Browse content similar to 30/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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implications that are only now is the satire in the saltire? | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
Salmond will be in charge of Scotland. This title is not clear | :00:19. | :00:26. | |
yet. He may be King. Unionists and nationalists are fighting for the | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
soul of the nation but where are the jokes? And 50 years after her death, | :00:31. | :00:36. | |
we go in the footsteps of the artist Joan Eardley to the village of | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
Catterline, now battling the effects of coastal erosion. | :00:40. | :00:48. | |
Good evening. When Susan Calman cracks jokes about the | :00:48. | :00:50. | |
post-independent Scottish currency on the Radio 4 news quiz at the | :00:50. | :00:56. | |
weekend, she was not expecting a response is she got. She was accused | :00:56. | :01:02. | |
of betraying her country and being racist. Does it betray the absence | :01:02. | :01:09. | |
of political satire at a time when we might most expect it? Why no | :01:09. | :01:18. | |
satire in the saltire? It is often regarded as the area | :01:18. | :01:23. | |
went satire was born. Deference was dead and that was the week that was | :01:23. | :01:33. | |
:01:33. | :01:33. | ||
became the first show to lampoon the establishment. Is anyone not | :01:33. | :01:39. | |
unanimous? By the 80s, stand-up comedians and of course spitting | :01:39. | :01:48. | |
image or continuing the tradition. Political satire usually blossoms | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
during times of great political or economic upheaval, kind of like what | :01:53. | :02:00. | |
we are going through right now. Where is the satire? Tommy Sheppard | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
runs a comedy club in Edinburgh. There are not the characters they | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
used to be in politics, in part because of the increased media | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
scrutiny of people. It leads to everyone trying to play it safe and | :02:12. | :02:19. | |
be the same. Also in political terms there is a very overcrowded centre | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
in British politics and there are not money differences between the | :02:24. | :02:32. | |
policies and personalities in individual parties. Last week the | :02:32. | :02:34. | |
issue of what currency and independent Scotland might use | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
dominated the news programmes. By the weekend, it was dominating the | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
London based satirical programmes. Alex Salmond who will be in charge | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
of Scotland on his title is not clear, he may be King. Last year, he | :02:48. | :02:56. | |
was keen on having the euro but something happened. Shall we tell | :02:56. | :03:06. | |
:03:06. | :03:08. | ||
them to hugger off? Hands up who says go away? No! When it comes to | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
the vote on Scotland's future, is it the case it is no laughing matter? | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
Scots comedian Susan Calman had a laugh at the expense of the SNP. | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
What is going to happen is that they are not going to build a broader, we | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
will keep the pound, we will still have the royal family, I am not sure | :03:25. | :03:33. | |
what is going on. It seems to me that is just what is happening right | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
now except we are not part of the UK. The joke fell flat with some | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
pro-independence campaigners. Susan Calman they said they took to social | :03:44. | :03:51. | |
media. If Scotland are uncomfortable with satire and poking fun at our | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
leaders whoever they are? Do we still defer in a way others do not? | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
Is it simply that Scottish comedy has no real tradition of satire? | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
think there is a case to be made that says if Scotland were | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
independent and more of a grown-up country, it might feel more at ease | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
with itself and able to laugh at itself better than it does in the | :04:13. | :04:23. | |
:04:23. | :04:26. | ||
shadow of a much bigger country? That I would be faithful... The | :04:26. | :04:33. | |
former Socialist MSP now forging a career in stand-up comedy. I think | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
politics is hilarious and I think politics is full of characters and I | :04:37. | :04:42. | |
think everyone is political. Therefore, unleash the humour. It is | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
painful enough and at times of pain and poverty and asperity, people | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
need to laugh. It does help a lot. That is why I am building a new | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
career at laughing to the madness that surrounds me. How do our | :04:56. | :05:04. | |
current MSPs do when it comes to bringing in the last? I think we can | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
make an offer to George Osborne. Let us pay his bus fare in coming to | :05:10. | :05:18. | |
Scotland to sink the no campaign. talks about credibility. He changes | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
his position on the currency more time than I change my shoes. Maybe | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
they were just having a bad day. Of course, comedian Rory Bremner has | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
been working on a BBC show looking at life in Hollywood. There are a | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
few laughs to look forward to. Until then, we can always rely on the | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
boxed sets of TV's most recent and possibly best critical satire. Ella | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
Macri you want the opposition to do this? We through the looking glass | :05:44. | :05:51. | |
now, folks. I enjoyed in the studio by the | :05:51. | :05:58. | |
communion Bruce Morton, Edinburgh's MSP Mark McDonald who has also been | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
a stand-up comedian. And David Torrance, an associate director of | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
the Five Million Questions project at Dundee University. I do not think | :06:06. | :06:14. | |
that is a stand-up comic outfit. David Torrance, were you surprised | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
at the reaction Susan Calman got? She is clearly a bit upset about it. | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
Not surprised at all, sadly. I heard Radio 4 news quiz on the weekend and | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
I thought it was quite amusing as it always is. Susan Calman went out of | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
her way to avoid saying which side she was on. But became one of the | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
running jokes that the other contestants kept needling her on. | :06:41. | :06:47. | |
She was careful yet still she got this rather predictable reaction. I | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
do think people have just got to lighten up. Yes, independence is a | :06:52. | :06:59. | |
serious question. At the same time, politics is incredibly good fun and | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
it is full of very witty and amusing characters. I think we have got to | :07:03. | :07:12. | |
relax. Mark McDonald, we will give you an award tonight. I think you | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
are the first Nationalist politician I have seen publicly criticise some | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
of these people who crowd in and criticise people like Susan Calman. | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
You have suggested on twitter that the best thing some of them could do | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
would be to give up their Internet. I think one of the problems is that | :07:30. | :07:38. | |
I think there are people on both sides of the divide who | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
unfortunately seem to be lacking in a sense of self-awareness and a bit | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
of a sense of humour. The joke is often funny until the joke is on you | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
in politics. I think being able to take a step back and realise that | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
these are professional comedians and it is not their job to play up to | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
one particular side of a debate. do not know whether you heard Susan | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
Calman but it was pretty innocuous. If you take offence at that, you | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
would take offence at anything. not think it was the kind of thing | :08:11. | :08:19. | |
that got me hot under the, hot under the collar. I might choose to take a | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
different line if it were a political debate, but I was always | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
told that a joke is a joke and you do not necessarily get needled into | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
arguing about a joke, you engage in a political argument. I do not think | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
we should be dragging comedians into political debate. If they wish to | :08:38. | :08:48. | |
comment on it through the medium of their choice, be it... Do you think | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
there is an issue here? One of the points Susan Calman said is if the | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
English took a similar attitude to English comedians, there would be no | :08:56. | :09:04. | |
comedy in Britain left. That is true. I am amazed that there was a | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
fuss about this. I do not know who it was who came down on Susan so | :09:09. | :09:14. | |
hard. It was a very innocuous remark. If they want to get | :09:14. | :09:23. | |
offended, they ought to come to a comedy club sometime. Not in the | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
sanitised confines of the BBC. will be more offended? Yes. Bring it | :09:28. | :09:34. | |
on. I come back to this point, there seems to be a lack of hard-hitting | :09:34. | :09:44. | |
:09:44. | :09:44. | ||
political satire in Scotland. lay that at the door of the comics. | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
I see lots of comics, not all of them are doing political stuff, but | :09:49. | :09:57. | |
there are a few where politics does infuse their craft and their output. | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
But you do not see it represented in broadcast. The reasons for that, I | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
do not know them. Are you saying it is happening in the clubs, on the | :10:07. | :10:17. | |
:10:17. | :10:19. | ||
Internet? Lots of people.You think there is an issue, David Torrance? | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
think there is. Listening to the report, it reminds you of what they | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
used to be. Ground-breaking series in the 60s. They did not touch on | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
spitting image but it was the defining satirical show in the 80s | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
and shaped how the public saw many politicians, not least Margaret | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
Thatcher and John Major. The concerning thing is in Scotland even | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
quite modest outlets for such ire, those that do not cost much money, | :10:45. | :10:51. | |
sketch writers and newspapers. At the start of the Scottish | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
Parliament, we had a lively tradition of that. None of it is | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
there any more. All we have are a couple of cartoonists. Ian Green in | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
the Scotsman newspaper, he is very good at Woking fun. But not much | :11:04. | :11:11. | |
beyond that. Is this you writing a job application? It is not where my | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
talents lie. I think it is hugely important because it is a great | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
leveller, humour. It takes politicians of all his back down to | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
earth and reminds them they are mortal human being is that the end | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
of the day and not towering statesmanlike figures. Politics is | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
good fun. Satire can combine serious points with a bit of a laugh. | :11:32. | :11:38. | |
wonder, Mark McDonald, whether if you think back to spitting image and | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
all of the jokes about Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet, it made them | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
well known. No one had heard of them before. Perhaps something similar | :11:46. | :11:53. | |
for some of your colleagues and the opposition people at -- Holyrood, it | :11:53. | :12:00. | |
might make them more popular. not even a household name in my own | :12:00. | :12:05. | |
household! I think the point Bruce makes is a good point. Someone who | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
has done a little bit of stand-up prior to coming into politics, I | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
think there is a lot of good comedy output going on in the clubs. One of | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
the difficulties is that... Did you do political satire? I shied away | :12:19. | :12:26. | |
from the political angle. I felt it would perhaps lead me as a hostage | :12:26. | :12:33. | |
to fortune given that I was politically involved at the time. | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
There is a lot of good comedy output in the clubs. One of the | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
difficulties is I do not think it is necessarily being given an | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
opportunity, given the oxygen of publicity through the radio and | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
television, but perhaps it might. A lot of good comics would maybe | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
benefit from a leg up and perhaps the television companies and | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
production companies, they need to take a look at whether they have a | :12:57. | :13:07. | |
:13:07. | :13:13. | ||
here? The point made in the film, Scotland, wee country, big England | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
next door? There is a strange thing that happens. I see this very, very | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
often in Scottish press where a comedian, who is Scottish, will be | :13:23. | :13:30. | |
described as "Scottish comedian so-and-so... " I've never seen Phil | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
Jupitus described as an English comedian. I never know whether using | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
this adjective all the time is because we are very, very proud of | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
our Scottish comedians or whether he we are saying- he is only a Scottish | :13:45. | :13:53. | |
one. It goes on all the time. make a suggestion, which I am also | :13:53. | :14:00. | |
scared to make. I'm not sure there is a great from a dish of la poneing | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
satire in Germany, Belgium or France either. Could it be that in Scotland | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
we are particularly bad at this, the English are particularly good at it? | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
They have a tradition on this sort of thing going back to the Regent | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
Sid period right back to the civil war, foreheavens sake, that | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
tradition doesn't really exist up here I would be cautious about | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
drawing that distinction. There are differences between Scottish and | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
English cultural tradition there is are great similarities. I think | :14:29. | :14:34. | |
sense of humour is one of them. The traditional satire does exist in | :14:34. | :14:40. | |
other countries, the United States has a strong tradition, even now, of | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
political satire and lampooning their leaders. It has lapsed to an | :14:44. | :14:49. | |
extent. There was a lot more before. The other guests make a good point | :14:49. | :14:54. | |
there is plenty going on in clubs, they are not communicated to a mass | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
audience. Right. What do you think, do we have a tradition up here? | :14:59. | :15:04. | |
think there is a tradition of that. I think, if you look... To counter | :15:05. | :15:11. | |
my own point I was making a moment ago, I mean, the abolition of | :15:11. | :15:17. | |
deference that happened some times around the late '70s early 80s's | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
happened as much in Scotland as it did anywhere else in the United | :15:21. | :15:31. | |
:15:31. | :15:32. | ||
Kingdom we all laughed at Spitting Image Yes. Rory bream natural is a | :15:32. | :15:37. | |
Scot. There is a fine Scottish tradition. That is not the same. You | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
can be Scottish doing it in London, another thing doing it up here? | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
True. There is is a good tradition out. There we are capable of looking | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
at ourselves and having a wee bit of a laugh at ourselves from time to | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
time. I don't think a bit of levelty in this debate would be any harm | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
what so ever. What would you tliebg see happening? What I'd like to see | :15:58. | :16:08. | |
:16:08. | :16:09. | ||
happening, I would like to see a commitment... I would like to see a | :16:09. | :16:19. | |
:16:19. | :16:20. | ||
space this is my move tonight see the south side of Glasgow, it is | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
getting support. General terms?I would like to see a little bit | :16:24. | :16:31. | |
more... Development of some is a tiercle ideas from BBC Scotland, for | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
instance. We don't have anything like that. We have sketch shows. The | :16:34. | :16:39. | |
tradition here has been sketch shows and variety shows Ando casual bits | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
of stand-up, not shows like the classic ones you mentioned a moment | :16:43. | :16:49. | |
ago. No tradition of that. From your view, from your show that you, do | :16:49. | :16:55. | |
there is demand for this? 100 people come down to our basement and they | :16:55. | :17:02. | |
like it. It's difficult to... It's all right to do it there, we work it | :17:02. | :17:12. | |
:17:12. | :17:14. | ||
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of one of Scotland's | :17:14. | :17:15. | |
greatest modern artists, Joan Eardley. | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
Eardley forged her reputation by her paintings of poor city children in | :17:18. | :17:20. | |
Glasgow. But in the 1950's she began to | :17:20. | :17:21. | |
immortalise the Aberdeenshire village of Catterline. | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
Her dramatic seascapes remain among her most important works and still | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
inspire visitors to the village. But if she were to return to | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
Catterline today, she'd be shocked by the damage caused by coastal | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
erosion. Our arts correspondent, Pauline | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
McLean, has gone in Eardley's footsteps to hear about the | :17:36. | :17:42. | |
struggles today's villagers are having with the elements. 50 years | :17:42. | :17:48. | |
after her death, Joan Eardley is more in demand than ever. | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
Exhibitions in Edinburgh and London offering a chance to snap up her | :17:52. | :18:02. | |
work. She's still best-known for the portrait she made of local children | :18:02. | :18:08. | |
in her studio in Town Head in glass glow in the 1950s. The more you know | :18:08. | :18:14. | |
something, the more you can get out of it. The more it gives to you. | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
That was her approach when she began a new and very different strand of | :18:18. | :18:25. | |
work. This is Catterline, where Joan Eardley moved in 19 55, it was in | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
complete contrast to her studio in Glasgow. What she loved about it was | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
the fact it was so exposed to the elements and rugged. She immersed | :18:35. | :18:45. | |
:18:45. | :18:45. | ||
herself in it all. She would go out in all weathers and do as much | :18:45. | :18:50. | |
painting as she could. With snowstorms, for example, she could | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
last 10 minutes and she would go in and get warm. Her friend, Angus | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
Neil, attached an anchor to her painting quipment so that it didn't | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
have to be taken in over night. She was hoping that the thaw hadn't set | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
in by the next morning. She was dependant on what she was looking | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
at. She was a subject painter, in that way, for example, with the sea. | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
I mean, she didn't paint it remotely, go up into her studio and | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
do it by memory. The whole point was that the oil paint and the foam and | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
waves should will being enter mingle. This was a retrospective | :19:25. | :19:35. | |
held 12 years ago or so? 2001, 12 years ago. Tim Cabbs and Annette, | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
herself an artist, brought Joan Eardley to Catterline. She soon had | :19:39. | :19:48. | |
a home there in a little cottage she would later capture on canvas. | :19:48. | :19:55. | |
lived, sort of, platform, sleeping platform me neon with a ladder up to | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
it. She slept there. Down stairs was studio and cooking and stuff. | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
that part of the attraction for her, it was a basic place? I think Joan | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
was the original hippie. You know, she had a whole different concept of | :20:10. | :20:20. | |
:20:20. | :20:21. | ||
living to our way of thinking. She fitted in over time. She fitted in | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
very well. Now that community faces a new challenge, battling the very | :20:27. | :20:34. | |
elements Joan Eardley immortalised. Last December the storms,, which | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
battered this coastline, caused a landslide. Locals worry it will put | :20:39. | :20:46. | |
visitors off. We don't want to be able to walk down the road for | :20:46. | :20:51. | |
instance. If it's covered in mud it's no fun at all. People use it | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
all year round. Tourists come in the middle of winter. They normally want | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
to drive down, particularly if they have old relatives with them. At the | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
moment, they can't bring a car down here. The sooner that gets sorted, | :21:04. | :21:10. | |
the better. And, help could be at hand. The community has already been | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
offered assistance by Glasgow Ical University who will carry out a | :21:16. | :21:23. | |
survey shortly. Scarred or not, this landscape still offers inspiration. | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
Like Joan Eardley, Stuart Buchanan moved here from Glasgow, one of a | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
long line of artistes who have lived and worked here. The fact that we | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
are talking about her and her paintings and this village 50 years | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
after her death, that is her Legacy. Her paintings are still... They | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
stand up. They are reapraised. You know, people still want to look at | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
them or find out where the they were painted. People still come to the | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
village after seeing paintings in cities far away. They will make the | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
trip to see where Eardley stood and worked and other artists she | :22:00. | :22:09. | |
inspired to come here and do the same. Now the front pages: The | :22:09. | :22:15. | |
Scottish Daily Mail, legacy of the ladette life. Drinking and smoking | :22:15. | :22:25. | |
:22:25. | :22:25. | ||
blamed for a huge rise in female cancer victims. The Guardian, spend | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
aid cash, public spending arguments within the Government. Spending cash | :22:29. | :22:37. |