IN the movies he was James Bond, working for Queen and country. But Sean Connery had another, real-life role behind the camera as a radical young documentary director, taking the side of Glasgow shipyard workers against the bosses.

Next Monday, December 7, STV is to broadcast The Bowler and The Bunnet, the only film the Scots legend ever directed, more than half a century after it originally aired on the channel.

The black and white film finds Connery visiting Glasgow in the mid 1960s to assess new working practices at the struggling Fairfields shipyard.

The Govan yard was home to what was meant to be a new style of industrial relations. As part of what became known as the “Fairfield Experiment”, the workers agreed not to strike for two years. In return, management pledged to retrain and redeploy staff rather than lay them off in leaner times, and to give trade unions a recognised role in the running of the place.

Connery worked with Glasgow scriptwriter Cliff Hanley on the film. It opens with a pitch invasion at a cup final won by Celtic. On narrating as well as directing duties, Connery introduces viewers to Scotland. The voice is unmistakable, the writing style one part Hugh McIlvanney to three parts film noir.

“Scotland,” booms Connery. “The country of the extremes. Love of life, hatred of life. Poets and murderers, rigid temperance and savage drinking, John Knox and Johnnie Walker. England can lose 8000 people by immigration a year, Scotland nearly 50,000.”

Connery’s style is bold and commanding, with comic touches here and there. At one point he rides a bike through an abandoned shipyard to the strains of Land of Hope and Glory. At another, Connery the romantic imagines a game of football between the long gone welders and riveters.

By the time Edinburgh-born Connery made the film, first broadcast on 18 July 1967, he had become world famous as 007 in films ranging from Dr No to Thunderball. You Only Live Twice had its premiere the month before the documentary aired.

The Bowler and The Bunnet is not just a fascinating glimpse at the Glasgow of the 1960s. It also introduces Connery as a political radical. He would one day switch affiliation and become the SNP’s most famous supporter, but in the film the former milkman comes across as a Labour man through and through.

In a 1967 interview to promote The Bowler and the Bunnet, Connery said: “I’d never considered myself a particularly political animal at all, but when I went up to Scotland to look at this Fairfield experiment, it awakened all sorts of dislikes and likes that had obviously been dormant in me.”

A moustachioed Connery, wearing a bunnet, observes in the film: “To the worker’s bitter eye, the situation looks clear – the boss takes the gravy when the going is good, and when things look bad, he sells out, takes his money and vanishes. And that’s the crux. The gulf is complete – the gulf between the bowler and the bunnet.”

Discussing his experience of working with Sir Sean Connery in 1969, STV camera operator Bill Scott said: “He was quite a character and played football with the boys in the yard every lunchtime. So skilful was his footwork that one of the lads commented, ‘He’s maybe a ham actor, but he’s a first-class centre-half’.”

The Bowler and the Bunnet was produced by STV Studios, then known as Scottish Television Enterprises. It received its international premiere at the Rome Film Festival in 2006, with Connery attending.

Sir Sean, who won an Oscar in 1988 for The Untouchables, died at his home in the Bahamas in October this year. He was 90. The current Bond, Daniel Craig, called his predecessor "one of the true greats of cinema", adding: "The wit and charm he portrayed on screen could be measured in megawatts; he helped create the modern blockbuster."

Stephen O’Donnell, director of programme strategy and marketing at STV, said: “While everyone remembers Sir Sean Connery as one of the world’s greatest Scots and the definitive James Bond, I don’t think many will be aware that he directed this fascinating passion project about the volatility of Glasgow’s shipbuilding industry in the 1960s.

“The film provides a vivid insight into a bygone era, and demonstrates Connery’s directorial flair alongside his more widely celebrated acting talent. Little over a month after his sad passing, we’re pleased to be able to introduce viewers to a compellingly different side of the cultural icon they adored.”

The Bowler and the Bunnet, STV, Monday, 11.05pm, and on demand on the STV Player.