Scottish Reels

You’ll uncover tartan, Sean Connery, and epic Highland vistas aplenty, but picture-postcard Scotland is the main story. The first movies limelight business and trade in the Edwardian period. Politics loom huge in groundbreaking TV drama (Culloden, 1964; The Cheviot, the Stag plus the Ebony, Ebony Oil, 1974) and autobiography (Bill Douglas’ bleak and breathtaking Trilogy, 1972-78). The Gaelic language has arrived (Machair, 1993), alongside the anarchic stress of Scottish TV comedy (positively, 1989; Rab C Nesbitt, 1992). Meanwhile, classic and contemporary functions through the Wicker Man (1973) and Local Hero (1983) to Shallow Grave (1994) donate to the mythology of both outlying and metropolitan spaces. Something for all – Scots and Sassenachs alike!

Ten to try

Jamaica Street, Glasgow (1901)
a breathtaking glimpse of city life regarding the cusp regarding the Edwardian period, thanks to Messrs Mitchell & Kenyon.

Tartans associated with the Scottish Clans (1906)
Plenty of kilts (but no Celts) inside early colour marvel by pioneer GA Smith.

St Kilda – Britain’s Loneliest Isle (1928)
Just take a voyage from Glasgow to St Kilda: precious moments of the Western Isles and crofting life.

Whisky Galore! (1949)
Ealing’s gently subversive comic favourite about whisky-smuggling within the Hebrides.

The Kilties are arriving (1951)
Meet up with the Royal Kiltie Juniors, a predominantly female variety act who are able to turn their particular hand to performing, dancing and comedy.

One's heart is Highland (1952)
Brit Transport movies’ nostalgic colour ode towards life and surroundings for the Scottish Highlands, together with area’s enchanting, remarkable past.

Gregory’s woman (1980)
John Gordon Sinclair stars in Bill Forsyth’s much-loved comedy of this travails of teenage love.

The Ship (1990)
Effective creation of Bill Bryden’s dazzling shipbuilding crisis, filmed in Harland & Wolff’s shed in Govan, Glasgow.

Red Path (2006)
Andrea Arnold’s stark thriller about a CCTV operator at Glasgow’s condemned Red Road estate, as she monitors the guy which destroyed her life.

Brand New Town (2009)
Mark Gatiss stars as a comically po-faced designer in Annie Griffin’s left-field BBC Four murder secret, set in Edinburgh’s upscale Georgian region.