TELEVISION PREVIEW
Changing tune
After months of adverse criticism and speculation, Fiona Shepherd welcomes Radio Scotland’s recently unveiled package of diverse music programming.
expect that Radio Scotland should reflect the broad range of Scottish culture. Music is as much a part of that culture as anything else that we broadcast and that is why it is vital that we have a commitment to music.‘ Cruikshank produced most of the programmes in the Night Time Radio Scotland bracket, including Beat Patrol, the only one to survive the changes. It has now resurfaced in an extended two-hour slot which will allow it to continue to champion new music from Scotland and the rest of the world. airing local band demos and recording sessions and the occasional concert. and to educate with its eclectic mix of older and more obscure moments in pop and rock history.
beat patrol chiei Peter Easton After a summer of speculation. Radio Scotland has allayed the fears of those who saw the station‘s musical content tn'ckling away. The new autumn schedule introduces a whole new strand of diverse music programmes to replace the service provided by Night Time Radio Scotland.
Speaking at the press launch, Robert Noakes, Executive Producer of Radio Scotland‘s Entertainment Programmes. had this to say of the station’s policy: ‘In a time of change, not only within the BBC but in Scotland and the world at large. Radio Scotland, as the only national broadcaster. is more than ever committed to fostering musical talent in Scotland, new and established. and to truly reflecting the broad taste and adventurous nature of the Scottish listening public.‘
Commenting later on the schedule changes. Senior Entertainment Producer Stewart Cruikshank elaborated on the importance of retaining a musical platform on the station. ‘Without sounding like a bureaucrat. Radio Scotland is a public service broadcaster. therefore the pe0ple who‘ve paid their license fee
Starting from 26 September. it will be broadcast 5-7pm every Sunday. ‘Everybody else is playing the charts
at that time of day.‘ says Cruikshank. ‘I would hope it will be a viable
. alternative to the pop chart and keep
the faith with the listeners. You don‘t
have to have an expensive recording
‘ contract to get your music on the programme. There’s still going to be a lot of guitars and psychedelia but it will open out a bit more. We‘ll be crossing
over, where appropriate. to ambient and
dance music.‘
In addition, Saturday lunchtimes play
host to Original Masters, an oldies
. show which spans most pop and rock
genres. The 7pm—9pm Mon—Fri slot is
filled respectively by Jump The Q, a
what‘s-on guide to all musical genres
with gig news and current releases,
Celtic Connections. a roots music show
encompassing anything from Del
1 Amitn' to Suzanne Bonnar. Be-Bop To
I Hip-Hop. a jazz-based programme
1 juxtaposing styles from ragtime to hip-
: hop and uncovering rarities. Travelling
2 Folk. which profiles Scotland‘s
E indigenous musics and global folk
i music with sessions and discussions,
I and The Brand New Opry, which
i panders to Scotland‘s curious love of
1 country music. playing cajun. gospel,
l
l
1
honky-tonk and country rock. Under these auspices, chart pop is the only area not covered and, as has been previously pointed out by the station. . there‘s a glut of that elsewhere. l The weekday programmes will be , broadcast on medium wave, in keeping with the station‘s policy of making the ] FM frequency speech-based. However. i a few will get an FM repeat. With the ; changes comes the opportunity for Radio Scotland to broadcast until midnight seven days a week for the first time in its history.
‘There are reasons to be cheerful. for Scottish music in particular.‘ says Cruikshank. ‘I think the BBC is doing its bit. All these programmes have a very sensible. egalitarian attitude towards music. It's been the result of a lot of in-house discussion and a willingness to listen to people. Now the ball is in our court to try and make i those programmes and bring them up to 3 standard. It‘s given me a lot of faith I that music does matter to people.‘
Beat Patrol begins a new run on Radio I Scotland from Sunday 26 September:
We clear the VIIS decks vrith a round-up oi the video releases heading for the shops this lortnight.
Rental
I A Nightmare In Daylight (15) Christopher Reeve and Jaclyn Smith star in a TV-movie style melodrama about a violent husband who thinks he has rediscovered his wife. believed killed in an earthquake seven years previously. (Columbia Tristar)
I light (it The Living Dead(18)Tom Savini lovingly remakes George Romero‘s classic zombie schlocker. released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original. Romero wrote and produced the remake. a routine tale of a young couple being besieged in a deserted farmhouse by flesh-eating zombies. Effects are as gruesome as you‘d expect from a technical wizard like Savini. (Tartan)
I For Their lhvn Good (PG) Another ‘true-story‘ TV movie from those caring Odyssey people. In 1984 the owners of a Texas chemical plant told I their female employees to get themselves sterilised or quit their jobs, as the toxic substances they handled could result in deformed children. Elizabeth Perkins plays ? Sally Thompson. a worker who resolves to take on the company in court. with the help of her boyfriend and a sympathetic New York lawyer. (Odyssey)
I love Bites ( 15) Adam Ant is back. and no more Prince Charming this time. The Antman plays a 300-year-old vampire known (for no good reason) as Zachary Simms in a spectacularly silly sex comedy. The bloodsucker falls for Kendall Gordon (Kimberly Foster) and sets about trying to turn himself into a normal mortal. Things are going swimmingly until his vampiress ex-Iover returns to reclaim him. (Reflective)
I Shadows And Fog (15) Woody Allen is back in his grim arty (aka boring and pretentious) mode, in an obvious homage to Fritz Lang, livened up by the occasional old gag. Allen plays the naive nerd
once again. forced to join a vigilante group pursuing a serial strangler somewhere in 20s Europe. Forgettable. (20:20 Vision)
I Honeymoon In Vegas
(15) Nicolas Cage reprises his popular slightly manic
romantic persona in a so-
so comedy. reminscient of -
50s screwball romances. He loses hrs girlfriend to
slick Tommy Korman in a
Las Vegas card game and has to enlist a flock of parachuting Elvis impersonators to win her back. You get the drift? (First Independent)
I Relentless Ill (18) (Warner)
I liver The line ( 18) (Warner)
I When lie-One Would listen (15) (Warner)
I Anny 0i Darkness: The
Medieval Dead (15)
(Guild) I llndeieatahle (18) (Medusa)
I [lead Before Dawn (15) ' (Odyssey)
i Sell-through
I Prince Cinders (U) A
; hip kids‘ caroon taking a novel twist on the
Cinderella tale by
reversing genders. Voices
are provided by Jennifer
Saunders. Jonathan Ross. Craig Charles and Dexter Fletcher. (Pickwick £9.99)
I The Cars That Ate Paris ( IS) A new cinephile’s video label launches with Peter
Weir‘s directorial debut. a l
strange horror tale. Paris. Australia (rather than France or Texas) is the scene for a disproportionate number of car crashes. Arthur
(Terry Camilleri) survives
one such accident and finds himself stranded in Paris. a town with a macabre secret. and a dangerous obsession with automobiles. (Art House £15.99)
I The Quiet Earth (15) (Art House £15.99)
: I The Wtchmaker (ii I
- / I Carnilie Claudel (PG) Bruno Nuyten's biography of sculptor Auguste Rodin inevitably stars Gerard Depardieu as the great artist. with Isabelle Adjani as his lover and fellow sculptor Camille. Their love affair lasts fifteen years. but. after a rejection. she develops a lunatic obsession with Rodin and turns to drink and drugs. (Art House £15.99)
male _
Saint-Paul (PG) (Art House £15.99) I The Trial (PG) Orson
Welles‘s version of the ; Kafta story. starring
Anthony Perkins as Josef K. caught up in a labyrinth of insubstantial accusation. (Art House £15.99)
. I The Jim Rose Circus ' Sideshow ( l8) If you missed this year‘s most visceral Fringe show.
catch up with Jim and his freaks performing their
repertoire of body-
? piercing.sword-
i swallowing. maggot
‘ munching and. ofcourse. ; bile regurgitating.
(Columbia Tristar)
l I ' r I Doomed Megalopolis: Disaster ( I8) More Manga mythology in a typically violent animated tale of a satanic threat in
' early 20th century Tokyo.
(Manga £8.99)
I Crying Freeman: The Enemy Within (18) (Manga £8.99)
66 The List 24 September—7 October 1993