1. Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: volume 2: The Golden Age of Wireless (London: Oxford U.P., 1965): 36.Google Scholar

2. A professional indigenous theatre industry was only enabled in Scotland in the post-war period with the intervention of funding from the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA).

3. Another sector, those amateur arts groups associated with Left politics were equally active but operated a different agenda to the other theatre groups. While the activities of the Left groups of the 1930s fall rather outwith the scope of this paper (their agenda never really extended to influence the policy and the programming of broadcasting) it is perhaps revealing to mention that the ideological and practical links the Left theatre groups established were not with the broadcasters but with the Workers' Film Societies and Kino.

4. Under the initial structure of national coverage run by the BBC there were two types of broadcasting station—main and relay. A main station produced most of the programming on its schedules itself, in-house as it were. It would maintain production and administrative staff to enable this scale of production and only pick up on a ‘S.B.’ (a simultaneous broadcast) from another station for big or prestigious events—major orchestral concerts or large-scale drama evenings. The relay stations were a recommendation of the Sykes Committee (published 1 October 1923) to increase the number of potential listeners without substantial increase in programming costs. Scotland had only two, one at Edinburgh (opening 1 May 1924) and the other at Dundee (opening 12 November 1924). They produced only a small proportion of their own material, perhaps one evening per week, the rest of the time being S.B. from another main station. This, of course, meant that such stations were very much cheaper than the running of a main station each of which had to produce, more or less, seven full days of programmes each week.

5. BBC Fact Sheet: Number 44: BBC Scotland. BBC Publication (undated). Held in the Reference Library, BBC Scotland, Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow.

6. Interestingly, in terms of distinctive regional broadcasting, all stations, main and relay produced their own daily Children's Corner with their own local presenters, initially referred to as Aunties and Uncles. Children's programming was consistently a major element in output from Scotland. The Glasgow station is even credited with being the first BBC station:

… to broadcast children's plays with children taking part, and the first to give a children's pantomime from the studio, in which young members of the Radio Circle [a kind of wireless club for young listeners] formed the cast and chorus.

‘Scotland: … The Early Days in Scotland.’ BBC Yearbook: 1933 (London: BBC, 1933): 241.Google Scholar

7. The basic idea behind this scheme was to have a series of very powerful transmitters at key locations throughout the UK each of which would provide two different broadcast programmes: the National Programme would be essentially the same for all areas of the country and be produced in London, and the Regional Programme which would more suit the needs of the particular geographic area it served. In 1929 the Regional Scheme was formally inaugurated by introduction in the Home Counties of a choice between the National and the London Regional wavebands. In 1931 the North National and the the North Regional went into service and on 2 May 1932 the Scottish National and the Scottish Regional were broadcast from the transmitter near Westerglen Farm. This provided a good quality of broadcast reception for at least the Central area, although the Northern area was less well served until the establishment of the Burghead transmitter on the Moray Firth in 1936.

8. Drama is also at the core of much recent critical work on the history of broadcasting: see Lewis, Peter, ed., Radio Drama (London: Longman, 1981)Google Scholar; Drakakis, John, ed., British Radio Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1981).Google Scholar

9. Indeed this desire is both implicit and clearly explicit in their stated aims:

1. to develop Scottish National Drama through the production by the Scottish National Players of plays of Scottish life and character;

2. to encourage in Scotland a public taste for good drama of any type;

3. to found a Scottish National Theatre.

This programme is repeated in many of the Scottish National Players' publications. For instance, they are laid out on the Membership form of the Scottish National Theatre Society for the year of its founding 1922. Held in the Scottish Theatre Archive, University of Glasgow.

10. Radio Times 18 04 1924: 141.Google Scholar

11. ‘BBC Personalities: Mr R. E. Jeffrey, Station Director, Aberdeen.’ Radio Times 14 03 1924: 460.Google Scholar

12. ‘BBC Personalities: Mr R. E. Jeffrey.…’ Radio Times 14 03 1924: 460.Google Scholar

13. See Briggs, , The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: volume 1: The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1961): 201.Google Scholar

14. Early Days of Broadcasting in Scotland ([Glasgow?]: BBC Scotland, 1973)Google Scholar: N.pag. This booklet was published by BBC Scotland to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting in Scotland.

15. Drakakis, , ‘Introduction’. British Radio Drama: 1.Google Scholar

16. Aberdeen was responsible for a number of broadcasting ‘firsts’ including the first Gaelic broadcast on 2 December 1923. See Dinwiddie, Melville, The Scot And His Radio (Edinburgh: BBC, 1948)Google Scholar: N.pag.; and BBC Fact Sheet: Number 44: BBC Scotland. Later in the 1920s a fortnightly series of programmes, of Gaelic song, stories and talk, an Aberdeen feature was ‘supplemented by a scheme to bring before the microphone the best-known Gaelic choirs in Scotland.’ See ‘Scotland: … Gaelic.’ BBC Handbook: 1929 (London: BBC, 1929): 89.Google Scholar The series continued into the 1930s. See ‘Scotland.’ BBC Handbook: 1930 (London: BBC, 1930): 97.Google Scholar

17. The first play to be broadcast from Dundee was Ferguson, J. A.'s Campbell of KilmohrGoogle Scholar, produced 9 January 1925 by Fred Bruce. See Radio Times 2 01 1925: 75.Google Scholar

The first play from Edinburgh, broadcast on 25 June 1924, featured ‘The Community Players in People's Experiment a comedy in one act by R. A. Roxburgh.’ See Radio Times 20 06 1924: 551.Google Scholar

18. ‘“Rob Roy” By Broadcast Wireless.’ Glasgow Herald 31 08 1923: 4.Google Scholar

19. Radio Times 28 09 1923: 28.Google Scholar

20. Such productions were generally very popular. A 5SC production of The Merchant Of Venice, transmitted 7 September 1923, receives this positive criticism in the Glasgow Herald:

An outstanding feature of the wireless programme broadcasted from Glasgow station last night was a specially arranged version of ‘The Merchant of Venice’. The task of arranging the play for wireless transmission had been admirably carried out by Miss Kathleen Nesbit [sic], and it was produced under the direction of Mr R. E. Jeffrey.… The transmission of the play was carried out with great success.

‘Wireless Concerts: “The Merchant of Venice” By Wireless.’ Glasgow Herald 8 09 1923: 13.Google Scholar

21. Gielgud, Val, British Radio Drama: 1922–1956 (London: George G. Harrap, 1957): 19.Google Scholar

22. However, it should be noted that in 1938, commenting on the opening of the new Broadcasting House in Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow, the Director-General of the BBC, F. W. Ogilvie says that:

… broadcasting history was made in Glasgow, for it was from the city, he [Ogilvie] believed, that school broadcasting began. And it was from Glasgow that the first play specially written for broadcasting was put on the air. Appropriately enough, the play was ‘Rob Roy’.

‘Broadcasting House.’ Glasgow Herald 19 11 1938: 11.Google Scholar Indeed in the BBC's own publication, BBC Yearbook: 1933, a number of Glasgow broadcast ‘firsts’ are detailed, including first schools programming, the first adaptation of a Greek play (Sophocles's Antigone translated by Professor Harrower of Glasgow University) and ‘The first broadcast play, Rob RoyGoogle Scholar, [which] was given there in August 1923.’ See ‘Scotland: … The Early Days in Scotland.’ BBC Yearbook: 1933: 241.Google Scholar

23. ‘People in the Programmes: Hearing.’ Radio Times 20 06 1924: 529, 535.Google Scholar

24. The first radio performance of Gordon Bottomley's Gruach on 16 09 1924Google Scholar is presented together with Cormac Simpson's Scobie Betters Himself. See Radio Times 12 09 1924: 489, 495.Google Scholar

25. Radio Times 23 11 1923: 331.Google Scholar

26. Mr Mc Whackle buys a Receiving Set was produced from Aberdeen 15 March 1924 with a cast that includes regular 2BD actors Scott, Dufton, Crowe, Christine and Moncur, Daisy. Radio Times 7 03 1924: 423.Google ScholarMc Whackle and Mains Family Visit a Travelling Fair was arranged by Dufton Scott and produced from Aberdeen 4 July 1924. Radio Times 27 06 1924: 17.Google ScholarFourth McWhachle [sic] Evening was broadcast from Aberdeen on 19 April 1924. Radio Times 11 04 1924: 103.Google Scholar

27. Wilson, Andrew P., Sandy and Andy: the Radio Philosophers by the Garden Gate (Galashiels: John McQueen and Son, [1947?]).Google Scholar

The Scottish Theatre Archive at the University of Glasgow holds a major collection of extant Radio Scotland scripts including editions of Sandy and Andy dating from 1936, 1942, 1946 and 1947. Many of the radio plays and productions referred to in this paper are to be found in script form in this collection.

28. Cameron, Alasdair, Study Guide to Twentieth-Century Scottish Drama (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, Department of Scottish Literature, 1989): 42.Google Scholar

29. Lawyer and Client feature Jeffrey and Dufton Scott in the title roles and was broadcast 23 May 1924. Radio Times 9 05 1924: 273.Google ScholarBuying a Crystal Set the second in the Glasgow Shopping Series was ‘Specially written for broadcasting and produced by Halbert Tatlock’ and was broadcast on 1 November 1924. Radio Times 24 10 1924: 209.Google Scholar

30. Macdonald, Alec, The Trial of Deacon Brodie: A Play Based on the Report of the Famous TrialGoogle Scholar was produced from Edinburgh by Gordon Gildard transmitted 1 Dec. 1933. Tait, W. Gumming, The Trial of Thomas Muir transmitted 2 04 1935.Google Scholar

31. Cough, John, The Thin Red Line: The Royal Scots transmitted 20 11 1938.Google Scholar This was a particularly successful play based on a text originally written and broadcast in 1933 to celebrate the regiment's tercentenary and revived as part of the 1935 Radio Drama Festival. See Gough, , The Royal Scots transmitted 1933Google Scholar; and Gough, , The Royal Scots transmitted 19 10 1935Google Scholar; Gough, , The Black Watch transmitted 24 10 1933Google Scholar; Gough, , The Highland Light Infantry transmitted 23 10 1934.Google ScholarBridson, D. G., The March of the ‘Forty-Five transmitted 10 11 1936.Google Scholar See also Bridson, , Prospero and Ariel: The Rise and Fall of Radio: A Personal Recollection (London: Victor Gollancz, 1971).Google Scholar

32. The development of the radio feature is discussed by a number of practitioners. See, for example, Gielgud, : 47–52Google Scholar; Kemp, Robert, ‘Feature Programmes’ This is the Scottish Home Service (Edinburgh: BBC, 1946): 13–15Google Scholar; and BBC Features ed. Gilliam, Laurence (London: Evans Brothers, 1950).Google Scholar

33. Broadcasting in Britain began with, and indeed to some extent still maintains, this ethos of public service broadcasting–what might popularly be referred to as the Reithian values of information, education and entertainment. James McDonnell offers a four point working definition:

Reith conceived of public service broadcasting as having four facets. Firstly, it should be protected from purely commercial pressures; secondly, the whole nation should be served by the broadcasting service; thirdly there should be unified control, that is public service broadcasting should be organised as a monopoly; and finally, there should be high programme standards. McDonnell, James, Public Service Broadcasting: A Reader (London: Routledge, 1991): 1.Google Scholar

34. Murdoch, Helen, Travelling Hopefully: The Story of Molly Urquhart (Edinburgh: Paul Harris, 1981): 32.Google Scholar

35. Little Theatres, with a general project to improve the amateur drama of the SCDA system, were a feature of several Scottish towns and cities in the 1930s. As well as the Makars in Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen had similar companies.

After the demise of the Curtain (ended by the outbreak of war and tangled amateur administration) the Park was opened by John Stewart in 1940 in the building next door to the old Curtain. After nine years of successful operation the Park closed. The enterprise, however, formed the basis of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

36. Murdoch, : 37.Google Scholar

37. A programme note for the Curtain Theatre's 1936 production of Millar, Robins's Once a Lady (Glasgow: Curtain Theatre, 1936): N. pag.Google Scholar

38. ‘Introducing an Idea.’ The Curtain Theatre: Season 1938–39 (Glasgow: Curtain Theatre, 1938): N. pag.Google Scholar

39. The tiny playing space at the Curtain–only able to seat around 70–was too small for large-scale and successful productions and the spaces of the Lyric Theatre, Sauchiehall Street (the old Royalty) and the Berkley Theatre were important alternative large houses.

40. ‘Talk of the Month.’ Scottish Stage 09 1930: 23.Google Scholar

41. Blair, Philip, Grissel Jaffrey transmitted 14 10 1935.Google ScholarKelsall, Moultrie, This Day transmitted 23 05 1935.Google Scholar Tail's play was first broadcast 7 November 1933 and for some time was said to be the most broadcast play. See the file Notable Scottish Broadcasting Dates, compiled by Archie P Lee and held in the Reference Library, Broadcasting House, Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow. Stewart, Andrew, Bandit transmitted 16 10 1935.Google Scholar Although featured in the 1935 drama event the extant copy of The House of Rosieburn held by the Scottish Theatre Archive is from a 1941 production. See Russell, S. Cumine, The House of Rosieburn transmitted 27 11 1941.Google Scholar

42. Hall, Stuart, ‘Popular Culture and the State,’ Popular Culture and Social Relations, eds Bennett, Tony, Mercer, Colin, and Woollacott, Janet (Milton Keynes: Open U. P., 1986): 44.Google Scholar

43. Highet, John, Scotland on the Air: Aspects of Scottish Broadcasting (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 1949): 1.Google Scholar

44. Early Days of Broadcasting: N. pag.