Best years of Scottish TV ended in the ’80s – Brocklebank

THE best of Scottish television ended in the 1980s, according to the former MSP and head of news and current affairs at Grampian Television (now STV North), Ted Brocklebank.

Writing in The Sunday Post today, Brocklebank references Sunset Song and Tutti Frutti among the pre-1990s fare he believes eclipses current output. Also namechecked are Rab C Nesbitt, Arthur Montford, Bill McLaren, Bill Tennant and Mary Marquis – among others.

His comments follow the start of a series, on BBC Scotland on Wednesdays: Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of Television in Scotland.

He concludes: “But with typical immodesty, my favourite TV memory remains the soundtracks to a documentary series I was lucky enough to produce called The Blood is Strong. An untried Gaelic band, Capercaillie, got the job of producing the theme music. Others will judge the success of the series. The way I see it, if I did nothing else apart from introduce viewers to the sublime voice of Karen Matheson then my role in Scotland’s first 60 television years wasn’t a complete waste of time.”