Elaine C Smith I Belong to Glasgow

This programme contains some strong language.

Glasgow. A city made famous by its heavy industry

and even heavier drinking.

A city of hard men and even harder women.

If you think these guys look tough, you should meet their mammies.

A dear, green place where the skies are 50 shades of grey.

A lot of people from Greece are looking at this and going,

-"That would be a lovely place to stay!"

-SHE LAUGHS

This year, with the eyes of the world on Clydeside,

four of us Glaswegians explore what it means to belong to Glasgow.

Whoo!

My name is Elaine Constance Smith. Bet you didnae know that.

I've been an actor and comedienne for over 30 years,

and I've made my name playing Glasgow women.

A lot of people think I come from Glasgow, but actually,

I was brought up in a wee mining village just outside the city...

And my brolly! Fuck off!

Glasgow for me was this place away in the distance,

a fairyland, full of sophistication

and I was desperate to be a part of it.

I think Glasgow's a city built on the shoulders of its great women,

but you don't often see them celebrated

in the way that we do our city fathers.

You don't see Glasgow women put on any pedestals.

So I want to show you a different Glasgow.

A Glasgow made by its women.

Scotland is the place that I was born into,

but Glasgow is the place that made me,

so I suppose you could say, I Belong to Glasgow.

MUSIC HALL ORGAN PLAYS "I BELONG TO GLASGOW"

# Well, when I get a couple O' drinks on a Saturday

# Glasgow belongs to me. #

Oh!

Could I get a single to Glasgow, please?

It's been years since I've been on a bus,

and this particular route is a trip down memory lane.

Coming from Newarthill, just outside Motherwell,

there was only one way to make the 12-mile trip.

And the bus would be full of women,

dolled up for a day's shopping in the city.

Coming into Glasgow with my mum was a really big adventure.

Going shopping was really a full-day affair.

The excitement you had about a day in Glasgow.

It wasn't quite as luxurious as this, I have to say.

And of course people smoked on buses then, as well.

What's wonderful here is that there's a mix of nationalities

that would never have existed all those years ago.

The Glasgow I was coming into in the early '70s

was all black buildings and heavy industry.

But I didn't see that.

My Glasgow in the '70s was the bright lights

of the big department stores and their gallus Glasgow glamour.

One of the weirdest bus journeys,

I ended up in court, believe it or not, because the bus driver

got out his cab and head-butted a passenger for being cheeky!

I gave my evidence of what had happened. The wee guy who

had been huckled and all that came up to me afterwards and went,

"Thanks very much for that, hen.

"I don't even remember getting hame that night!"

SHE CACKLES

Sorry, disrupting your journey here, girls.

Thank you, thanks very much. Bye-bye!

And this is where it started - the shopping.

How are you?

Thank you very much. Pleasure to meet you, by the way.

You're an absolute legend!

"There's her, what's her name again, Dorothy Paul?!"

This bit really should have been called the Argyle Street Triangle.

Look!

Fraser's.

Arnott Simpson's.

Lewis's.

Shopping heaven.

You could be lost for days here.

It was on those shopping trips with my mum

that I really noticed the women in their glad rags

and the men with swaggers that could dry a washing.

Even to this day, Glasgow's women are dressed up and on show.

And why not?

Glasgow's always been a city to be seen in.

Now it's staking its reputation on being

the most fashionable shopping district in the UK.

We're bold, we're brash, and we don't care what other people think.

I think Glasgow has a different style to the rest of the UK.

I think it's more Scandinavian and Northern.

It's very artsy, very eclectic, very different, yeah.

You can sort of dress the way you want here.

Most people, like me, obviously, have got the confidence

to wear what they want.

-I tell you what it is, it's all about the accessories.

-Uh-huh.

A good handbag.

-And a decent scarf.

-Uh-huh.

And a nice wee bit of jewellery.

I think Glasgow's one of the only places in the world

that you can wear shorts on a winter's day

and that's appropriate.

That's a nice one.

So maybe it's not what you wear, at all, it's how you wear it.

-Hi, how are you?

-Hi!

Someone who should know all about Glasgow style

is fashion historian Mairi MacKenzie at Glasgow School of Art.

Her research looks at identity through fashion.

What Glasgow does is it puts together its look really well.

It's about the way people style themselves here.

It's not about what's designed here.

Your outfit might only be Primark or wherever...

-But putting it all together...

-Putting the whole thing together will really matter.

People in Glasgow really dress up.

Much higher concentration of designer clothing.

Glaswegians wear their money.

Yes, Versace opened its only store outside of London,

Ichi Ni San, all of these shops did incredibly well.

Now, this gaff is a different kettle of raw fish aw thegether.

This is Ichi Ni San in the heart of Glasgow's trendy Merchant City.

Ichi Ni San's Japanese, by the way,

don't know what it means in English.

-Probably What Every Women Wants.

-SHE LAUGHS

That'd be a laugh, eh?!

Where is the need to make the effort? Where does that come from?

There's real pleasure to be had in the simple act of dressing up.

I think it can be denigrated,

and fashion is often equated with shopping, and it's seen as frivolous.

But I think it's a really powerful tool

in the creation of your self-identity.

Identity?

Identity crisis, more like.

That was my Chrissie Hynde phase, by the way.

The example of Glasgow's women gave me the freedom

to express myself.

And express myself I certainly did.

MUSIC: "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder

In 1976, as a trendy drama student,

I moved to Glasgow's West End.

# Very superstitious... #

I started to really know what it was to be a Glasgow woman,

working shifts as a barmaid and singing in the city's smoky clubs.

This was my introduction to the hard, macho drinking culture that

I'd heard about, and later became famous for acting in.

Haw, BT?

Any chance of a full glass roon' here?

I'm off to relive those days,

for a drink in one of Glasgow's oldest pubs with someone who remembers the dark days

when a women at the bar was as rare as a teetotal journalist.

Famous Weegie hack, Jack MacLean.

Sir Jack MacLean, I believe it's you.

Elaine, how are you? Great to see you.

I'm very well. I'll buy you a drink. What do you want?

I'll have a small brandy.

Tell me about this place, the history of this place.

This is traditionally what you might call a wee man's shop.

Had you to be wee to get in?

Well, I am!

The most basic thing of course was that women could come in

but they often didn't.

I was brought up in a house where my dad didn't drink at all,

so therefore, pubs for me had this romantic, mystical quality.

In some of the pubs I remember there was a hatch where the drinks

were put through into the snug, for the women.

They used to go in and actually try and buy a pint of beer

but they were always refused. They could have it in two half-pints.

When I first started going into pubs, I do have to say

I felt intimidated walking in to a bar, and I worked in the Doublet.

-You felt intimidated?!

-Yes, I did!

Believe it or not. That's where I learnt my skills, if you like.

And working in pubs I was able to come back

and be a smartarse, or whatever.

Men can show their weaknesses in a pub

that they'll no' show in their own house.

Did you prefer it being a man's shop? Tell the truth.

I will tell you the absolute truth, and I'm a bit ashamed of this,

-I always preferred women coming into they shops.

-Did you?

I've frankly always preferred the company of women

to the company of men.

So why would you drink in here, then?

Waiting for the women to come in and chat me up,

-just like you, baby!

-Hey!

How would you say that the drinking culture in Glasgow has changed?

There has been an enormous change.

Perhaps in some ways there's been a feminisation, as healthy in society.

There's been that in some of the pubs.

Old-fashioned pubs like this, I think, are a thing of the past.

But it was in these male-dominated, smoky bolt holes

that I learned to be the woman I am today.

So, when were the ladies' lavvies put in, then?

We did create one in June, 1996.

June 1996! I mean, that isn't that long ago.

It was embarrassing for some of the ladies

having to use the facilities next door.

Is that what they did, they went down to the pub down there?

Or sometimes their boyfriend would do "edgie" for them

and watch at the gents.

-Who was the first to use it?

-I was the first!

-Are you kidding?

-No!

-How did you do that?

-Standing up, of course!

ELAINE CHORTLES

Aye, would ye!

So there you have it - women are more welcome in pubs

and look at the progress, we've even got our own lavvy!

Pubs taught me how to handle myself,

And that served me well when I threw myself

into another male-dominated world - comedy.

By the 1980s I was starring alongside

the cream of Scotland's talent

in hit TV shows like Naked Video and City Lights.

-Have you got a girlfriend?

-Sorry?

Being a woman in the industry has been difficult.

Have you got a girlfriend?

I was the wife, the mother, the nurse, the daughter.

You don't get to be named

And generally the tag-lines would be given to the men.

Ah, for God's sake, woman!

Oh, thanks!

TRAIN HORN SOUNDS

And then, if you were a singer that could act

and I was lucky I had a big chest,

so if you've got a big chest you get to play dames and older women!

It was playing an older character

when I really turned to the women of Glasgow for inspiration.

I was Dolly in the original Wildcat Theatre production

of The Steamie - a play inspired by the city's working-class ladies.

LAUGHTER

Most plays were all men with a token woman.

This was all women with a token man.

You want to ask what I should do with a Yankee?

It was a play about life, hardship

and a celebration of what it was to be a Glasgow woman in the 1950s.

-Can YOU dae it, Andy, eh?

-Oh, aye.

One thing that's hard to believe is, it was written by a man!

My old pal Tony Roper.

-Smudger!

-Sir Anthony Roper, I believe!

I wanted it to be the way I thought that women

communicated with each other. Because it's different from men.

I remember you said, "Smudger, I've written this play.

"You're a feminist. Naebody wants to put it on.

"Gonnae have a wee read at it?"

I'd love to say I went, "Yes, it will be a massive hit",

and the hit that it became.

I didn't. I just thought it was about women, I thought

it was really funny, I thought the characters were fantastic.

I tell you what I thought was, until you did Dolly in The Steamie,

I didn't realise that you were a very, very good actress.

And I still think that you were so good in that.

Oh, thanks, hen. This'll save me washing my feet the night!

I couldn't have been that good, cos when they made

the TV version, they cast Eileen McCallum as Dolly.

Truth be told, I was playing a part 40 years older than me,

and Eileen's performance was pure dead brilliant.

Televisions, tae!

See when that television's on? Naebody talks.

-God, that wouldnae suit you, Dolly.

-Naw, naw!

So, one of my favourite songs in the whole thing,

eventually, was Doreen singing "Dreams Come True".

# Dreams come true... #

I loved the laugh that came from the audience

when she was singing about it, because they knew the irony of it.

The laugh was, "I'll get it eventually.

"I've put my name down for a hoose in Drumchapel!"

The hope in the 1950s of what a hoose in Drumchapel would be.

# Me and John will get a new

# Hoose in Drumchapel

# Where dreams come true. #

Drumchapel, eh?

"Hullo, Drumchapel 3776?"

Tony's play really captured the reality of life at that time

for those working-class women, and finally gave them a voice.

I am her maid!

Did your mum have an influence on the play at all?

Yeah, she went to the steamies in Glasgow.

So although she wasn't in rehearsals,

was there a sort of nod to your mother in that?

Oh, definitely. Oh, I adored my ma, absolutely adored her.

In fact, if I go on, I'll greet.

-I know, I'll greet too, don't make me greet!

-So we'll stop.

Aye, we'll stop there, yeah, yeah.

The play's success has gone way beyond Glasgow.

The warmth of the characters has touched the hearts of people

from all different backgrounds all over the world.

The Glasgow wummin had landed.

It became a sort of phenomenon.

I had never experienced a reaction or an audience like that.

The entire audience stood up.

Something happened between us and the audience that went,

it was like that.

I never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever think that

if I did write something, it would have lasted for as long as it has.

And will go on.

Govan please, driver!

I'm really proud that I was a part of bringing

that piece of Glasgow women's history

to audiences all over the world.

"I had a fantastic year touring with The Steamie,

but for over 20 years, my career was dedicated to playing

another, more infamous Glasgow woman.

Hey, Mary! Get your arse in here a wee minute, hen!

'Mrs Mary Doll Nesbitt.'

Is that you?

That's me hen, that's that. It's official! That is me, pure mental!

Pure mental! Oh, Rab, I'm that pleased for ye!

'I remember a woman coming up on Buchanan Street

'and she said, "You're that lassie aff the telly"

and I was like, "Yeah, yeah," chuffed I was being recognised.

She says, "See that Glasgow wummin, hen? Naebody does it like ye."

And that was like the best compliment

I could ever have had, because they were believing it.

Here, Rab, I brung your pieces, you forgot them.

He'll no' have time to eat those, he's got far too much work to do.

'It was really important for me'

that it really offended the middle classes!

"That's a terrible image to give of Glasgow!"

-I wouldn't even attempt to argue with you.

-Good.

No, instead I'll get right doon tae it and gie ye the severe malky!

But in fact, it's another Mary from Govan that is one of my heroes.

Mary Barbour.

I was in my early 20s before I discovered that Glasgow's history

wasn't built on men alone, and that

many of the city's revolutionary figures were actually women.

One of these great women was Govan housewife Mary Barbour.

In 1915, she led one of the largest rent strikes

in political history.

MUSIC: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams

# It might seem crazy What I'm 'bout to say... #

So, let's see in today's Govan, which Mary is better known.

Thanks, driver.

Could I speak to you for a wee minute?

Oh, no!

Does anybody in Govan know who Mary Barbour was?

Hello!

-Do you know who Mary Barbour was?

-No.

-Do you know who Mary Doll is, Mary Nesbitt?

-Aye, you.

-Do you know who Mary Barbour was?

-What you doing here?

I'm doing a documentary about my Glasgow, if you like.

You're looking well.

Thank you darling, no' bad for an old bint.

I've always watched you.

-Do you know who Mary Barbour was?

-Don't have a clue.

-See?

Do you know who Mary Barbour was?

-That Mary Doll?

-No!

Mary Doll is the only Mary we know!

THEY LAUGH

# Laugh along if you feel that... #

Thankfully, I've found someone in Govan that does know

who Mary Barbour is - former Labour MP, Maria Fyffe.

This area here has changed out of all recognition.

Maria is a chairwoman of a campaign to raise the profile

of Glasgow's greatest unsung hero.

Mary Barbour was a woman who achieved something fantastic.

A Govan housewife who led 20,000 tenants to victory

and created a change in the law that affected the whole of Britain.

In 1915, when Glasgow's men were off fighting for their country,

greedy landlords took advantage of a housing shortage

and pushed up rents.

It was Mary Barbour

that led the women in a fight back against the factors,

organising protests and preventing evictions.

When a particular tenant got conned by the factor

into paying the extra rent...

He had lied to her and said the other tenants where paying up,

and when Mary found out

she marched down to the shipyards, spoke to the shop stewards

and got them to come out with her to go to the factor's office

where they demanded that he pay the money back!

So she knew about protection!

THEY LAUGH

# Mrs Barbour's army swept through Glesga like the plague... #

There's a wonderful photograph saying

"God help the sheriff that tries to get into this!"

# While oor menfolk Fight the Kaiser

# We'll stay hame and fight the war

# Against the greedy bastards who Keep grindin' doon the poor... #

Some of the landlords took 18 tenants to court

and on that day, Mary Barbour organised a huge march

through the city of Glasgow.

20,000 apparently turned out in that march

but the men also came out the shipyards.

In the Sheriff court that day, they were in a panic

because the men were feeling really ferocious about it

and threatening to pull the city apart!

They said, "What will we do?" and they phoned Lloyd George,

who was Munitions Minister then, and he said "Let the tenants go"

and before the month was out, he got a law passed

to say the rents would be restricted.

So that was legislation new of its kind in the whole of Europe.

So it's a fantastic achievement.

It's almost like their history been ignored.

What do you think about that?

I grew up in a family where we knew about Keir Hardy

and about John Maclean but knew nothing about Mary Barbour

until many years later, and I thought, why is this?

Someone that was an inspirational figure.

If they could do that in those days, with living in poverty,

leaving school at 14, if they could do all that, what's stopping us?

Absolutely.

What is the campaign about, then? What do you want to achieve?

I want to see a statue of Mary Barbour in Govan.

I am sure she would feel very honoured by that.

And about high bloody time, I think!

Well, Maria, you've got my full support.

There are loads of statues all over this city.

If Maria's campaign is successful, it will bring

the number of public statues of women in Glasgow to a grand total of

four.

Aye, there she is.

Here, in Govan, is one of them.

Lady Elder, Glasgow philanthropist.

But what I can't bear is, on the statue, it's not even her own name!

It's "Mrs John Elder". That's ridiculous!

And this tribute to a Spanish civil war leader is number two.

La Pasionara.

And number three is apparently somewhere here in George Square.

Right, guy.

Who's up there? Definitely a guy.

Guy,

guy, guy,

guy, guy on a horse.

Another guy there.

Ah! A wummin!

A wummin!

Queen Victoria!

The only woman in George Square.

12 statues, 11 of them are men, one's a woman.

We are not bloody amused!

I've got a list as long as my arm

of women that I think deserve a statue.

Women that have done something for this city, like Eilish Angiolini,

another Govan girl and first female Lord Advocate of Scotland.

Or Jessie Campbell, pioneer of education for women

or founder of the Special Needs In Pregnancy Unit, Dr Mary Hepburn.

I could go on and on.

But what about the Glasgow women of the future?

Do our modern-day lassies have what it takes to carry

the strong, female fighting spirit on?

Well, I'm off to meet a group of friends

who live in the west of the city.

# We are the Glasgow girls

# We show them how to do it

# We'll show the world how to Get up and do it... #

In 2005, this bold bunch of teenagers from Drumchapel High

took on the immigration services after their friend Agnesa

and her family were removed from their home.

to be deported back to Kosovo.

This is our home!

In true Glasgow style, the pals caused a giant stooshie

and started a campaign against the removal of children in dawn raids

that went all the way to the parliament.

So I'm here with the gorgeous Glasgow Girls, I've joined you now.

So, you must have been incredibly shocked.

One of our best friends, she phoned me

and she said, "Amal, look. Agnesa's been taken away in a dawn raid.

And I was like, "What's that mean? What does a dawn raid mean?"

And she explained to me that 14 officials went to her house

on a Sunday morning, seven o'clock,

and basically put them in a detention, like, vans, and drove them

to England, and it's a detention centre, which is like a jail.

Everybody was really supportive of the cause.

Even people you would think maybe spoke out against asylum seekers

and believed all the myths.

They were coming out in support of it and saying,

"Actually, it's not good that children are being taken form their bed during the night."

Asylum seekers come to the UK because there is safety here

because they are fleeing persecution and war, and so many other reasons.

If they knew they were going to be treated like that, you know,

they would not bother coming here.

I was very shocked and surprised.

For me, watching it, as someone living in the city,

it was your youth, your exuberance,

your determination to make something happen, but it was also

that you were all mixed races - you were Scots, you were from

all over the place. Where are you from originally?

North of Iraq, I'm Kurdish.

-Kurdish, and where are you from?

-Somalia.

Somalia. So it seems to me you have adopted

a complete Glaswegian woman's sort of sensibility!

I think that's what it is about the spirit in Glasgow.

Such a community place, such a socialist place

and you know, when something is wrong, we will come together

and we will fight against it. SCREAMING

In a victory for the girls, Agnesa and her family

were returned to Glasgow after three weeks.

You guys won, as well.

There was a lot of, like, we won, as you say.

That our friend came back, and our campaign started that way.

It actually also changed lots of people's attitude as well.

What, to immigration?

To immigration and to asylum seekers.

But this was just the start of their fight.

I want to welcome the young people in the gallery this morning.

These Glasgow gals took their campaign to the Scottish Parliament

and then all the way to the Home Office in London.

I think it's outrageous that people are being treated like this.

Their campaign led to a UK-wide review

of the asylum seeker removal system.

And they even got to meet Darius. Remember him?

-We're the Glasgow Girls!

-I know you are!

CHATTER

Has the whole experience changed you?

I mean, who are you today?

After the campaigning,

I went and studied law and politics and I graduated.

Now I work at Radio Scotland.

I'm studying a Masters in Human Rights and International Politics.

-She's a high flyer!

-She obviously is!

You know, the root of this is,

because you did it out of compassion for a friend.

And a sense that this wasn't just.

See, that for me, that's Glasgow.

Right, let's go and get pished!

Just like the long line of tough Glasgow women before them,

these modern-day Mary Barbours are fighting for change.

That's the Glasgow spirit I knew back in the 1970s

and it's the spirit I can still see today.

Right, rant alert.

It's time Glasgow did more to recognise its women.

But if we wait on the city fathers getting off their Archibalds,

well, we'll be waiting till the cows come home.

So, I'm starting a fund to raise money for more statues of women.

And where better to begin than

with a wee song for all the Glasgow wummin?

# In the second city of the Empire

# Mother Glasgow Watches all her weans

# In trying hard to feed her Little starlings

# Unconsciously She clips their little wings

# And Mother Glasgow's Succour is perpetual

# Nestling the Billy and the Tim

# I dreamed I took a dander with St Mungo

# To try to catch a fish That couldnae swim

# And Mother Glasgow's Succour is perpetual

# Nestling the Billy and the Tim

# I dreamed I took a dander With St Mungo... #

Glasgow has been so good to me.

The people of this city have given me

my comic timing, more than anything else,

and to make a Glasgow audience laugh

is one of the best things that could even happen to you.

Making them greet as well is good, too.

I like making them greet, not always intentionally!

# Let Glasgow flourish! #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Thank you very much.

Look, I've even made money, that's brilliant!

Right, I'm going hame for my tea now.

SHE LAUGHS

I'm exhausted!