Out of the box

Talking heads

The Scottish television and radio industry is part of the wider UK industry which has an unrivalled reputation for excellence world-wide. It's a proud part lead by powerful voices who contribute both to the bigger picture and champion home-grown production. Kirsty Wark is a good example. Not only is she one of Scotland's leading broadcasters with a top UK profile, but through her BAFTA-award-winning company Wark-Clements she also tackles subjects as diverse as American novelist Annie E. Proulx and the First World War, a major forthcoming Channel 4 series.

Eileen Gallagher is a Scottish television producer who has moved up through Scottish TV and the top job at LWT to head up her own independent production company Shed Productions (responsible for ITV 1's hit series 'Bad Girls' and 'Footballers' Wives'). She is also the chair of PACT, which campaigns on behalf of independent TV producers in the UK and has offices in both London and Glasgow.

Another quick-silvered Scot is Andrea Calderwood. Head of drama at BBC Scotland at the age of 28 and responsible for producing 'Hamish Macbeth' starring Robert Carlyle she has moved into the allied world of film-making, being instrumental in the making of 'Mrs Brown' and playing a key role in the burgeoning career of one of Scotland's hottest movie directors, Lynne Ramsay ('Ratcatcher', 'Morvern Callar' and – in the pipeline – 'The Lovely Bones').

Feeding the tube

Television has a voracious appetite for programmes. Accordingly it offers a breadth of opportunity to creative talents. The relationship between the major TV channels and the independent TV producers is therefore of utmost importance as it represents a crucial conduit for fresh ideas. Stuart Cosgrove is a man who knows this well. As Channel 4's Nations and Regions director he is tasked to develop TV production outside London which represents 28% of Channel 4's commissions.

With regards to Scotland – where Cosgrove himself is based – the economic development agencies Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have joined forces with Channel 4 in a unique initiative to expand the Scottish creative economy. Two million pounds are being put into a two-year project called Ideasfactory Scotland which is designed to help both individuals and companies develop their profile within the industry. Visit the UK-wide site www.ideasfactory.com for more information.

Within Scotland, the two enterprise networks are also working with Channel 4 and other local stakeholders to create four city-based 'productions'.

Cosgrove has long been a champion of such collaborations and sees programmes like 'Gas Attack' as an excellent example of what 'creative cities' can produce in terms of innovative television and collaborative funding. Although Channel 4 commissioned the programme, funding came from a number of sources including Scotland's screen agency Scottish Screen.

The heavyweights

It goes without saying that BBC Scotland is a cornerstone of the industry in Scotland. John McCormick has been the Controller for the past decade and last year he oversaw a £23 million rise in investment in programming. Barbara McKissack has been the Head of Drama since 1998 and has overseen a drama output that has received acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Credits as Executive Producer include, 'Life Support', 'Two Thousand Acres of Sky', the award-winning 'Tinsel Town' series and the hugely popular 'Monarch of the Glen' which now has a world-wide audience of 50 million.

The latter, based on the novels by Compton Mackenzie, plays to a world-wide audience and is about to go into its fifth series. It is co-produced by Douglas Rae's Ecosse Films, one of Britain's leading film and television production companies whose first feature was the universally acclaimed 'Mrs Brown' starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly and Gerry Butler.

The other industry cornerstone is Scottish TV which has held the ITV licence for Central Scotland since commercial television started in 1957. Scottish TV is the most watched station in Scotland, broadcasting to 3.4 million viewers and producing over 1000 hours of regional programmes each year. Output includes detective hits like 'Rebus', 'Taggart' and 'Sirens' and How2, the UK's most popular children's information show. Scottish TV is part of SMG which owns Grampian TV, Virgin Radio and Pearl and Dean (the cinema advertising company). It also has a 25% shareholding in the premier UK breakfast channel GMTV.

From 60,000 to 40,000,000

There may be fewer than 60,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland but they are the voice of one of the most poetic and resilient cultures in the world.

Over £8.5 million per annum is spent through the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee on commissioning programmes, with an additional £2 million committed by broadcasters. As Scotland Office Minister Anne McGuire has said, "In terms of audience reach this compares favourably with expenditure on minority language broadcasting elsewhere." The Government's Communications Bill which is to be introduced into Parliament later this year, will, if enacted, produce a new legal framework for Gaelic broadcasting and pave the way for an enhanced service in the digital age. There is a wealth of Gaelic programming content currently in production including a documentary about the creation of 'The Great Book of Gaelic' by Murray Grigor, two series by Paracas Media – one about the great mapmakers of the world and the other about the history of Communism – and the BBC's 'Eorpa' a current affairs series analysing the major issues hitting the headlines across Europe.

At the other end of the numbers scale is the Scottish diaspora which, at a conservative estimate, stands at around 40 million people. Fiona Kennedy and Robert Sproul-Cran have devised a channel to keep these millions in touch with all things Scottish – Tartan TV. The half hour show has a magazine format and all features are streamed back onto the Tartan TV website and include online buying facilities and opportunities for tracing Scottish ancestors and seeing pictures of clan regions. Not only does Scotland keep influencing the world at large, it's getting easier to keep in touch!