Scotland's Finest - The Story of the Highland Games
12:15 am - 01:15 am, Tuesday, May 5 on BBC Four (9)
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About this Broadcast
Bill Paterson narrates a documentary exploring the history and characters at the heart of the tests of strength and speed that constitute the Highland Games, beginning in the Fife village of Ceres, which is said to host Scotland's oldest tournament. The film examines how the tradition started as shows of strength and stamina between warring clans, but was changed into a pageant of tartan by Queen Victoria, and is carried on by Scottish communities around the world
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Education/Science/Factual Topics
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Did You Know..
Bill Paterson
(Narrator)
Born:
June 03, 1945
in
Glasgow
Best Known For:
A number of small-screen TV roles.
Early-life:
Bill Paterson was born on June 3, 1945, in Glasgow. He spent three years as a quantity surveyor before doing a teaching course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He was about to accept an educational role when he was offered a place with the Citizen's Theatre. His big break came at the Edinburgh Festival in The Great Northern Welly Boot Show, a satire by Billy Connolly about striking shipbuilders.
Career:
Paterson's TV debut came in 1977's Bafta-winning Licking Hitler. A year later he appeared in The Vanishing Army and Smiley's People. He went on to feature in such films as The Killing Fields, A Private Function, Defence of the Realm, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Chaplin, Bright Young Things and Truly, Madly, Deeply. Other TV projects include The Singing Detective, Traffik, The Crow Road, Doctor Zhivago, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and Law & Order: UK. He was also nominated for an Olivier Award for Bertolt Brecht's Schwekyk in the Second World War in 1982 and has done extensive voiceover work on TV and radio.
Quote:
'I don't think acting has ever been my passion, but it's a very nice way of making a living.'
Trivia:
Paterson turned down one of the leads in Alien.
Neil McDonald
(Executive producer)
Andy Twaddle
(Writer)
