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.
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