By ANDREW YOUNG,

Entertainments Editor

DESMOND Wilcox, creator of the award-winning television series The

Visit said yesterday that he had been dismissed by BBC Scotland and

accused James Hunter, head of television, of attempting to rebuild

Hadrian's Wall.

''It appears that unless you are Beethoven or centre forward for

Aberdeen Football Club you are no longer quoted,'' he said with passing

reference to two of Mr Hunter's known passions, music and football. The

Aberdeen Mafia is an oft-used expression in the power corridors at BBC

Scotland.

''I have enjoyed my tartanisation and would have liked to continue

doing my stints from the Glasgow base,'' Mr Wilcox said, ''but am now

being forced to work from the other side of the wall.

''Jim has told me that he believes in killing something when it is

strong. I am glad they don't believe down south that healthy programmes

should suffer this plight. Jonathan Powell, controller, BBC1, has told

me he thinks there is a lot of life left in the series. So there will be

more programmes under the title of The Visit, but they will be made by

my independent company, Wilcox Bulmer, from London.''

Mr Wilcox, who is married to Esther Rantzen, said that he would be

taking ''the kids'' with him to London to continue the series. By this

he meant director Alex McCall and his assistant producer, Jan Riddell.

The news of the break-up came yesterday at a preview in Glasgow for

the first programme in the sixth (and last Scottish) series of The

Visit, due to be screened next Wednesday. It is the story of writer Paul

Jennings's struggle to join ''a tough and demanding profession''. The

BBC Scotland team previously documented the stories of Boy David,

paralysed PC Philip Olds, who said on the programme he intended to kill

himself and subsequently committed suicide, and Connie Taylor, victim of

a street accident.

Mr Wilcox, who has had many top jobs in British television and

established a reputation for producing programmes in difficult areas,

has been working on regular productions of The Visit in Scotland for the

past nine years.

The next series, being made by his own company, is already in

production and one of the programmes, The Glasnost Assignment, has been

drafted into the current series because of its topical value. It is

about a young Russian photographer who was born and brought up in a

slave labour camp because his father refused to co-operate with the KGB.

Mr Hunter was in London yesterday and unavailable for comment. A

spokesman in Glasgow said: ''BBC Scotland helped launch The Visit, but

things move on and new programme ideas must be explored.

Increasing demands by Scottish-based independent producers are

believed to be involved in the departure of Mr Wilcox. The Government

has decreed that 25% of production should go the independent companies,

and it would be expected that such work would be farmed out locally.