What is a Scottish TV drama?
John Cook in his chapter in The Media in Scotland talks about a three ring circus. Scottish TV drama can be about Scotland, by Scotland or for Scotland. But just because it is one, doesn’t always mean it will be the others as well:
“Television drama may be ‘about’ Scotland but that does not necessarily mean, always, that it has been produced ‘by’ Scotland, or that Scottish interests and influences have been paramount in shaping the resulting images and representations.” (Cook, 2008)
We had a debate regarding what 'about Scotland' would mean. Hannah thought as long as it was set in Scotland it was about Scotland. Graeme on the other hand, believes that just because a TV show is set in Scotland, does not necessarily mean that it is about Scotland.
HISTORY OF SCOTTISH TV DRAMA · Many plays by the Citizen’s theatre co-founder, James Bridie were televised. · James Bridie studied medicine at Glasgow University but developed an interest in theatre. Anybody know is other identity? · Otherwise known as Mary Henderson, his pseudonym. · First major piece of work as a playwright was ‘The Anatomist’. · Helped found the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. · Pharic Maclaren was Scotland’s most prominent television drama producer. · By the end of the 50’s television plays were being produced from BBC Scotland’s Glasgow television studio.
Three Discourses
There are three broad discourses that we have looked at in regards to Scottish media and representations.
Tartanry:
- Garish symbols
- Portrays a ‘romantic’ Scotland
- Usually how the rest of the world see’s Scotland
Kailyard:
- Rural life in the highlands
Clydesideism:
- Hard working Scottish males
- Concentrates on the West of Scotland – typically Glasgow
- It can show a darker side of Scotland (more real side?)
When looking at TV dramas, we found that these discourses tended to overlap quite a lot, a show could fit into a number of them.
Monarch of the Glen - Tartanry
BBC series that first aired in February 2000 and ran for 7 series until 2005.
Mainly tartanry, although Zumkhawala-Cook says it’s Kailyard. It does have kailyard traits – it’s a rural village in the highlands, but I think the tartanry symbols are a lot more prominent.
Is it a Scottish drama?
- About Scotland? Yes, it’s set and filmed in the Scottish highlands with mainly Scottish characters.
- By Scotland? Commissioned by BBC Scotland, but produced by Ecosse Films, who despite the Scottish name are actually based in London. The creator Michael Chaplin in also English, so whether it’s by Scotland could be up for debate.
- For Scotland? Yes and no. It was broadcast on BBC 1 to the whole of Britain, not just Scotland, and it has gone to other countries including America, Canada and Australia. It doesn’t deal with particularly Scottish issues such as politics (the Scottish parliament was only reintroduced in 1997, which would have been a massive issue at the time), the issues it does deal with tend to be more ‘stereotypically’ Scottish and for entertainment purposes.
Tartanry as it’s full of stereotypical 'Scottishness'.
- Clothes: Duncan wears a kilt; Molly often wears a tartan sash thing. While most of the other characters do wear ‘normal’ clothes, there’s always a bit of tartan in there somewhere.
- They live in a picturesque castle in the highlands surrounded by hills, lochs, and deer.
- ‘Nice’ stereotypical accents which appeals to a wider audience.
It’s as though they are trying to ‘sell’ Scotland to the tourist. Glenbogle becomes a guest house, it’s a place for people to go and stay while on holiday.
Creator Michael Chaplin says that “viewers will like to visit Glenbogle because it’s a place where bad things don’t happen. It’s a magical place that many will see as a paradise.”
Head of drama at the BBC agrees: “you’re welcomed into a world you want to spend time in. Viewers have to think ‘it would be fun to live there. I’d like to be part of that extended family.’”
This creates interest in Scotland and hopefully people will want to come and visit it, therefore creating revenue for Scotland.
The actual show brings revenue as well, although the then BBC Scotland controller, John McCormick didn’t seem so sure that Monarch of the Glen was the best way to do this:
“Monarch of the Glen does raise interesting issues. I just came back from Australia where it’s playing on a Saturday at 7.30 and getting record audiences. And you have that kind of feeling like ‘is this what they think contemporary Scotland is like?’...I’m kind of ambivalent to Monarch. It’s a tremendous success, international success. It earns revenue for the BBC which comes back into Scotland. Of course, if you could get million viewers for a gritty contemporary social challenging drama at 8 o’clock on a Sunday night on BBC1, then you may feel more creatively satisfied.” (Interview with McCormick, 2004)
But creating a show like that wouldn’t get the ratings; viewers want to be entertained when watching a TV drama.
Going back to Tartanry, the characters are all quite stereotypical Scots, but it’s not just them that conform to stereotypes. In the 7th series an American woman turns out to be a gold-digger, and a Russian gentleman is filthy rich, quite stuck up, and brings a panther with him on his stay in Glenbogle! It’s important to remember that this is TV drama, is isn’t real, and stereotypes are always going to be played up, not just Scottish ones.
HIGH ROAD - Kailyard
· Set in the fictional town of Glendarrach. Why are they always called Glen’s?
· Filmed on location in Luss, on the banks of Loch Lomand.
· Predominantly Scottish actors.
Is it a Scottish drama?
About Scotland- Not specifically. It was mainly a show about people living in a rural town in Scotland, but not specifically about Scotland itself.
By Scotland – Yes, it was produced by STV Productions.
For Scotland - Not at first, it was originally broadcast throughout Britain until 1993, from 1994 it was broadcast solely in Scotland
Taggart - Clydesideism?
STV drama first aired in 1983 and it’s still going today. It’s the longest running current drama on ITV and had its highest audience in 1992 with 18.3 million viewers.
The format of the show has changed a lot over the years, but it’s now at a standalone hour long episode, but it doesn’t seem to have a set day and time that it’s on, it looks as though it’s on whenever ITV can fit it in.
Is it a Scottish drama?
- About Scotland? Yes, set in Glasgow.
- By Scotland? Yes, it’s produced by STV Productions and created by Glenn Chandler who was born in Edinburgh.
- For Scotland? Maybe. It is broadcast on ITV, not just STV and according to the ‘official’ fanclub website its broadcast in 56 different countries, but I couldn’t find anything that confirmed that. There was a dispute between STV and ITV about whether ITV would show the new series, STV decided to go ahead and make it even if ITV refused to broadcast it, meaning it would only be shown in Scotland. As for Scottish issues, I’ve only seen one episode, and from what I saw, it could be any city, there was nothing particularly Scottish about it.
The accents are Scottish, but don’t seem very strong. They occasionally say a Scottish word or phrase: “Grow up ya daft bugger!” But it’s mainly Scottish Standard English they speak, which like Monacrh of the Glen, I think is to appeal to a wider audience. If they make it too Glasgow specific, I don’t know how many people from the rest of the U.K, let alone other countries, will watch it.
We thought, if it had to be put into one of the discourses, it would Clydesidism. It’s about hard working detectives (men and women though) and it does show a darker side of Glasgow, the detectives are solving murders.
RIVER CITY
· Set in the fiction Glasgow district of Shieldinch.
· Filmed in Dumbarton
· Originally a predominantly Scottish cast, now more international cast members.
· In terms of identifying one of the Scottish discourses in River City, it is difficult as there are no blatantly obvious ones that stand out. I will leave it to Hugh O’Donnell to decipher.
· “With its small-scale industrial heritage and its residually working-class feel, with its kenspeckle local personalities and at times somewhat claustrophobically parochial range – characters seldom venture furth of Shieldinch – River City combines some residual elements of the Kailyard with a somewhat larger dose of watered-down Clydesideism.”
(Hugh O’Donnell, 2008. P130-131)
PSYCHOS
· Only one series made.
· Set in the psychiatric ward of a Glasgow Hospital.
· Criticized heavily for its title and content, although it did gain critical praise and commercial success.
· “Challenging and provocative from the start, it transmitted to widespread critical plaudits while its loyal following tried work out who was more unhinged - the patients, or the doctors who treated them?”
· What we get from this clip is the blatant Scottish accents, but this can’t be helped if the actors have a natural Scottish accent. Can that really fall into any of the discourses?
· The scene where they are in the mental hospital and the doctors are interacting with the patients. There is nothing obviously Scottish about the situation, apart from the accents. Therefore it seems to be unable to fit with any of the three Scottish discourses. The scenery was very-un-kailyardlike. Busy, tenement blocks etc.
· Clydesideism could be argued as the doctors are in the medical profession and therefore have to work hard, especially when treating mentally ill patients. However it would have to be an extremely watered-down version of ‘Clydesideism’ as there is less grit and industry.
GAELIC TELEVISION DRAMA
“The Gaelic Television Committee (CTG) was established by the 1990 Broadcasting Act to provide funding and back-up for Gaelic based programmes. Its aim of providing an additional 200 hours of Gaelic television effectively trebled the Gaelic output, and at the time it was estimated that up to 200 jobs would be created either directly or indirectly by the initiative.”
(http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html)
“In 1992-93, projects funded by the CTG created the equivalent of 280 full-time jobs, proving that not only does the funding benefit the community through an increased range of programming, but also through wide-ranging benefits to the economy.”
(http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html)
‘MACHAIR’
· Produced by Scottish Television Enterprises
· Created, Developed & Written by Peter May and Janice Hally
· Co-written by Anne- Marie di Mambro
· First long-running Scottish Gaelic Television Drama
· Ran from 1993 until 1999 (O’Donnell, 2008, p124)
· Filmed entirely on the Isle of Lewis until 1996 when interiors were shot in Studio Alba
· Successful in ratings, despite the fact that approximately 2% of Scottish people speak Gaelic.
“By the most recent census in 2001, the figure for gaelic speakers was down to 58,652, although 92,000 claimed some Gaelic skills (for example, reading).”
(Cormack, 2008, p216)
Could be classed as exhibiting the discourse of Kailyard due to its location.
“Machair is a Gaelic word that describes an extensive low-lying fertile plain. Almost half of all Scottish machair occurs in the Outer Hebrides and it is one of the rarest habitat types in Europe.” (Wildlife Hebrides, 2002-2003)
“One of the most consistently popular programmes funded by the CTG is Machair, the Gaelic drama which is subtitled in English and shown during peak-time viewing across Scotland. Machair is produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and shot on location on the Isle of Lewis.”
(http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html)
River City Session
Hannah went to the Scottish Students on Screen event at the Centre for Contemorary Arts. During this there was a session with River City.
They said their primary objective is to entertain – not represent real issues. They do want to make sure that it looks real and the characters could be real people though.
The greatest crime in soap is to make characters stereotypes, which kind of touches on what we’re talking about.
Hannah asked the writers if they ever consider the representations of Scotland that they are giving in River City. They said no, it’s not something they ever think about. They see it as a Glasgow soap, not Scottish. It’s all about entertainment, if they start becoming political they will lose their audience. And it’s on the BBC so they have to be careful with what they say and do anyway.
Conclusion
There is clear evidence that some shows fit into some of the discourses, but it is not always clear cut. Some may be more prominent than others.
Tartanry can be a good thing as it helps keep Scotland globally popular.
If the writers of River City don’t see Scottish representation as an issue, should we?
What is a Scottish TV drama?
John Cook in his chapter in The Media in Scotland talks about a three ring circus. Scottish TV drama can be about Scotland, by Scotland or for Scotland. But just because it is one, doesn’t always mean it will be the others as well:
“Television drama may be ‘about’ Scotland but that does not necessarily mean, always, that it has been produced ‘by’ Scotland, or that Scottish interests and influences have been paramount in shaping the resulting images and representations.”
(Cook, 2008)
We had a debate regarding what 'about Scotland' would mean. Hannah thought as long as it was set in Scotland it was about Scotland. Graeme on the other hand, believes that just because a TV show is set in Scotland, does not necessarily mean that it is about Scotland.
HISTORY OF SCOTTISH TV DRAMA
· Many plays by the Citizen’s theatre co-founder, James Bridie were televised.
· James Bridie studied medicine at Glasgow University but developed an interest in theatre. Anybody know is other identity?
· Otherwise known as Mary Henderson, his pseudonym.
· First major piece of work as a playwright was ‘The Anatomist’.
· Helped found the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
· Pharic Maclaren was Scotland’s most prominent television drama producer.
· By the end of the 50’s television plays were being produced from BBC Scotland’s Glasgow television studio.
Three Discourses
There are three broad discourses that we have looked at in regards to Scottish media and representations.
Tartanry:
- Garish symbols
- Portrays a ‘romantic’ Scotland
- Usually how the rest of the world see’s Scotland
Kailyard:
- Rural life in the highlands
Clydesideism:
- Hard working Scottish males
- Concentrates on the West of Scotland – typically Glasgow
- It can show a darker side of Scotland (more real side?)
When looking at TV dramas, we found that these discourses tended to overlap quite a lot, a show could fit into a number of them.
Monarch of the Glen
BBC series that first aired in February 2000 and ran for 7 series until 2005.
Mainly tartanry, although Zumkhawala-Cook says it’s Kailyard. It does have kailyard traits – it’s a rural village in the highlands, but I think the tartanry symbols are a lot more prominent.
Is it a Scottish drama?
- About Scotland? Yes, it’s set and filmed in the Scottish highlands with mainly Scottish characters.
- By Scotland? Commissioned by BBC Scotland, but produced by Ecosse Films, who despite the Scottish name are actually based in London. The creator Michael Chaplin in also English, so whether it’s by Scotland could be up for debate.
- For Scotland? Yes and no. It was broadcast on BBC 1 to the whole of Britain, not just Scotland, and it has gone to other countries including America, Canada and Australia. It doesn’t deal with particularly Scottish issues such as politics (the Scottish parliament was only reintroduced in 1997, which would have been a massive issue at the time), the issues it does deal with tend to be more ‘stereotypically’ Scottish and for entertainment purposes.
Tartanry as it’s full of stereotypical 'Scottishness'.
- Clothes: Duncan wears a kilt; Molly often wears a tartan sash thing. While most of the other characters do wear ‘normal’ clothes, there’s always a bit of tartan in there somewhere.
- They live in a picturesque castle in the highlands surrounded by hills, lochs, and deer.
- Opening credits.
- Monster in the loch episode.
- ‘Nice’ stereotypical accents which appeals to a wider audience.
It’s as though they are trying to ‘sell’ Scotland to the tourist. Glenbogle becomes a guest house, it’s a place for people to go and stay while on holiday.
Creator Michael Chaplin says that “viewers will like to visit Glenbogle because it’s a place where bad things don’t happen. It’s a magical place that many will see as a paradise.”
Head of drama at the BBC agrees: “you’re welcomed into a world you want to spend time in. Viewers have to think ‘it would be fun to live there. I’d like to be part of that extended family.’”
This creates interest in Scotland and hopefully people will want to come and visit it, therefore creating revenue for Scotland.
The actual show brings revenue as well, although the then BBC Scotland controller, John McCormick didn’t seem so sure that Monarch of the Glen was the best way to do this:
“Monarch of the Glen does raise interesting issues. I just came back from Australia where it’s playing on a Saturday at 7.30 and getting record audiences. And you have that kind of feeling like ‘is this what they think contemporary Scotland is like?’...I’m kind of ambivalent to Monarch. It’s a tremendous success, international success. It earns revenue for the BBC which comes back into Scotland. Of course, if you could get million viewers for a gritty contemporary social challenging drama at 8 o’clock on a Sunday night on BBC1, then you may feel more creatively satisfied.”
(Interview with McCormick, 2004)
But creating a show like that wouldn’t get the ratings; viewers want to be entertained when watching a TV drama.
Going back to Tartanry, the characters are all quite stereotypical Scots, but it’s not just them that conform to stereotypes. In the 7th series an American woman turns out to be a gold-digger, and a Russian gentleman is filthy rich, quite stuck up, and brings a panther with him on his stay in Glenbogle! It’s important to remember that this is TV drama, is isn’t real, and stereotypes are always going to be played up, not just Scottish ones.
HIGH ROAD - Kailyard
· Set in the fictional town of Glendarrach. Why are they always called Glen’s?
· Filmed on location in Luss, on the banks of Loch Lomand.
· Predominantly Scottish actors.
Is it a Scottish drama?
Taggart - Clydesideism?
STV drama first aired in 1983 and it’s still going today. It’s the longest running current drama on ITV and had its highest audience in 1992 with 18.3 million viewers.
The format of the show has changed a lot over the years, but it’s now at a standalone hour long episode, but it doesn’t seem to have a set day and time that it’s on, it looks as though it’s on whenever ITV can fit it in.
Is it a Scottish drama?
- About Scotland? Yes, set in Glasgow.
- By Scotland? Yes, it’s produced by STV Productions and created by Glenn Chandler who was born in Edinburgh.
- For Scotland? Maybe. It is broadcast on ITV, not just STV and according to the ‘official’ fanclub website its broadcast in 56 different countries, but I couldn’t find anything that confirmed that. There was a dispute between STV and ITV about whether ITV would show the new series, STV decided to go ahead and make it even if ITV refused to broadcast it, meaning it would only be shown in Scotland. As for Scottish issues, I’ve only seen one episode, and from what I saw, it could be any city, there was nothing particularly Scottish about it.
The accents are Scottish, but don’t seem very strong. They occasionally say a Scottish word or phrase: “Grow up ya daft bugger!” But it’s mainly Scottish Standard English they speak, which like Monacrh of the Glen, I think is to appeal to a wider audience. If they make it too Glasgow specific, I don’t know how many people from the rest of the U.K, let alone other countries, will watch it.
We thought, if it had to be put into one of the discourses, it would Clydesidism. It’s about hard working detectives (men and women though) and it does show a darker side of Glasgow, the detectives are solving murders.
RIVER CITY
· Set in the fiction Glasgow district of Shieldinch.
· Filmed in Dumbarton
· Originally a predominantly Scottish cast, now more international cast members.
· In terms of identifying one of the Scottish discourses in River City, it is difficult as there are no blatantly obvious ones that stand out. I will leave it to Hugh O’Donnell to decipher.
· “With its small-scale industrial heritage and its residually working-class feel, with its kenspeckle local personalities and at times somewhat claustrophobically parochial range – characters seldom venture furth of Shieldinch – River City combines some residual elements of the Kailyard with a somewhat larger dose of watered-down Clydesideism.”
(Hugh O’Donnell, 2008. P130-131)
PSYCHOS
· Only one series made.
· Set in the psychiatric ward of a Glasgow Hospital.
· Criticized heavily for its title and content, although it did gain critical praise and commercial success.
· “Challenging and provocative from the start, it transmitted to widespread critical plaudits while its loyal following tried work out who was more unhinged - the patients, or the doctors who treated them?”
· What we get from this clip is the blatant Scottish accents, but this can’t be helped if the actors have a natural Scottish accent. Can that really fall into any of the discourses?
· The scene where they are in the mental hospital and the doctors are interacting with the patients. There is nothing obviously Scottish about the situation, apart from the accents. Therefore it seems to be unable to fit with any of the three Scottish discourses. The scenery was very-un-kailyardlike. Busy, tenement blocks etc.
· Clydesideism could be argued as the doctors are in the medical profession and therefore have to work hard, especially when treating mentally ill patients. However it would have to be an extremely watered-down version of ‘Clydesideism’ as there is less grit and industry.
GAELIC TELEVISION DRAMA
“The Gaelic Television Committee (CTG) was established by the 1990 Broadcasting Act to provide funding and back-up for Gaelic based programmes. Its aim of providing an additional 200 hours of Gaelic television effectively trebled the Gaelic output, and at the time it was estimated that up to 200 jobs would be created either directly or indirectly by the initiative.”
(http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html)
“In 1992-93, projects funded by the CTG created the equivalent of 280 full-time jobs, proving that not only does the funding benefit the community through an increased range of programming, but also through wide-ranging benefits to the economy.”
(http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html)
‘MACHAIR’
· Produced by Scottish Television Enterprises
· Created, Developed & Written by Peter May and Janice Hally
· Co-written by Anne- Marie di Mambro
· First long-running Scottish Gaelic Television Drama
· Ran from 1993 until 1999 (O’Donnell, 2008, p124)
· Filmed entirely on the Isle of Lewis until 1996 when interiors were shot in Studio Alba
· Successful in ratings, despite the fact that approximately 2% of Scottish people speak Gaelic.
“By the most recent census in 2001, the figure for gaelic speakers was down to 58,652, although 92,000 claimed some Gaelic skills (for example, reading).”
(Cormack, 2008, p216)
Could be classed as exhibiting the discourse of Kailyard due to its location.
“Machair is a Gaelic word that describes an extensive low-lying fertile plain. Almost half of all Scottish machair occurs in the Outer Hebrides and it is one of the rarest habitat types in Europe.” (Wildlife Hebrides, 2002-2003)
“One of the most consistently popular programmes funded by the CTG is Machair, the Gaelic drama which is subtitled in English and shown during peak-time viewing across Scotland. Machair is produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and shot on location on the Isle of Lewis.”
(http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html)
River City Session
Hannah went to the Scottish Students on Screen event at the Centre for Contemorary Arts. During this there was a session with River City.
They said their primary objective is to entertain – not represent real issues. They do want to make sure that it looks real and the characters could be real people though.
The greatest crime in soap is to make characters stereotypes, which kind of touches on what we’re talking about.
Hannah asked the writers if they ever consider the representations of Scotland that they are giving in River City. They said no, it’s not something they ever think about. They see it as a Glasgow soap, not Scottish. It’s all about entertainment, if they start becoming political they will lose their audience. And it’s on the BBC so they have to be careful with what they say and do anyway.
Conclusion
There is clear evidence that some shows fit into some of the discourses, but it is not always clear cut. Some may be more prominent than others.
Tartanry can be a good thing as it helps keep Scotland globally popular.
If the writers of River City don’t see Scottish representation as an issue, should we?