Our new First Minister Alex Salmond has been relatively quiet, until this week at least, when he chose to make an issue of the fact that Scotland should have its own news rather than a London based broadcast with mainly Engish news topics. I can see his point, but I only watch for the international news rather than UK news and I think that Reporting Scotland or North Tonight cover local news quite well, in as far as it's usually fairly pedestrian anyway!I suspect however, that the main issue at stake here has nothing to do with the news. Salmond enlarged on the topic by expressing dissatisfaction with the number of shows made in Scotland, being commissioned by the BBC. He indicated that he felt the BBC were London biased and had claimed that Scotland didn't have the necessary talent. Perhaps he has a point and anyone can see that most programmes filmed in Scotland over recent years hardly reflect Scotland. Monarch of the Glen for instance was a thinly veiled Englishman's stereotypical Scotland, while Take the High Road ( later High Road) portrayed the parochial cliched Shepherd and Gamekeeper type Scotsman, more akin to the 19th century. More recently we've had River City, which I can't even bear to watch, it's so bad, is Glasgow really like that? I'd like to think not!
Getting to the point, what I really think this is aiming at is the need to have a film studio in Scotland. The main proponent for a film studio in Scotland, has been for a long time, Sir Sean Connery. Sean Connery has also been a firm backer of the SNP for many years and he and Alex Salmond have been friends for a long time. Salmond in fact threw a party for Connery at his Bute House residence in June. There's no way on Earth that Salmond won't try to push the idea of a film studio in Scotland, for his good friend Connery. I certainly think we should have one, but there is of course one obstacle that Salmond will have to deal with, which is why I think he opened up the debate in the way he did. Tough laws and fees required for permission to film in Scotland are keeping production companies (especially smaller ones) away. If a film studio is to go ahead Salmond will have to push for a substantial relaxation in those areas. That will be his toughest challenge! If he succeeds, the advantages to the Scots economy could be huge!
Getting to the point, what I really think this is aiming at is the need to have a film studio in Scotland. The main proponent for a film studio in Scotland, has been for a long time, Sir Sean Connery. Sean Connery has also been a firm backer of the SNP for many years and he and Alex Salmond have been friends for a long time. Salmond in fact threw a party for Connery at his Bute House residence in June. There's no way on Earth that Salmond won't try to push the idea of a film studio in Scotland, for his good friend Connery. I certainly think we should have one, but there is of course one obstacle that Salmond will have to deal with, which is why I think he opened up the debate in the way he did. Tough laws and fees required for permission to film in Scotland are keeping production companies (especially smaller ones) away. If a film studio is to go ahead Salmond will have to push for a substantial relaxation in those areas. That will be his toughest challenge! If he succeeds, the advantages to the Scots economy could be huge!
1 comment:
When I think of Scottish TV I think of River City. I think for the good of Scottish media we need to stop River City right now and go into denial, and convince ourselves it never existed, so we stop getting River City flashbacks in the mind whenever we think of doing anything.
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