her wee heart out.
0:24:33 > 0:24:39# When all the hills covered with snow
0:24:39 > 0:24:43# I am sure it's winter fairly. #
0:24:43 > 0:24:46And through the magic of television -
0:24:46 > 0:24:48or maybe the good fortune of the production team
0:24:48 > 0:24:51picking the right kids - Sivan wins a prize.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59In 2009, a respected contemporary Scottish writer came along
0:24:59 > 0:25:02and made a programme that radically questioned the Burns legend.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04What's so touching about Andrew O'Hagan's journey through
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Burns' life is the way he empathises with the poet,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11retraces his steps and finds a life fraught with compromise.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16SINGING
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Robert Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica
0:25:19 > 0:25:22where he planned to find work on a plantation,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26he said, as a poor negro driver.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Of course, Burns was the great laureate of human freedom
0:25:29 > 0:25:33and therefore the Jamaica plan stands as a puzzle.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36It's hard to understand how the man who wrote
0:25:36 > 0:25:38A Man's A Man For A' That and The Slave's Lament
0:25:38 > 0:25:41could even contemplate leaving and crossing the sea
0:25:41 > 0:25:43from here to become a slave driver.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47It really is a conundrum, it's the one thing about Burns of all
0:25:47 > 0:25:51the elements that could cause us to worry about his integrity.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56To me, it's the action of a desperate man.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58A man who's made a mess of his life,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00'or who can't afford to be as principled
0:26:00 > 0:26:02'as I would like him to be.'
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Andrew O'Hagan's radical investigation of Burns' life
0:26:05 > 0:26:09was the most controversial we'd seen on television so far.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11It was also a compassionate picture.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14The response that people have had to the films
0:26:14 > 0:26:18has been overwhelming to me. Mainly, I think, they respond that way
0:26:18 > 0:26:21because they feel that we gave them back a real human being,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25not a cult figure, not an untouchable genius.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28We took all the ecclesiastical fervour
0:26:28 > 0:26:32out of talking about Burns in those films, I feel.
0:26:32 > 0:26:33And people appreciated that.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36'Everything in Burns' life seemed to be dramatic,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38'and his death was no different.'
0:26:38 > 0:26:42I had never actually been to the house that Burns died in
0:26:42 > 0:26:44in Dumfries before making the programme
0:26:44 > 0:26:48so the journey that I was on was a genuine one, I was discovering
0:26:48 > 0:26:51things for the first time and I was so moved by that house.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55The idea that this genius, this large-spirited man,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59had to die in this tiny room in the worst kind of poverty
0:26:59 > 0:27:02with a large family waiting downstairs.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04It was just heartbreaking.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10His last words allegedly were, "Don't let the awkward squad fire over me."
0:27:10 > 0:27:15He was keen to go into the next world very much as he'd wanted to be
0:27:15 > 0:27:18in this one - a freedom fighter
0:27:18 > 0:27:23somehow above or apart from authority,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25from government, and from control.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29So is there one true Burns or are there many?
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Burns, the revolutionary, the careerist, the romantic,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36the fornicator? It doesn't really matter which way you look at him,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39one thing's for certain - as long as Burns' words continue to inspire
0:27:39 > 0:27:44people, television will never cease having its wicked way with him.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48Before we go, here's a final word from the man who accidentally
0:27:48 > 0:27:50dedicated his entire life to The Bard.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56'Nae treasures, nor pleasures can make us happy lang.'
0:27:56 > 0:28:01The heart aye's the part aye that makes us right or wrang.
0:28:03 > 0:28:09Catch the moments as they fly. Use them as ye ought, man.
0:28:09 > 0:28:15Believe me, happiness is shy. And comes not aye when sought, man.
0:28:17 > 0:28:23Live for now, for it's all you know.
0:28:28 > 0:28:34# For a' that and a' that
0:28:34 > 0:28:39# It's coming yet for a' that
0:28:39 > 0:28:42# That man to man
0:28:42 > 0:28:47# The world o'er
0:28:47 > 0:28:55# Shall brethers be for a' that. #
0:28:58 > 0:29:00Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd