OVER the past few weekends, ITV has been re-running its collection of old Bond movies. We’ve had classics such as The Spy Who Loved Me, Live and Let Die, and For Your Eyes Only. We’ve been to exotic locations such as the Pyramids of Giza and Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps. But we haven’t been to Tobermory (main picture).
Ian Fleming was probably the most famous Scots thriller writer of the 20th century, but he was run a close second by Alistair MacLean (above). Glasgow-born Maclean published a screed of hugely popular adventure yarns including The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra; his books are estimated to have sold more than 150 million copies.
This newspaper can be credited with kick-starting it all. In 1954, MacLean won a Glasgow Herald short story competition, bringing him to the attention of publisher Ian Chapman, who persuaded him that his future lay in writing novels.
Several of his books were adapted for the big screen (the rights from his first, HMS Ulysses, gave him financial security, but it was never filmed). The Guns of Navarone (1961), Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Ice Station Zebra (1968) were well received.
In 1971, Étienne Périer directed When Eight Bells Toll, starring Anthony Hopkins, Robert Morley and Nathalie Delon. Producer Elliott Kastner had plans for a series of all-action espionage thrillers to rival the Bond franchise, but the movie’s disappointing takings ended that dream.
Still, the movie put Scotland – more specifically, Mull – firmly in the spotlight. Mull was used as the setting for the fictional Isle of Torbay, Tobermory for the town of Torbay. According to the Explore Isle of Mull website, “Brown’s Ironmongers in Tobermory was featured, along with some wonderful footage of Bloody Bay and the helicopter flying over Tobermory Lighthouse.”
Proof that you only live twice.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here