麻豆社

Here's what 麻豆社 staff past and present have to say about the 1990s...

麻豆社 Scotland was one of the first parts of the 麻豆社 to produce websites. In the mid-1990s, sites for Megamag (a Scotland-only summer holiday series), Wilderness Walks (a series about the Scottish outdoors) and Activ-8 (a C麻豆社 sports series) were launched. Hard on their heels, a home page for 麻豆社 Scotland went live - a much, much smaller site than we have now!
At that time, there were two people in what we then called 聭Online聮. In 2003, 麻豆社 Scotland聮s portfolio of websites has grown to nearly a hundred and we have begun to venture into interactive television. The team now consists of over 45 staff and we聮ve 聭rebranded聮 ourselves 麻豆社 Scotland Interactive.
Julie Adair, Head of 麻豆社 Scotland Interactive

I returned to 麻豆社 Scotland in October 1991 as Head of Television, and I guess amongst the highlights of the past 12 years has been winning the Academy Award for Best Short Film for Peter Capaldi's Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life in 1994. This was the first year of the Tartan Shorts film scheme that I established with the Scottish Film Production Fund, and to win an Oscar first time out was a fantastic morale and marketing boost. It was also Scotland's first Oscar in 31 years. Attending the ceremony was surreal - I, of course, wore my kilt and received more attention than some of the stars as we walked up the red carpet outside the Shrine Auditorium. I managed to get back to the Oscars in 1998 when Dame Judi Dench was nominated for Best Actress for her stunning performance as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown. The kilt did it again when at the after-show party I had a long conversation with Jay Leno, whose mother, he revealed, comes from Greenock!
Colin Cameron, Controller Network Development, 麻豆社 Nations and Regions

Scotland's Century was a fantastic project to work on. As series producer it was a huge challenge - the remit was 'a social history of Scotland between 1900 and the year 2000.' The project involved interviewing nearly 400 people from all over Scotland - aged between 18 and 108!!! The use of new technology to record, collate and edit all these interviews was a massive challenge - but good fun. The friendships developed and the continuing contributions from the many people interviewed for this series is something I will never forget - from the 108 year old who maintained that porridge was the reason for his long and healthy life to the teddy boy who opened the door to life in the fifties; the policewoman who shared her experiences of the Ibrox disaster to the miners from Knockshinnock and the many people who allowed us to share the experiences of their lives was a privilege.
Sharon Mair

The radio show has been going for nearly six years now which means that (after holidays) I'll have done nearly 1200 shows. With an average of even five guests per show that's 6000 people I'll have chatted with.....OK some of them will have been on a couple of times or more, but it's still a heck of a lot of people to have spoken to. Not surprisingly, I can't remember them all!
As for my 麻豆社 Scotland television experiences, they've all been good fun. I always wanted to be involved with a Hogmanay Show and in 1999 presented the show along with Carol Smillie from Edinburgh Castle. And I was fortunate enough to have been involved in 2000 Today, the 麻豆社's record breaking broadcast as we entered the new millennium.
By far the most enjoyable, though, were the McCoist and MacAulay shows. I think we did 25 of them in all, including the World Cup Special from The Eiffel Tower in 1998 on the eve of Scotland's opening game with Brazil. People still ask if it was fun to be involved in these shows as it looked like the two of us were having a good laugh. It was... and we were!
Fred MacAulay

We were filming a World Cup special in New York in 1994. It was Saturday night in Times Square and I was done up as Denis Law, ready to shoot the opening line to the programme 'Welcome to Soccermageddon'. The place was jumping and nobody paid us a blind bit of notice. Perfect conditions for filming.
Jonathan Watson, Only An Excuse

One memory I have of 麻豆社 Scotland actually concerns Radio 5 back in 1992 or so. (I think Radio 5 was still relatively new then!) At the time I was just eleven or twelve years old and in Primary 7. I remember our primary school in Inverness had been asked to select four children to read out listeners' letters on the schools-aimed In the News programme. We had a reading contest in the school and voted for our four best readers. I was one of them. We were sent a batch of photocopied letters that needed to be read out on that week's show. The main subjects were about stranded Russian Cosmonauts on Mir, and sexism in McDonald's Happy Meal adverts! We traveled up to Culduthel Road Studios and along with our teacher, we all crammed into a broom cupboard of a contribution studio to read our pieces. However, there were technical problems and the recording was delayed for about fifteen minutes. We received goodie packs from Radio 5 a few weeks later to say thanks for our work and to apologise for the technical problems, but I always remember how impressed people were even at that age that we had gone to the 麻豆社 studio in Inverness.
Mike Burns, Broadcast Engineer (Trainee), 麻豆社 Scotland

My best memory is being told on the Friday prior to the 1990 Grand Slam match that I was going on the team bus of the winning side with a camera crew and Dougie Donnelly. (Logic said I was set for an afternoon of gloating Englishmen!) Needless to say, Scotland won and the memory of Sean Lineen drinking Drambuie, and David Sole, Gavin and Scott Hastings and Tony Stanger singing 'Flower of Scotland' on the way back to the Carlton Highland Hotel will live long in the memory.
Grigor Stirling, Producer, Sport

John Cavanagh coaxed me into a studio after a party in Studio One in Glasgow to sing along with Van Morrison to 'The Days Before Rock and Roll'. What I didn't realise was that he was going to remove Van's voice afterwards and play it on Christmas Day with me warbling solo!
Lesley Riddoch

When Guns'n'Roses/Snakepit guitarist Slash was coming in to the 麻豆社 Scotland studios to be interviewed for the Radio One Rockshow, we didn't know what to expect. We booked extra studio time in case he was late or difficult to work with. On the day, he turned up fifteen minutes early and couldn't have been easier company: very mellow, highly pro. The same afternoon, Peter Easton was interviewing Kim Fowley for Beat Patrol. What we didn't know was that Fowley had tried to manage Slash's band when Slash was about thirteen, they hadn't seen one another since 1978 and they met... in 麻豆社 Scotland reception! Kim Fowley spent his time trying to enhance his dark image by asking the women he met weird questions about Charles Manson and Gary Barlow, while Slash finished his interview with me in record time, then offered a lift into town. I still have a photo of Slash, Fowley, Peter E. and me with producer Stewart Cruickshank and Duglas T. Stewart... a 'once in a lifetime' lineup, that's for sure. On the way out, Slash told me that Kim's performance in our office was mild stuff: "I've never seen him being so nice among a group of people before", he said, adding "Satan lives inside that man!"
John Cavanagh

I remember meeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Floor Managing an interview conducted in March of 1992 by the erudite Kirsty Wark. Tea and coffee was served to Mrs. Thatcher and the great and the good of Scotland in Studio A after the interview. I fondly recall a senior manager offering to pour the Prime Minister a coffee - and spilling it!
There were the sad occasions. The memorial service for those killed on Piper Alpha and the memorial service for the little children killed in what became known as the Dunblane massacre. The service was held in Dunblane Cathedral and went out live. Everyone on the Outside Broadcast was affected by the tragedy of the event and it is one OB I will never ever forget.
Allan Ramsay, Floor Manager