Figure 1.--.

Our information on Scottish tlevision is limited at this time. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and thus television developed as part of the stat owned British Broacsting Company (BBC). The BBC developed a policy of promoting regional broadcasting, although we have few details here. Commercial stations were eventully allowed to broadcast. We know of only a few British programs set in Scotland.

Scottish Television

Our information on Scottish tlevision is limited at this time. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and thus television developed as part of the stat owned British Broacsting Company (BBC). The BBC developed a policy of promoting regional broadcasting, although we have few details here. Commercial stations were eventully allowed to broadcast. The Scottish commercial station is called Grampian.,

Scottish Programs

A Scottish reader writes, "There have not been very many TV series set in Scotland. Most British series are made in England and the story lines about England. There are few series here that are not the same as in England. Many kids programmes are Australian these days and I don't watch a lot. There have of course been numerous adaptations of "Treasure Island", "Kidnapped", and "Peter Pan" which feature boys, as well as novels which depict characters as children at the start - such as "Roderick Random" but I don't recall many T.V. adaptations like the English do with Dickens--maybe that's still to come!. I believe quite a few educational programmes made for the schools are now being made in Scotland and there have been Scottish soaps - but they're in Gaelic!." [HBC note, when a film is not a serial, eben though it is made for television, we include those broadcasts in our movie list. On this page we are only list TV serials.

Individual Series

We know of only a few British programs set in Scotland.

Dr. Finlay's Casebook - (Scotland, 1960s?)

A Scottish reader writes, "A famous Scottish series, but before my time was "Dr. Finlay's Casebook". The Scots either loved it or hated it as it showed a stereotypical small-town Scotland. There must have been episodes with children in them. Maybe some older people HBC readers will remember it."

The Gorbals Die-Hards - (Scotland, 1978)

HBC is not familiar with this Scottish TV program. It is based on the John Buchan book "Huntingtower" and is set in Glasgow. The series is about Dickson McCunn, an elderly and very a respectable gentleman who has just retired. He has a romantic soul. He goes on a walking tour in the hills of south-west Scotland. On one of his walks he makes the acquantience of a young English poet. Soon he finds himself involved in a kidnapping plot. A Russian princess is held prisoner in Huntingtower, an isolated mansion. A group of Glasgow scouts - "The Gorbals Die-Hards" - are used to run messages and keep watch on people. The Gorbals Die-Hards is e name adopted by the boys in the book. A Scottish reader writes, "The Gorbals Die-Hards" were great. I remember it was on on a Sunday and we all watched it as a family. I remember as a boy that it was very exciting." The film connection is that "The Thirty Nine Steps" is also by Buchan. I found a book cover, showing the Die-Hards and an early review which says that the boys were formed into an "unofficial body of Boy Scouts". If I remember correctly the hero of the story - Dickson MacCunn organises the boys as scouts, though they are really just a bunch of Glasgow kids who are camping on their own to get out of the city. It was written in 1922 and I think Buchan was trying to push the idea of Scouting as a wholesome pursuit for working-class Glasgow boys - Scouting must have been fairly new then - rather than the "Socialism" some were following. In the TV version I saw years ago the Die-Hards wear their normal clothes and MacCunn just organises them into troops like scouts. Buchan in his book mentions the boys having filthy legs and feet and they all wore shorts except Dougal - the "leader" who may have had a sort of kilt. The point is none of the boys had enough money for proper scout uniform - which is why they were unofficial."

Two Thousand Acres of Sky - (Scotland, 2001?)

I'm not positive about the title. This program is about a mum and her two kids living in a London tenament. They are brought to a Scottish island so that the island school will have the needed 5-child minimum. Without a school the island has no future. She makes an issue of honesty during the visit while pretending to be married in order to obtain the post. The kids wear contemporary clothing.

50/50 - (England/Scotland, ??)

"The Children's Show "50/50" is made by BBC Scotland. The two school teams put on different cloured t-shirts,one yellow, one red. As it's in Scotland there's a lot of Scottish schools - Callender and Moffat are Scottish towns. A typical experience was explained by Nicky, one of the participats, "On December 1st last year a group of 52 children from P6 and P7 along with members of staff travelled to the BBC STUDIOS in Glasgow to take part in the new series of the action packed TV fun game 50/50. The day started at the school. By the time the bus left we were already very excited. When we reached Glasgow we went into the BBC building where we changed into our 50/50 tee-shirts. We were then taken to the BBC canteen and enjoyed the taste of pizza and chicken burgers. Yum Yum. After that we were taken to the Botanical Gardens. Finally we went into the studios and started recording. We were playing against a school from Manchester. Competition was fierce and the studio was extremely hot. It was all very exciting. There were many different rounds of General Knowledge and games with people getting dressed up as witches. I think everybody's favourite round was the Ballometer where we had to throw balls into a machine and score points. It was not as easy as it looked. Overall a very good day was enjoyed by all especially as we turned out to be winners of an ACER ACROS MULTIMEDIA COMPUTER for the school.

Created: December 30, 2003
Last updated: December 30, 2003