Let me introduce you
to the internet version
of the pub bore
Quintin Jardine
Catalonia and language
The Cafe
Well said Scottish Review and not before time. The BBC Scotland online service lost the confidence of many people some time ago but the censoring of political views by removing the automatic interactive facility on its political output is the final straw.
As Kenneth Roy (17 January) pointed out, free comment is still encouraged on the political output on the UK pages (and a salutary experience of ignorance of contemporary Scotland and deeply offensive anti-Scottish ranting it regularly provides) but free comment on politics is still available on the BBC Wales and the BBC Northern Ireland online services.
For a considerable period, the BBC Online ‘Blether With Brian’, which had initially been a relaxed and enjoyable feature, became subjected to completely illiberal moderating. No acceptable reasons were given on many occasions for items being removed and complaints about this being raised on the forums of Newsnet Scotland resulted ludicrously in any post onto BWB which mentioned Newsnet Scotland being automatically refused publication regardless of the validity of its other content.
The deluge of complaints to the BBC appeared to have had an effect as moderating became more reasonable for a time. There is no doubt that BWB was dominated by those in favour of the SNP and constitutional change. In this respect it was little different from most other political blogs in Scotland.
The SNP commands more support than the other three major Scottish parties can muster between them. There is virtually no radical or even coherent political debate emanating from any other source at the moment. It would be surprising indeed if an open political blog did not reflect this.
It is not any obligation on the BBC to provide a political defence for the union. However, the fact that the phrase ‘the threat of independence’ was actually used recently on a BBC Scotland news report tells us all we need to know on that issue.
David Hill
Kenneth Roy’s comments about BBC Scotland’s apparent suppression of debate on the Taylor/ Fraser blogs struck a chord. As a one-time talks producer at the BBC, I enjoy listening each week to ‘Any Questions.’ Last Friday night it came from Musselburgh. This was a surprise, as I had noticed no promotion of the event in the press or on the website of the local council where I now work. I wondered how they had recruited their audience, with so little publicity?
‘Any Questions?’ Yes, I have a couple. Why were they broadcasting from Loretto, a private school favoured by the British establishment, rather than one of our East Lothian state schools? Musselburgh Grammar has a proud history, stretching at least three centuries beyond Loretto’s. It has excellent facilities.
Then, there was the curious lack of Scottish accents amongst the questioners. I counted one definite Scot and another possible. Why did the rest sound – sorry – English, to my ear?
Michael Lloyd
Where Scotland
should be looking
for inspiration
Kenneth Roy
Denmark: more than just Sarah Lund
www.bobsmithart.com
Paradoxically, the years of political excitement have been accompanied by
a steady diminishing of ambition at BBC Scotland. The best it can do these days is ‘River City’. Well, no one ever said it was art.
The other Danes we encountered – the ones who didn’t go around bumping off young prostitutes – were delightful. I had not come across, and haven’t since, so friendly and intelligent a people. One night we were entertained to dinner by the Danish government, one of whose members – a cabinet minister – delivered an indiscreet after-dinner speech.
The discussion turned to the economy – it was one of those faraway interludes of rampant inflation – in which Denmark enjoyed a reputation for carefree spending on the good life.
‘Isn’t there a danger,’ asked one of our number – it might even have been me – ‘that Denmark is going off the rails?’
‘Yes, yes,’ the cabinet minister agreed with obvious enthusiasm. ‘But what you must remember is that we’re all travelling first-class!’.
How could I resist a country in which everyone was going off the rails but travelling first-class? I couldn’t and didn’t. I fell in love with Denmark on the spot, just as the absent John Toye had fallen in love with a Danish tour guide.
Unlike Scotland, Denmark continues to travel first-class. Last year, the most outstanding television drama to hit British screens was ‘The Killing’ (followed by ‘The Killing 2’). It was much remarked upon for the Fair Isle jumper of its single-minded heroine, to the extent that its many other merits tended to be overlooked: its superb craftsmanship, the subtle skills of the writing and acting, the deeply credible characterisation. For 30 hours, aficionados were gripped. Why can’t Britain produce something of this quality? (I fell to wondering). Why can’t Scotland?
I consoled myself that ‘The Killing’ was a one-off – the big one which had absorbed all the resources of Danish state television, leaving nothing in reserve. I was wrong. Astonishingly, the same team is now bringing us ‘Borgen’, a 10-part political drama with the same remarkable properties – as well as a human warmth lacking in its more forensic predecesssor.
The series is already being widely praised, and rightly so. But it needs pointing out that these programmes are the product of a country of comparable population to Scotland: a country of 5.5 million people.
There was a time when Scotland produced television drama of exceptional standard. In 1972, Pharic Maclaren delivered Bill Craig’s masterly adaptation of ‘Sunset Song’ to the BBC network; in 1987, John Byrne at the top of his form gave us the sublime ‘Tutti Fruti’. Since then – nothing. Paradoxically, the years of political excitement have been accompanied by a steady diminishing of ambition at BBC Scotland. The best it can do these days is ‘River City’. Well, no one ever said it was art. Over at STV, we have had the competent but formulaic ‘Taggart’, and not a lot else.
Yet we have the actors; we have always had the actors. I am not so sure about the writers or the directors, but I’m prepared to believe that they are still out there with all sorts of wonderful, unrealised ideas. All that we need to spark a revival of television drama in Scotland, with its capacity to examine ourselves critically at a time when critical examination is so badly needed, is the will or the imagination or the resources – or a bit of all three. Unfortunately, all three appear to be lacking.
Scotland fails to travel first-class. That is the crux of the nature of the national problem. No amount of political grandstanding will change it. But I have a modest, not very expensive suggestion. Send someone to Denmark and find out how they do it.
Kenneth Roy is editor of the Scottish Review
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