Posts by Ellie Forbes
Big Banana Feet: Lost Billy Connolly film comes to cinemas after being found on eBay
Nearly 50 years ago, Billy Connolly was in Northern Ireland filming Big Banana Feet. The edgy fly-on-the-wall documentary followed the comedian around the country’s volatile landscape at the height of the Troubles. It was a challenging filming process. Just three weeks before Connolly arrived three musicians of a popular cabaret band were shot and killed…
Read MoreRosebank Distillery: ‘King of the Lowlands’ ready to re-open with 100-year-old mill still used in whisky production
It was closed three decades ago in 1993, but now the ‘King of the Lowlands’, Rosebank Distillery is to reopen. The historic distillery has been brought back to life following a four year restoration project. Its landmark 108ft chimney stack has been repaired and continues to dominate Falkirk’s skyline. The original mill, thought to be…
Read MoreLife With the National Library of Scotland: ‘I have conserved incredible material from Jane Austen to Charles Darwin’
Conservator Claire Hutchison on having the patience to handle delicate archive material, working on a first edition of Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and safeguarding national collections. When I was a kid, I was very much into painting and drawing, but I didn’t know about conservation until I was at high school. I was lucky enough…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Neil Lancaster: ‘Ian Rankin is the master of Scottish fiction’
The retired Met police officer turned author on being inspired by Ian Rankin, John Niven’s heartbreaking memoir and Tony Kent as the British David Baldacci. The first book I remember reading: When I was about ten, my sister was doing her English O’Levels, and one of the books she was being forced to read…
Read MoreClydesdale horse Seamus returned to Scotland after being saved
When Clydesdale horse Seamus was found starving in a field with no grass, it was touch and go as to whether he would survive. The rare Scottish breed are usually associated with pulling heavy farm machinery, but Seamus was so weak he could barely carry himself. With bare patches of flesh where there should have…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Les Wilson: ‘I grew up reading Winnie-the-Pooh, I do a good Eeyore voice’
The former political journalist on being inspired by historian Jan Morris and shrinking time on CalMac ferries to Islay by reading. The first book I remember reading: The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. My mother read it to me (using all sorts of wonderful character voices) and I watched her finger move…
Read MoreJacobite train: World famous Harry Potter steam train service suspended
The world famous Harry Potter steam train service has been suspended following a row over safety regulations. The Jacobite train and the Glenfinnan Viaduct, near Fort William, were made famous after they featured in 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. But the service, run by West Coast Railways (WCR), has been suspended while…
Read MoreLife With VisitScotland: ‘Scotland looks stunning on screen, we want to capitalise on that’
Jenni Steele, film and creative industries manager at VisitScotland, has worked on some of the biggest movies filmed in Scotland. From The Da Vinci Code, Outlaw King, Mary Queen of Scots and Macbeth to Brave and T2 Trainspotting, she talks to us about the rise of screen tourism and how the Outlander effect has impacted Scotland. …
Read MoreBBC announces two new series of hit drama Shetland
The BBC has announced two new series of the hit drama show, Shetland, have been commissioned. Filming for the ninth series will begin this month in locations on the Shetland Isles and across Scotland, with a tenth series to follow. There was speculation whether Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell would reprise their roles after series…
Read MoreTagged hen harrier disappears ‘in suspicious circumstances’ in Angus
RSPB Scotland is investigating the ‘suspicious’ disappearance of a tagged hen harrier – the fourth tagged bird to have disappeared in the area since 2017. Data from the young female bird, which was fledged at the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire, stopped being transmitted on 15 February. A search of the hen harrier, named Shalimar,…
Read More