History

Andrew Marr

16 Aug 2007

Andrew Marr has always used his vast intellect with such wit and verve that he has always come across as a political pundit real people could enjoy. It’s hard to imagine David Frost interviewing Gordon Brown on a Sunday morning, as Marr did last month…

Tutti Frutti - feature

Cult fiction

12 Sep 2006

Sometimes, absence really does make the heart grow fonder. 19 years after it was shown on television, Tutti Frutti has come to occupy a very special place in Scotland’s collective memory. The exuberant, hilariously dark drama, written by the inimitable…

Mark Borkowski - The Fame Formula

7 Aug 2008

ENTERTAINMENT HISTORY (Sidgwick & Jackson) Behind every great celebrity is a brilliant publicist. It’s this remarkable breed which is examined by Mark Borkowski, an experienced PR man himself, as he takes us back through the modern history of fame…

Ridicule - DVD review

Ridicule

15 Jan 2007

COMEDY/HISTORY /DRAMA Wit is indeed the ultimate weapon and there was no place more dangerous than the doomed opulent court of Louis XVI in 18th century Versailles. Into this world comes an impoverished French nobleman Grégoire Ponceludon de Malavoy…

Stephen McGinty - Fire in the Night: The Piper Alpha Disaster

3 Jul 2008

SCOTTISH HISTORY (Macmillan) The Scotsman journalist Stephen McGinty’s Fire in the Night is a moment-by-hideous-moment account of the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in which 167 men died, and published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the…

A History of Scotland (In 60 Minutes or Less)

16 Aug 2007

The avowed intention of this whizz through Scotland’s turbulent past is to bypass the usual cheesy tartan and shortbread stereotypes in favour of something altogether grittier. While this is a noble aim, the trio of performers initially struggle to get…

A personal history of clubbing at the Arches

Arche de Triumphe

18 Sep 2006

I first stepped into the cavernous spaces of the Arches in the year 2000 to hand in an application form for a press position. I remember Andy Arnold taking me on a tour of the building (works) and showing me a massive hole in the floor (the Café Bar…

Mongol

22 May 2008

EPIC/DRAMA/HISTORY (15) 125min Life’s hard when you’re a Mongol. For Genghis Khan, starting life in 1192 as nine-year-old Temudjin (Odnyam Odsuren), the problems start when his selection of a bride is interrupted by the assassination of his father by…

Blame it on Fidel!

15 Nov 2007

Paris in the early 1970s and nine-year-old Anna de La Mesa (Nina Kervel) is having problems coming to terms with her radical political activist parents. Her Spanish-born lawyer father Fernando (Stefano Accorsi) and journalist/writer mother Marie (Julie…

Black Sun: The Nankin Massacre - DVD review

Black Sun: The Nankin Massacre

11 Dec 2006

HISTORY/HORROR This is a very weird amalgam of sub-standard video nasty style gore and sanctimonious documentary footage of the Nanking massacre of 1937. The film might have been a genuine exploitation classic, or a horrifically reflective…

Damian Thompson - Counterknowledge

17 Jan 2008

HISTORY (Atlantic) Conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, creationism and the like are all notions consigned largely to the outer reaches of societal thinking, right? Wrong, according to Damian Thompson. Having spread – largely care of the…

Highland castle to reopen after conservation work

8 Nov 2007

A 15th century Highland castle has reopened to the public after a three year conservation programme. Auchindoun Castle in Moray was closed in the 1960s due to falling masonry, but the Historic Scotland project means it is now safe to explore. The…

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

1 Nov 2007

DRAMA/HISTORY (12A) 114min The allure of the Virgin Queen continues. It’s 1585 and Queen Elizabeth I of England (Cate Blanchett) is being besieged by possible suitors, sedition and the Spanish superpower led by bow-legged arch Catholic fundamentalist…

Stirling Castle’s ancient heads to be recreated

9 Oct 2007

Historic Scotland has commissioned a craftsman to recreate around 40 ancient wooden heads as part of plans to recreate the royal apartments of Stirling Castle as they were in 1538. John Donaldson will carve another set of Stirling Heads to…

Surprise as Magna Carta to be sold in New York

26 Sep 2007

One of the rarest and most important documents in existence, the Magna Carta, is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York at the end of the year. As one of only two versions outside England, the manuscript which sets out the basic principles of…

China’s terracotta army invades London

14 Sep 2007

The 2,200 year-old terracotta army has invaded London’s British Museum, breaking all previous records for advance sales with more than 150,000 tickets already bought. The excitement caused by the life-sized figures, unearthed in 1974 and hailed as…

Scots Tibet study receives Dalai Lama blessing

4 Sep 2007

A team of Scottish academics will undertake a research project studying more than six centuries of Tibetan history. The 10-year St Andrews University project will be led by the Professor Mario Aguilar, of the school of divinity, and has been blessed…

The Namesake

(12A) 121min

26 Mar 2007

HISTORY/DRAMA/ROMANCE Not only is Mira Nair one of the world’s pre-eminent women directors, she has also taken over Spike Lee’s mantle as the most intuitive director making movies about ethnic minorities in America. Having started off making…

End of the road for Arab Strap

The party's over

18 Sep 2006

‘Then on Friday night we went through to the Arches . . . There was only one car going, so some of us had to get the train. We got through quite late. Then we went to a pub to take the gear. There were no problems getting in - we saw some others waiting…

Simon Critchley - The Book of Dead Philosophers

5 Jun 2008

PHILOSOPHER HISTORY (Granta) Alongside religious types, the permanently unhealthy and stand-up comedians, philosophers have a nightly battle with questions about the process of dying and the actual reality of having snuffed it. Naturally, none of them…

Ancient murals uncovered in Peruvian temple

13 Nov 2007

Colourful murals unearthed from the ruins of a 4,000-year-old temple in Peru are thought by archaeologists to be the oldest in the Americas. The temple, which has been named Ventarron, was discovered in the Lambayeque valley, a desert area in the…

King Tut’s mummy goes on display for the first time

5 Nov 2007

The mummy of King Tutankhamun has gone on display to the public for the first time inside his tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings. The 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh is being preserved by a climate-controlled glass coffin, which allows visitors to see…

Medieval tapestry to be unveiled at Stirling Castle

27 Sep 2007

A tapestry which has taken four years to complete is set to be unveiled at Stirling Castle. The 12ft by 14ft work of art entitled ‘The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle’ recreates a series of 16th Century Renaissance tapestries housed in a…

Petition launched by Bard sceptics

10 Sep 2007

Almost 300 people have signed a petition calling for an investigation into the works of William Shakespeare. Among those who claim it is not possible the plays could have been penned by the 16th Century commoner are actors Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark…

Thomas Telford: The Man who Built Britain

BBC2, Mon 6 Aug, 9pm

1 Aug 2007

Jeremy Clarkson will no doubt be livid if he ever watches this. The man who backed Isambard Kingdom Brunel to second place behind Churchill during the 100 Greatest Britons series in 2002 will be aghast to hear that some experts believe Scotsman Thomas…