Episode 4 Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of TV in Scotland

We first got television in Scotland in 1952.

1952 - that's the year the Queen became, well,

the Queen, Prime Minister Winston Churchill

scrapped identity cards, the first ever passenger jet flew across

the Atlantic and a pound of haggis would only cost you four pence.

Now that's what I call a happy meal.

# The rank is but the guinea's stamp

# The man's the gowd for a' that. #

Once a year, every year, throughout Scotland,

we raise a glass to the work and legacy of one man.

Need I say his name?

Put it this way - there isn't a Shakespeare night down south.

Robert Burns created a wealth of culture

and posed a daunting challenge for TV makers who, every year,

are forced to come up with a fresh way to celebrate his immortal memory.

Tonight, we look at the best of, the most eccentric,

the most groundbreaking, the downright sonsiest of Robert Burns television.

When we hear the words Burns and television,

one great name springs to mind...

I've taken a whim to give you a history of myself.

..John Cairney.

He was the first actor to play Burns on television in There Was A Man,

back in 1966 and since then, he made a life out of playing Rabbie.

I decided to publish my poems.

Proposals of publishing my subscription poems

cheaply in the Scottish dialect by Robert Burns.

The work to be elegantly printed in one volume, octavo,

priced - it's three shillings.

'I really was hired, first of all, to play Burns'

because I supposedly looked like Burns or people's idea

of what Burns looked like.

Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r.

'There Was A Man originally started out as a one-man theatre show.'

I rehearsed for a month, played it for a week, it was extended for a further week...

Within a month, it had sold out.

And it was extended for another 40 years.

40 years!

And so, out of the noise and nonsense of the city,

I look my future in the face.

'And I was on a quest after Burns that took me'

to every country in the world, except Chile.

I didn't want to go to Jamaica, I wanted to live,

I wanted to live in Scotland...

'It absolutely ruined my career.'

It gave me ulcers, it gave me a week,

years in hospital.

But it gave me an identity with the Scottish people that I've never been able to throw off.

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever Ae farewell, and then forever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

Television never misses a chance to debate the love life of the Bard.

This programme from 1979 sees singers, Jean Redpath

and Kenneth McKellar, getting into a bit of a stooshie

about Rabbie's rabid sexual shenanigans.

Watch how it's Jean that ends up

sticking up for the infamous womaniser.

I'm surprised to see you

so ready to overlook his treatment of your own sex.

I mean, here's Burns in bed with one woman, Jean Armour,

and at the same time, he is writing to another woman in Edinburgh,

Mrs Maclehose, and he's telling her that Jean Armour disgusts him.

And at the same time, Jean is lying in bed expecting a second set

of illegitimate children fathered, of course, by Burns.

Illegitimate children weren't all that unusual in Burns' day,

but instead of denying his, he welcomed them. In fact...

According to Jean, Burns was more the romantic than the rogue.

He took John Anderson, My Jo a classic dirty, old song

about erectile dysfunction and changed its meaning.

And turned it into, what must be, one of the loveliest hymns

to lifelong marriage ever penned...

..and he gave it to a woman to sing.

# Now we maun totter doon, John

# And hand in hand we'll go

# And we'll sleep thegither at the foot

# John Anderson, my Jo. #

Beautiful.

But you have to ask yourself why so many of Burns' defenders are women?

Could it be that the lasses love a scoundrel?

'Then again, maybe it's all just good, clean, flirty fun.

'TV simply can't resist a Burns singsong,

'often with our best loved performers in curious costumes.

'Here's Moira Anderson getting a little rustic with some ale.'

# My gallant, braw John Highlandman

# Sing hey my braw John Highlandman!

# Sing ho my braw John Highlandman!

# Well there's no' a lad in a' the lan'

# Was match for my John Highlandman... #

Singing and drinking at the same time, now there's a neat trick.

# They banish'd him beyond the sea. #

One of the most unexpected and powerful television tributes

to Burns came, again, from a woman - the African-American poet,

Maya Angelou.

Here she is arriving in Scotland for the first time to meet

members of the Burns Society.

They've put on a special show for her to celebrate her lifelong

love of the Bard.

This bold programme charted Angelou's personal history

from being a young girl, turned mute by violent abuse,

to her discovery of poetry through Burns.

The thing that really resonated with her

was Dick Gaughan's singing of Sic A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation.

# We're bought and sold for English gold

# Sic a parcel of rogues in a nation! #

APPLAUSE

That's it!

That's it.

That is exactly it.

That's what I mean - that human beings are more alike

than we are unalike.

There are the sellers and there are the sold.

'For Angelou, Burns' poems about slavery

'and inequality resonated deeply.

'She responded by reading one of her own poems about a maid.'

Seventy years in these folk's world

The child I works for calls me girl

And I say, "Yes, ma'am!"

'You can see her struggling to contain her emotion in this powerful reading.'

Ha-ha-ha, I laugh

Until I start to crying

When I think about myself

And my folks

And the little children

But then

We wear the mask.

APPLAUSE

Television cameras through the years

have shown adoration of the Bard cropping up in the strangest places.

How about Russia, where he was seen as the People's Poet?

Khrushchev made it standard practice to teach Burns in schools.

A tradition that continued, even after the collapse of Communism,

as this news story from 1996 shows.

'Burns is a fixture in the Russian curriculum

'and here in school number 1,634, they even have a Burns club.'

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing a deer;

Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,

My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

The Soviets even sealed their approval of Burns

with a commemorative stamp in 1956.

So, for a' that, not only do we have Bad Boy Burns, the seducer,

but Red Radical Burns, the global revolutionary.

It's not just Burns' poems

and politics that have spread around the world, but his songs.

This programme from 1996 dug out some very interesting

and alternative versions of Auld Lang Syne.

Burns, you see, was all about the brotherhood of man,

and not the Eurovision variety.

Hmm, and just off-camera,

the TV crew are bashing those balloons back into shot.

These striking steelworkers in 1980 are giving it laldy.

-# For auld lang syne... #

-Take that, Maggie!

# For auld lang syne... #

After all, Auld Lang Syne is part of socialist history

and was sung at every Labour Party Conference.

Well, at least until Tony Blair decided it was, too Old Labour.

# For auld lang syne... #

It took the turn of the millennium

and the Queen to get Tony singing it again, even if

Her Majesty did not quite grasp the crossing of arms bit.

Tony's missus, however, well, she knows how to party.

# For auld lang syne, my dear... #

And here an actor and his wife struggle to remember their lines.

Of course, not everyone on telly has treated the Bard with such reverence.

Burns has come in for some pretty sharp mockery,

usually from our fine folks down south.

Some of these dissenters aren't even people, but hand puppets.

BA-DOING!

-What is it?

-It's a haggis, a traditional Scottish dish.

-Yeah?

-And once a year, all true Scots have a Burns supper.

-Only once a year?

They're lucky, every time you do the cooking, we have a burnt supper.

-LAUGHTER

-I said Burns Supper.

-Oh, yeah?

In honour of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns.

Burns night is a great occasion.

They recite Robert Burns' poetry and they sing old Scottish songs

and there's nothing so stirring as seeing

somebody like Kenneth McKellar sing Comin' Thro' The Rye

-in a kilt.

-Coming through the rye in a kilt?

Cor, I bet that's a ticklish business.

LAUGHTER Boom-boom!

Then there are those with no previous experience of Burns nights

who are willing to brave the exotic.

That taste of our national dish was too much, even for the live cameras.

In this epic, big-budget Burns supper from the '80s,

the TV legend, Russell Harty, means well,

but just can't stop putting his muckle foot in it.

He's got part of the sheep under his arm,

so sheep are very necessary to this country, are they not?

They provide the food and the noise.

Thank you very much for providing food and noise and thank you.

He's like some foreign dignitary visiting the provinces

who can't wait to get the next train home.

From Scotland and from Culzean, bye-bye to you all and auld lang syne.

Bye-bye.

It's funny though, how in the history of Burns TV,

dissenters have always tried to poke fun at the Bard

by reducing him to a very particular foodstuff.

I mean, you write one awful poem and...

Sorry, that should be one brilliant poem about offal. Yeah.

Every Scotsman knows what's going on here.

Scots everywhere,

and in and around London alone there are about 120 Scottish societies,

are waiting for the great night and, of course, the dish to celebrate it.

'Anxiety over the Burns night haggis was fairly widespread in the otherwise progressive 1960s.'

We're about to reveal the secrets of one of life's great mysteries.

What is a haggis?

Apart from the fact that it's a thrifty dish,

what else is it about the haggis that appeals to Scotsmen?

Well, I think that is very well answered in the immortal words

of our famous Scottish bard, Robert Burns, when he says -

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe and thairm:

Weel are ye wordy o' a grace

As lang as my arm.

Well, I didn't quite follow all of that,

but is it essential to drink whisky with it?

No, but I should think it wouldn't do any harm.

What should you eat with haggis?

Chappit tatties and neeps.

Chappit tatties and neeps?

Thank you very much, Mr Cooper.

All this in memory of the birth of a national poet 202 years ago.

Some people may have sold Burns short as the haggis poet,

but the branding of the Bard is a money-spinner for the tourist industry.

Alloway, where Burns was born brings in over a quarter of a million tourists a year.

Hey, hey. Get yersel to...

This is the famed cottage, and this is the kaleyard.

Over the last 60 years, a lot of famous people have come to this spot.

Many of them were caught on camera. There have been world leaders.

From the Soviet Union, here is one of the Politburo in 1966

being shown a carving of the Brigadoon.

Here's Prince and Princess Masahito from Japan in 1965.

President Eisenhower took time out from the Cold War to inspect

the latest developments in 18th-century Scottish roofing.

And who's this sonsie lass?

Some of the people who visited the cottage were also Scottish.

Here are the controversial opinions of poet Edwin Muir

in an arts programme from 1980.

It was so unlike my expectation of a visit to Burns' cottage

that I could hardly believe in it.

It's difficult to see what makes it so ridiculous,

for the whole business is excellently organised.

Behind the turnstile, I found a long, low,

ugly, shed-like erection where one could have tea and buy mementos.

In a setting of green fields, it would be as charming as many

a little farmhouse in the remoter isles.

In a suburban street, it is one of the most ludicrous

and pathetic sights in Scotland.

Contemporary writer, William McIlvanney, delivered Muir's final, destructive conclusion.

His final judgement on this place was,

"The best thing would be for the whole nation, reluctantly and reverently,

"to pull the poet's birthplace down on a day of decent mourning."

I think when he talked about Burns' cottage,

he saw that as a kind of touristy pretence.

And also, he wasn't a great lover of Burns, I think

he misunderstood Burns almost totally.

He said he was a sham bard of a sham nation,

which I think is preposterous.

ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS

But for those who love their Burns night with a huge dod of sugar,

once a year there was the couthie, the dainty, the twirley and burley

and thoroughly wholesome, White Heather Club Burns Night Special.

Andy Stewart presented with wit, style and impeccable timing.

Cue the man himself, singing the drinking song,

Willie Brew'd A Peck O' Maut.

# Wha first beside his chair shall fa'

# He is the King amang us three... #

Over ten million viewers tuned in to watch this live Burns night special.

The series ran for 11 years and had 285 episodes.

# And aye we'll taste the barley bree. #

APPLAUSE

After that, the BBC decided they'd have to find new ways

to freshen up the Bard for modern audiences.

Over the years, there are those who've gone to extraordinary lengths

to make it appeal to a new generation.

This is an NB special from the '90s.

Yeah, man, check this rappin' Rabbie! In the hoose!

HE SCRATCHES DISC

I remember, for example, we made one Burns special which was called,

Supper Man.

It used some of the ingredients that we like to use which was

to bring elements of traditional culture with modern.

So, for example, we were there dressed in slightly, oh, dear,

cringe, cringe, sort of punky style tartan and then we had another

friend who was from Hong Kong who was one of the world's

most talented bagpipers, Tony Ho, playing the pipes, but wearing a Glasgow-designed outfit,

which I think had a map of Glasgow and the Finnieston Crane on it.

So we were mixing up all of those elements.

We weren't taking the mickey, no way were we doing that,

but we were just trying to present it in a slightly, sort of, off-kilter way.

I didn't mean to say kilt and kilter there, but you know what I mean.

Alongside the gratuitous violence and the punky tartans,

the programme made some more innovations with actor Forbes Masson

using the talents of a real mouse to help perform the famous poem.

No animals were harmed in the filming of this section, by the way.

The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me...

And here's another cute, wee indigenous creature

reciting the same poem.

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murd'ring pattle!

The Burns recital has also come in for the satirical treatment.

In 2009, BBC Scotland broke with tradition

and sent up the cliquey tendencies of Burns clubs with

a mockumentary about a fictional Burns recital contest in No Holds Bard.

-Burns night is the biggest night of the year, isn't it?

-Oh, aye.

And I mean, oh, hey now, look, I'm not knocking Christmas.

That is very popular, obviously,

and I'm not knocking Jesus, either, he was a good man, too.

But Burns, well, he's known worldwide.

People did say, "Ooh, you're tackling something that's

"a really sensitive area, you'll need to be careful."

We were never, ever, looking to try and take the piss,

or anything, out of the work.

But we do poke a little bit of fun at the Burns society

that's featured in the show.

-That most precious of prizes - the Cup O'Kindness.

-Here we are.

Shh, will you let him get on wi' it?

And, and, erm, and let us not forget the man whose...

AUDIO FEEDBACK

It doesn't take itself too seriously, there's a, sort of,

ribald spirit in it and we take the poetry seriously.

In fact, there's a moment in No Holds Bard where Tony Curran's character,

Stevie, the sort of jailbird character who represents that

sort of naughty, troubled side of Burns the man.

He recites, at the competition, My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose,

and that moment has to have a lot of power, it's taken incredibly serious.

We're not poking fun at all, it is a genuine moment.

It's about the power of those words.

And fare thee weel, my only love

And fare thee weel, a while

And I will come again, my love

Though it were ten thousand mile.

APPLAUSE

SHE WHOOPS

Tony Curran plays an inmate from Barlinnie who's been doing

poetry therapy and makes his counsellor fall in love with him.

Thanks very much. I really need that piss.

-Ach, you're all right. On your way.

-Aye?

-Aye, go on.

-Cheers.

He wins the prize, then makes a run for it

leaving the honourable proceedings in chaos.

CLAMOURING AND SHOUTING

No!

Would Burns have been insulted? I don't think so.

He often sought to provoke controversy

and had an irreverent sense of humour. Just look at Tam O'Shanter.

In 1970, STV - on a very limited budget -

created this imaginative interpretation,

once again with the great John Cairney. Ooh!

And, wow!

Tam saw an unco sight.

Warlocks...

and witches...

..in a dance.

Look at the clever ways the director got round

the problem of not actually having any witches.

Instead, there's dancing shadows

and actor Phil McCall's face says it all

as Cairney's voice tells the tale in his inimitable style.

..and fidg'd fu' fain

And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main

Till first ae caper, syne anither

Tam tint his reason all thegither

And roars oot:

"Weel done, Cutty-sark!"

And in an instant, all was dark.

There's also wild, experimental camerawork.

Even with no witches,

this is terrifying stuff.

As eager runs the market crowd

When "catch the thief!" resounds aloud...

The most devotional piece of Burns TV is undoubtedly

an animation of Tam O'Shanter by another Tam, Tom Steel.

An unemployed man who taught himself how to animate from scratch.

Take a frame, out like that.

'I worked from morning to night at it every day.'

I may be getting on in years but I can still produce something

and I'll produce something nobody else has produced, either.

I think it's been a lifesaver. He's a creative man.

He had to have something to fill that gap.

He had to have ideas, he had to have something to use his head.

It's an incredible magnum opus

with models and sets entirely of Tom's own homemaking.

He developed techniques that were all his own

taking "make do and mend" to a new level.

This was the most complicated model I ever made of a horse.

It was made out of a biscuit tin, actually.

I went through about three or four dozen biscuit tins

in the course of making these models.

From beginning to end, the entire project saw Tom move house twice

as he needed more space in his quest to perfect the animation.

The entire film took 25 years to complete

and here's a wee clip from it.

The fient a tail she had to shake!

For Nannie, far before the rest

Hard upon noble Maggie prest

And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle

But little wist she Maggie's mettle

Ae spring brought off her master hale

But left behind her ain gray tail

The carlin claught her by the rump

And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

There's been devotional animations, songs, readings,

satirical mockumentaries but perhaps,

in all the television that there's been about Burns,

the most moving thing of all is the simple sight of a child

learning one of his poems for the first time.

In 2003, Rabbie's Bairns charted the Burns Annual Recital Contest

at Bridgeton, Glasgow with over 800 kids in competition. Ah, bless.

What do you kids want, an autograph? Beat it, get out of here.

What's so moving about this documentary is the way

the international egalitarian spirit of Burns shines through.

One competitor, Sivan,

is a Kurdish refugee living in a housing scheme in Glasgow.

Sighthill, I think it's the baddest place in Glasgow.

Here, Sivan talks about her family's flight from the Iraqi guards

across the border.

There's, like, lights. And the lights hit you.

And if the light hits you, then there come "woof, woof",

there's dogs and then police with trucks and things

and they all come and get you.

Once they got us as well, they sent us back to...somewhere.

I don't know, it was somewhere. It was like a camp.

I was very scared when I was in my country

but when I came here, I was a bit better.

It's a competition but it's the learning of the words,

the whole family support, and the commitment that matters.

A year before, Sivan couldn't even speak English, let alone Scots

but now, on the day of the competition

she sings her wee heart out.

# When all the hills covered with snow

# I am sure it's winter fairly. #

And through the magic of television -

or maybe the good fortune of the production team

picking the right kids - Sivan wins a prize.

In 2009, a respected contemporary Scottish writer came along

and made a programme that radically questioned the Burns legend.

What's so touching about Andrew O'Hagan's journey through

Burns' life is the way he empathises with the poet,

retraces his steps and finds a life fraught with compromise.

SINGING

Robert Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica

where he planned to find work on a plantation,

he said, as a poor negro driver.

Of course, Burns was the great laureate of human freedom

and therefore the Jamaica plan stands as a puzzle.

It's hard to understand how the man who wrote

A Man's A Man For A' That and The Slave's Lament

could even contemplate leaving and crossing the sea

from here to become a slave driver.

It really is a conundrum, it's the one thing about Burns of all

the elements that could cause us to worry about his integrity.

To me, it's the action of a desperate man.

A man who's made a mess of his life,

'or who can't afford to be as principled

'as I would like him to be.'

Andrew O'Hagan's radical investigation of Burns' life

was the most controversial we'd seen on television so far.

It was also a compassionate picture.

The response that people have had to the films

has been overwhelming to me. Mainly, I think, they respond that way

because they feel that we gave them back a real human being,

not a cult figure, not an untouchable genius.

We took all the ecclesiastical fervour

out of talking about Burns in those films, I feel.

And people appreciated that.

'Everything in Burns' life seemed to be dramatic,

'and his death was no different.'

I had never actually been to the house that Burns died in

in Dumfries before making the programme

so the journey that I was on was a genuine one, I was discovering

things for the first time and I was so moved by that house.

The idea that this genius, this large-spirited man,

had to die in this tiny room in the worst kind of poverty

with a large family waiting downstairs.

It was just heartbreaking.

His last words allegedly were, "Don't let the awkward squad fire over me."

He was keen to go into the next world very much as he'd wanted to be

in this one - a freedom fighter

somehow above or apart from authority,

from government, and from control.

So is there one true Burns or are there many?

Burns, the revolutionary, the careerist, the romantic,

the fornicator? It doesn't really matter which way you look at him,

one thing's for certain - as long as Burns' words continue to inspire

people, television will never cease having its wicked way with him.

Before we go, here's a final word from the man who accidentally

dedicated his entire life to The Bard.

'Nae treasures, nor pleasures can make us happy lang.'

The heart aye's the part aye that makes us right or wrang.

Catch the moments as they fly. Use them as ye ought, man.

Believe me, happiness is shy. And comes not aye when sought, man.

Live for now, for it's all you know.

# For a' that and a' that

# It's coming yet for a' that

# That man to man

# The world o'er

# Shall brethers be for a' that. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd