The first Films of Scotland were made for the 1938 Empire Exhibition. Rare colour film shows how magical the exhibition was for the children of depression-scarred Glasgow. The seven amazing films made especially for the exhibition showed audiences something they'd not seen before - real people in real places, from the remote Highlands to the shipyards of Dundee. As well as stunning extracts from these early films, we hear from people who remember the Empire Exhibition, and from a pupil featured in one of the original documentaries.
During the Second World War propaganda films told Scots how to win the war - from Harvest Holiday persuading parents to send their children tattie howking, to Give Us More Ships, showing how five ships a week were built in Scotland. When the war was over, Films of Scotland looked to a better future and the building of new towns like Cumbernauld.
The films presented in this edition show off Scotland as a holiday destination - bus tripping through the Highlands, getting a Mediterranean tan on the beaches of North Berwick and honeymooning in Aberdeen. Alex Norton remembers his first film role in Travelpass, and cameramen and curlers talk about The Grand Match, the last huge curling championship on the Lake of Menteith in 1979.
Some of the best Films of Scotland were made to show off Scottish industries. Seawards the Great Ships, about shipbuilding on the Clyde, won an Oscar in 1961. People who worked in the shipyards, factories and founderies remember them. Jim Sinclair, who helped build two of Scotland's great bridges, tells us how he nearly died on the job.
This weeks films celebrate the greatest artists and writers of Scotland. Painter Joan Eardley is remembered by some of her child models from the Samson family. Bill Forsyth remembers his first paid job as a director, and shepherd Donald MacLean tells us about being filmed in 1963 for a beautiful film about Loch Lomond in the winter.
The final programme in the series celebrates films made about some of the 790 islands of Scotland, places of romance and beauty. Featuring Life in the Orkneys, a stunning black-and-white film made in 1957 and Duna Bull, the Films of Scotland's only drama, starring Juliet Cadzow and a rather large Highland bull called Willie.
