MR COLIN MacLean's comments (March 17) on Tuned In: 75 years of Broadcasting by the BBC in Scotland told part of the story of the gross omissions in this programme. The most important of these, however, was its failure to mention Pharic Maclaren who more than anyone else was responsible for the creation of television drama in Scotland.
The Drama Department worked on a low budget and could only supplement this by making programmes acceptable to the BBC network. This required programmes of high production qualities to be made on a low budget. That the department succeeded in doing this was due largely to Pharic, who not only made the programmes, but fought hard and successfully to have them shown throughout Britain. Since some money for such programmes came from the national budget, there was considerable resistance from the south. Most people try to protect their own interests so this was not unnatural.
This resistance did not reach to the top for I can remember two occasions when the Heads of BBC1 and BBC2 overrode an attempt by the Head of Scripts in London to keep Scottish productions off the air.
75 Years of Broadcasting was equally reticent about the considerable contribution made to radio drama in Scotland by James Crampsie and Stewart Conn. The makers kept looking back into the distance and sometimes seeing what was not there.
If my memory serves me correctly, Doctor Finlay's Case Book was not made by BBC Scotland. The programme they featured most was the White Heather Club which was not the only programme made by the Light Entertainment Department.
75 Years of Broadcasting suggested too that the Scottish Drama Department pandered to London's preference for ''Redcoats in the Heather''. I can only think of two such programmes made by the Drama Department and these were The New Road and The Flight of the Heron which were made as part of the series of adaptations of Scottish classics.
The notable omissions were not confined to drama, but that is the department I am best qualified to comment upon. I have some sympathy with anyone who is required to cover 75 years of broadcasting in less than an hour. The result was necessarily skimpy. Perhaps, if it could not be made well, it would have been better not to make it at all.
Tom Wright,
318 Churchill Drive, Glasgow.
March 17.
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