Sàr- Sgeòil (Classic Tales)
4 X 29 minutes BBC ALBA

Cathy MacDonald explores four areas of Scotland - but instead of taking a guide book, she travels with a classic novel.  How were the authors of Kidnapped, The Silver Darlings, Sunset Song and The Thirty Nine Steps influenced by the Scottish landscape, and how successfully did they portray that landscape?  The series will transmit on BBC ALBA in the Autumn.

Click here for a preview

Scotland's Greatest Warrior
1 x 59minutes BBC Scotland

Filming has begun on a major new Scottish history documentary for BBC2.  Scotland's greatest Warrior (working title) will tell of the rise and fall of the 17^th century general, the Marquis of Montrose, who was born in October 1612.  In a single year, from the autumn of 1644 to '45, Montrose won six successive battles against stronger Covenanting armies.  400 years after that extraordinary military achievement, General Montgomery quoted Montrose in his morale raising message to all British soldiers on the eve of the 1944 D-Day landings.  Montrose had written of daring to "win or lose it all" - a line Monty thought appropriate to the do-or-die invasion of the Normandy beaches.

Caledonia TV has already filmed 20 modern day warriors - members of the 3^rd and 7^th battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland - as they retraced one of Montrose's great marches through the mountains of Lochaber as part of a modern military exercise.

Montrose was one of Scotland's most extraordinary characters - a soldier and a poet, a Covenanter and a Royalist, a victorious warrior who died on the scaffold. 

The film is to be presented by Professor Ted Cowan of Glasgow University and will be transmitted in the Autumn. 

The Kelpies

We are currently filming an observational documentary about artist Andy Scott's giant sculptures, The Kelpies. The engineering contract for turning Andy's detailed plans into two 100ft high horses' heads is likely to be signed in the next month or so.  The documentary is for BBC Scotland's Artworks.

  Air a' Smùid (Steaming)

Restoration of the old Clyde puffer Vic 27 - now renamed Auld Reekie - continues.  In March the Islay team were back at work scraping 70 years of rust from the deck of the fo'c'sle.  Work is soon to begin on restoring the old coal-fired steam boiler.  This three-part series, Air a' Smùid (Steaming) will be transmitted on BBC ALBA.

Caileagan an Iasgaich (Trawler Girls)
Transmitted on BBC ALBA fom Monday 19th March

Fishing - Scotland's most dangerous occupation - is traditionally a job for the boys. But in Caileagan an Iasgaich, three women don oilskins, grab the gutting knife and take to the seas in a four-week challenge that will transform them from girly girls to able sea-women. 

By the end of a series of tough challenges - culminating in their crewing a North Sea trawler on a ten-day voyage - the words 'fish' and 'net' will no longer mean a type of hosiery to our gutsy caileagan.

Pìos Cèic (A Piece of Cake)
Transmitted on BBC ALBA, Friday 9th March

Mairi MacRitchie from North Uist is a great baker.  It's a skill she inherited from her mother.  But Mairi lost her mother to breast cancer when she was just 14.  But now Mairi is using her baking skills - and those of her friends and family - to raise money for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.  We follow Mairi as she organises a bring-and-buy sale - and we follow some of Uist's best bakers as they share their secrets while preparing their specialities for the big sale.

Am Boireannach a Dh'ith Bò (The Woman Who Ate A Cow)Transmitted on BBC ALBA, Friday 4th November

'Am Boireannach a Dh'ith Bò' (The Woman Who Ate A Cow) features Islay born artist and cook, Heather Dewar, as she reveals how previous generations ate animals from head to tail, never wasting a scrap of meat.  Today, only half the meat from a carcass ends up on the supermarket counter - but not so long ago meals made of offal were welcomed by hungry families.  The programme follows Heather as she selects and buys a Highland bull, sees it slaughtered and butchered, and cooks all the parts that modern diners turn their noses up at.

The Lighthouse Stevensons

A one-hour documentary about the remarkable family who tamed the wild Scottish coastline - told 200 years after the building of their first iconic lighthouse, The Bell Rock.  The film features spectacular aerial footage of the family's great masterpieces, the Bell, Skerryvore and Dubh Artach.  Former keepers - a dying breed - tell what life was like serving in the Stevensons' towers.  The film explores the controversial issue of who was most responsible for the building of the Bell - Robert Stevenson, or the engineer John Rennie.  Narrated by Denis Lawson.

The Father of Australia

A drama-documentary about the life of Lachlan Macquarie, a young impoverished highlander who rose to become Governor General of New South Wales and turned it from a dumping ground for convicts into a dynamic British colony.  Today many Australians regard him as the father of their nation.  The programme was filmed on Ulva and Mull, and in India and Australia.  Lachlan Macquarie is played by Clive Russell, and his wife Elizabeth Macquarie by Julie Wilson Nimmo. 

Narration is by David Tennant. The transmission not only marks Australia Day (26^th), but also the 250^th anniversary of Macquarie's birth.  This is a Caledonia TV/Intomedia co-production for BBC Scotland, The History Channel Australia, Screen Australia, and Screen New South Wales.

Anns na Pàipearan (In the Papers)

A six-part series for BBC ALBA that looks back at six different years of 20^th century history through the way it was reported in the Highland press.  Tales of tragedy and triumph, wartime heroes and Sixties beauty queens!   Presented by Derek Mackay.Caileagan an Airm (Army Girls)

Caileagan an Airm

 A fast-action observational series featuring four young women as they undergo Army training to become qualified TA combat engineers.  First shown on BBC ALBA.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig

Caledonia is currently making 20 three-minute films for Bòrd na Gàidhlig.  This follows the company's successful bid, in a competitive tender, to provide content for a website aimed at attracting people to train as Gaelic medium teachers.  The films, produced by Faye MacLean, are being shot in Inverness, Glasgow, Cumbernauld, Aberdeen and Mallaig.

The Adventures of Don Roberto

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham was born a Scottish aristocrat - but became a South American gaucho, a rancher in America's Wild West, and a political radical who was jailed for his beliefs. A writer and adventurer, he was the first MP to call himself a socialist and founded both the Scottish Labour Party and the SNP! One hour documentary for BBC Scotland.

Martin Martin

In the late 17^th century, Hebridean Scotland was as mysterious to most outsiders as Van Diemen's land.  The remarkable traveller Martin Martin was the first person to describe St Kilda, the Second Sight, and a rich culture of pre-Christian lore, as well as the everyday lives and landscape of the Hebrideans. 

Unlike Boswell and Johnson, Martin spoke Gaelic and empathised with the Gaels.  His description of island life - before the destruction of clan society by the disastrous Jacobite rebellions and highland clearances - are remarkable.

This partly dramatised documentary tells his story, and paints a vivid portrait of a vanished culture.

Impact Management!

Congratulations to Sajid Quayum, Caledonia's Head of Production, for winning a place on TRC's Impact Management Programme 2012.  The year long programme is designed to allow senior TV and Digital executives to develop new skills in order to manage their business more professionally. 

Caledonia TV Programme Wins Award

The composer of the score for Caledonia's 2011 UK/Australia co-production 'The Father of Australia' has won best music for a documentary in The Australian Guild of Screen Composers Screen Music Awards. Matteo Zingales works with Antony Partos at Sonar Music, who composed the score for drama series 'The Slap' currently running on BBC4.

Power To The People

Siemens, the international engineering Conglomerate, has just taken delivery of a corporate film from Caledonia about the construction of the Walney offshore wind farm, off the coast of Cumbria.  The film follows the 'life story' of the final 150 meter high turbine, from construction in Denmark to its final position in the world's biggest offshore wind farm. 

The Father of Australia

Press Coverage

 
To read the Evening Times Article of January 26th, Click here

To read the Daily Record Article of January 20th, Click here

To go to the BBC Web page of the programme, Click here

To read the Sunday Mail Article of January 23rd, Click here

To read the For Argyll Article about the programme, Click here

To read the Courier Article about the programme, Click here

The Lighthouse Stevensons

Press Coverage

To go to the BBC Web page of the programme, Click here

To read the For Argyll article of January 31st, Click here

To read The Herald article of January 29th, Click here

To read the Press & Journal article of January 28th, Click here

To read the Fraserburgh Herald. article of January 27th, Click here

To read the Courier Article about the programme, Click here

To read the Arbroath Herald article of January 28th, Click here

Fire in the Head

Les Wilson, Caledonia TV's Creative Director, has had his first novel published. Fire in the Head was released by Vagabond Voices on 28^th September.

A major theme of the work is the conflict between capitalism and the care of the environment.  'This is a very documentary/current affairs issue,' says Les, 'but in a work of fiction I at last have the freedom never to let the facts interfere with a good story!'

Les Wilson talked about the book to playwright and critic Chris Dolan in John Smith's bookshop, Glasgow. Click here to view the video.

To read Chris's Sunday Herald review of Fire in the Head, Click here