FROM the skirling bagpipes of Brigadoon to the drug-addled noir of Trainspotting, Scottish identity is one that has long been intertwined with conflicting stereotypes, myth and legend.
A new BBC programme will attempt to wade through the quagmire of cultural cringe as it examines the role film and television has played in creating a global image of Scots over the past century.
Wha's Like Us? will be shown on BBC One Scotland this Hogmanay, bringing together clips from the Hollywood golden era alongside cult classics and lesser known gems.
Presented by Still Game and River City star Sanjeev Kohli, the one-hour special features contributions from academics, film critics, authors and actors including Kate Dickie, Clare Grogan, Gary Lewis, Denis Lawson and Alex Norton.
A wry and often humorous journey through the archives, it runs the gamut from the romanticised, mist-swirling and heather-strewn Scotland in the likes of Whisky Galore and I Know Where I'm Going to the gritty urban realism of Neds, Small Faces and Ratcatcher.
The dark comedy of Orphans and Shallow Grave is juxtaposed with cliched caricatures such as Mike Myers playing a McEwan's Export-swigging father singing slurred odes to his Scottish homeland in So I Married An Axe Murderer.
Other highlights include a tongue-in-cheek celebration of crimes against Scottish accents – including chief offender Christopher Lambert as immortal hero Connor MacLeod in 1986 fantasy epic Highlander – and an emotional montage to an unexpected staple of cinema: tough men crying.
"It is a look at how the Scottish soul has been projected to the world, the good, the bad and the glorious of Scottish stereotypes," says Kohli. "As the old toast kind of goes: 'Wha's like us? Damn few and they're all fictional'. Which is probably just as well …"
The programme addresses what Kohli describes as "a harmony of opposites" when it comes to the starkly contrasting ways that Scottish characters are depicted on screen.
"There seems to be all these different stereotypes fighting each other," he says. "You have the mean tightness of Scots whereas that is not really true because they are incredibly generous as well.
"We are meant to be dour and monosyllabic but also lyrical and raconteurs. It was quite nice to pull the strands out and examine that in what is hopefully an entertaining way."
Another element that the show touches upon is the enduring image of the Glaswegian hard man and the inimitable working-class energy that can be found throughout Scottish film and television.
For Kohli, nothing embodies that more than Just Another Saturday with its unflinching themes of sectarianism and violence.
Written by Peter McDougall and starring Billy Connolly and Jon Morrison, the film was considered ground-breaking and created shockwaves when it was released in 1975.
"I was eight or nine when Peter McDougall made his big impact with Just Another Saturday," recalls Kohli. "That speaks to me a lot.
"It is the kind of Glasgow I remember when I would go into town with my dad. The area where the concert hall is has been gentrified now, but it was horrible back in the late 1970s and early 80s.
"Just Another Saturday gets into your bones: that griminess and grittiness. Again, this is another stereotype we talk about – the gritty and grimy Glasgow – but that is how it was then. It wasn't just through the filter of the camera. That was reality."
While not all films are made equal, homage can be found in the most surprising of places with broadcaster and author Muriel Gray drawing parallels between two well-known Scottish flicks.
"What is Local Hero if it isn't Brigadoon?" she says. "It is the same thing, giving up the modern world to step back into this beautiful idea of a romantic Scotland which I think is still there somewhere."
Dr Jonny Murray, a senior lecturer in film at the University of Edinburgh, believes celluloid classic Whisky Galore has more in common with contemporary flick Trainspotting than first meets the eye.
"There is a lot of substance abuse in Scottish cinema," he says. "By Trainspotting, the whole country seems to have graduated onto heroin. It is very much an escape from reality.
"I think there is definitely an argument that can be made to say that Trainspotting is Kailyard with club beats. Whisky Galore becomes Heroin Galore.
"Again we see incredibly unscrupulous, wild, wily, unruly locals who refuse to respect the rules by which the game of modern life is played."
Wha's Like Us? is on BBC One, Hogmanay, 10pm
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