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You Have Been Watching (TV Special) …The Field of Blood
Last Sunday and Monday night saw a cracking period drama on BBC1. No change there then, but the period was the early 1980s in Glasgow. The Field of Blood may have done nothing to disuade people of the idea that Glasgow is No Mean City, but when the writing, direction and acting is of this […]
May 20, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…(TV Special)…Down Among The Big Boys
Peter McDougall is a bit of a forgotten man these days, but, for a few years in the 1970s, he pretty much was modern Scottish drama. His TV plays Just Your Luck, The Elephant’s Graveyard, Just a Boy’s Game and especially the controversial Just Another Saturday, which included real footage of an Orange Walk and […]
May 6, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Ali Smith’s ‘The Accidental’
Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Every story has a beginning, middle and an end. Ali Smith’s 2004 novel ‘The Accidental’ takes this truth and plays with it in a manner that is inventive, witty and incredibly assured. Smith had been winning awards and a growing readership since her […]
May 2, 2011
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You Have Been Watching…The Driver’s Seat
Here’s an oddity. An adaptation of Muriel Spark’s terrific and troubling novella The Driver’s Seat. It stars the late, great, Elizabeth Taylor as the enigmatic and troubled Lise, Iain Bannen as a man obsessed with macrobiotics and sex, Italian idol Guido Manneri and, in an unexpected cameo role as an unnamed English Lord, it’s only Andy Warhol! This […]
April 29, 2011
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You Have Been Watching (TV Special) Limmy’s Show & Burnistoun
Scottish comedy is on a real high at the moment after years where barely a smile was raised, at least in terms of TV. The second series for Limmy’s Show!, Burnistoun and the still underrated Gary Tank Commander proved that their initial successes were not flukes and that things are on the up.
April 22, 2011
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You Have Been Watching… Soft Top, Hard Shoulder
Soft Top Hard Shoulder was Peter Capaldi’s second screenplay after Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life which he also directed. Although it hasn’t quite got the magic of Bill Forsyth’s best work, which it is clearly inspired by, Soft Top, Hard Shoulder has bags of charm and is a lovely way to spend an hour and a half.
April 15, 2011
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You Have Been Watching… Carla’s Song
I hadn’t watched Carla’s Song since I saw it in the cinema in 1996 and for some reason I’d forgotten how good it is. I’m a huge Ken Loach fan and return to his films regularly, particularly Kes, Riff Raff, My Name is Joe, Sweet Sixteen and Raining Stones, yet it never occurred to me to revisit Carla’s Song. […]
April 8, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Kevin MacNeil’s ‘The Stornoway Way’
There can be little argument that contemporary Scottish fiction is Central Belt centric. Most of the tales told come from, and are normally set in, the area dissected and connected by the M8. However that situation is slowly changing and a writer who shows the way, and who has come to be one of my […]
April 4, 2011
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You Have Been Watching… Orphans
After professing that Scottish cinema needs more light to accompany the shade, it may seem that I’m labouring the point by looking at Peter Mullan’s début feature Orphans. At first viewing Orphans may seem like more grim and gritty Glaswegian fare, but to think that would be a mistake. This is the blackest of comedy, and where that often means simply […]
April 1, 2011
