Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T21:47:49.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Three Ring Circus: Television Drama about, by and for Scotland

from Screen and Sound

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

By
John R. Cook
Edited by
Neil Blain  and
David Hutchinson
John R. Cook
Affiliation:
Glasgow Caledonian University
Neil Blain
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
David Hutchinson
Affiliation:
Glasgow Caledonian University
Get access

Summary

‘It's shite [sic] being Scottish.’ So began a vituperative article by Tom Little in Scotland on Sunday on 19 November 2006. Having just watched the highlights of the 2006 BAFTA Scotland awards on TV, Little was moved to quote Renton, Ewan McGregor's character in the film version of Trainspotting (1996). Where, asked Little, was the quality of BBC Scotland's drama output to justify its current £180 million a year licence fee income? Looking back to the earlier success of adaptations such as that of Iain Banks' The Crow Road ten years before (BBC TV 1996) and rejecting current BBC Scotland claims that it was fulfilling its role as a drama-maker for Scotland through production of its twice-weekly soap River City (BBC TV 2002), Little asked three pointed, if harsh, questions:

Question one: what was the most innovative drama serial broadcast on the BBC in 2006? Answer: Life on Mars. Question two: what was the most interesting drama serial broadcast on the BBC in 2005? Answer: the revived Dr Who. Question three: what connects the two shows, other than the slavish devotion of the sort of sci-fi anorak who describes his religion as ‘Jedi’ in the national census? Answer: they were massive critical successes, earned vast amounts of money in overseas sales – and they were both made by BBC Wales. And, as far as I am aware, the Beeb in the principality has not had to cancel its own soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, which has run since 1974, to pay for these commissions.

(Little 2006)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Media in Scotland , pp. 107 - 122
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×