Coming soon: The history of Scots film and TV

Hugh Macdonald

Chief Sports Writer

Monday 7 May 2012

AN ambitious attempt has been launched to capture the history of Scottish television and film.

The Inbetweeners producer Christopher Young

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Hugh MacDonald

The Scottish Cultural Memory Project aims to preserve the legacy of recent Scottish cultural activity, initially by interviewing Scotland's leading figures in film and television.

Christopher Young, producer of the massively successful film The Inbetweeners, will be interviewed at Stirling University on Wednesday night as the first subject of the initiative.

Peter Broughan, the Scottish producer of films such as Rob Roy and The Flying Scotsman, is heading the project, which has a year's funding from Creative Scotland and supporting partners in Stirling University and BBC Scotland.Mr Broughan said: "The idea came to me when I was at the funeral of [the late film director] Charlie Gormley a few years ago and I realised that the work of many great Scots was simply not being remembered. If you are not remembering something, then there is a danger of believing that it never happened.''Mr Gormley, who died of cancer in 2005, worked with the celebrated director Bill Forsyth. He is just one of the filmmakers who could slip from public record through neglect. He set up Tree Films with Forsyth and also directed Heavenly Pursuits, starring Tom Conti and Helen Mirren, and Down Among the Big Boys with Billy Connolly.Mr Broughan said: "Over the years it has been difficult to make films in Scotland, but many people have overcome these obstacles and they deserve to be recognised.''He added: "The project is addressing a recognised gap in standard media practice in Scotland. The metropolis looks after its own practitioners and records and keeps their accounts of their work. "This does not happen in any systematic or regular way here, and major contributors to film and television history in Scotland have passed away with their invaluable narratives only partially captured for posterity, or even entirely unrecorded.''About six public interviews will be conducted this year, with another 30 to 40 carried out privately. Mr Broughan also sees the need to capture the expertise of technical staff on film for posterity. He said: "There is the opportunity to conduct interviews which will interest the wider public, but there must be room for interviews that will be of academic interest. "The study of film and media has become a compelling subject and we have in Scotland those who are the masters and mistresses of the art. Their knowledge must be recorded and passed on.''He added: "The interviews will be made available to the public in the future via the internet or, we hope, as elements within broadcast programmes.''The launch of the project at the MacRobert Centre on Wednesday will centre on Mr Young, whose film of The Inbetweeners was based on the television show he also produced."The film has been an extraordinary success,'' said Mr Broughan. "But Christopher is a fine candidate for the first interview because of his long association with Scotland and his passionate commitment to film and to the country.''The success of The Inbetweeners on film and television has made Young, 51, a major industry player but Mr Broughan points out that the producer has a long association with Scotland.In 2007, he made a Gaelic-language children's film, The Inaccessible Pinnacle, shot on Skye, where he now lives with his wife and children. "He has operated at opposite ends of the spectrum,'' said Mr Broughan, who believes the filmmaker's work is of great public interest while also being worthy of academic scrutiny.Mr Broughan also pointed out that the project hoped to "widen out to embrace other forms of cultural and artistic expression in Scotland''.

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Coming soon: The history of Scots film and TV

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