The Culture Swally

We’re cramming ourselves into lycra and polishing our helmets on this episode of The Culture Swally as we look at the 2006 film, The Flying Scotsman. Directed by Douglas Mackinnon, the film is based on the life and career of Scottish amateur cyclist Graeme Obree, covering the period that saw him take, lose, and then retake the world one-hour distance record. Starring Johnny Lee Miller, Laura Frase...

The end of the world as we know it? Nah, lets have a dance to the Fine Young Cannibals as we look at the 2008 film, from director Neil Marshall, Doomsday. When a lethal virus spreads throughout Scotland, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. To contain the threat, acting authorities brutally quarantine the country as it succumbs to fear and chaos. Three decades later, the Reaper vi...

Back in May 2023 on episode 74 we looked at the first series of the adaptation of the Denise Mina novel The Field of Blood. So I thought it was time to look at the second and final series of the show. Released in 2013, series two is set in 1984, two years after the events of the first series. Set against a backdrop of the miners’ strike and the changing face of 1980s journalism, Paddy Meehan now h...

We’re dusting off our plus fours on this episode of The Swally as we play a round of golf with Peter Mullan and Jack Louden in the 2016 film Tommy’s Honour. Directed by Wee Tam, Jason Connery, the film follows the career of Tom Morris and his son Tommy Morris (we still think The Two Tommies would be a better title) in an intimate, powerfully moving tale of the real-life founders of the modern game...

With the BBC recently releasing a new series, based on the character DI John Rebus, created by prolific Scottish author, Sir Ian Rankin, I thought we would go all the way back to 2000, to look at the first attempt to transfer the character to television and look at the first ever Rebus episode called Black and Blue. DI Rebus, played by John Hannah investigates when a number of women are killed wit...

We’re going back to 1999 on the latest episode of The Swally, as we look at the slightly problematic sequel to the beloved Gregory’s Girl - Gregory’s Two Girls. Eighteen years later, Gregory, now a 35-year-old English teacher in his former secondary school, has fantasies about a 16-year-old student. He then gets involved with students in a plot to overthrow a businessman they suspect of trading in...

It’s our 100th episode! To celebrate we are returning to one of our favourite films of all time, Gregory’s Girl. We previously covered this film in episode two of the podcast, but thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a ReSwally and visit it once again. Directed by Bill Forsyth and starring John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Claire Grogan, the film tells the tale of Gregory, who is a n...

The Party's Just Beginning follows a young woman, Liusaidh, from Inverness, who is dealing with the suicide of her best friend. Liusaidh tries to cope by binging on alcohol, sex and late-night junk food, while visions of her friend’s dying image plague her waking life.  Released in 2018, this is Karen Gillan's debut feature as writer and director and also stars Lee Pace, Matthew Beard, Paul Higgin...

We are Unleashed on The Swally this week as we look at the 2005 film of the same name, also called Danny The Dog in certain countries. Starring Jet Li, Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins (yes, really) the films tells the tale of a man enslaved by the mob since childhood and raised into behaving like a human attack dog who escapes his captors and attempts to start a new life. In the news we attend an a...

Hang About! Look Out! It’s Super Gran! Airing on ITV from 1985-1987 and spanning 27 episodes in total Super Gran tells the story of an elderly grandmother, Granny Smith, who acquires superpowers when she is accidentally hit by a magic ray created by Inventor Black. Under the guise of 'Super Gran', she protects the residents of the fictional town of Chiselton from villains such as Scunner Campbell...

We’re off to Uganda on the latest episode of The Culture Swally as we look at the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. Starring James McAvoy and Forrest Whittaker, the film is based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s. In the news we visit the famous Wonka Experience in Glasgow, Celebrate a new National Day in Scotland,...

Today we are covering the 2022 BBC adaptation of the 2020 Andrew O’Hagan novel, Mayflies. Starring Martin Compston, Tony Curran and Ashley Jensen, Mayflies follows lifelong friends Jimmy and Tully, as they grapple with the news that Tully has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the news we discover the safest place to be in Scotland during a Zombie apocalypse, find out what coastguards listen...

We’re getting spooky on the latest episode of The Culture Swally as we take a look at the 2018 Netflix film Malevolent. Starring Florence Pugh, Ben Lloyd Hughes, Celia Imrie and our favourite James Cosmo, it follows a group of fake paranormal investigators who suffer the ultimate reality check when confronted by the true horrors that lie hidden within a haunted orphanage. In the news we hear about...

On this episode we are covering the 1992 film written by and starring Peter Capaldi, Soft Top Hard Shoulder. Having failed to make it in London as a comic-book artist, Gavin Bellini (Capaldi) - an Italian-Glaswegian from an ice-cream dynasty - reluctantly yields to his uncle's demands that he return home for his dad's sixtieth birthday party; if he makes it, the uncle played by Richard Wilson, may...

It’s the Silver Jubilee tour of the legendary Scottish rock and roll band The Majestics as we look at the absolute classic Tutti Fruitti. Starring Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Richard Wilson, the six part series follows The Majestics on the eve of their tour, when their lead singer Big Jazza McGlone, is killed in an unfortunate kebab related car accident. In the news we hear the latest on ou...

It’s our Best of the News 2023 special! Yes, that’s right, Nicky and Greg are being lazy and having an extra week off for the festive season, so have put together a clip show of our favourite news stories from 2023. Join us as we hear about a woman who had her eyebrows blown off, a woman who has a very nosy neighbour and have a sing song with the lads in Saughton Prison. We also meet a man who lik...

Happy Hogmanay! Yes, it’s our Hogmanay episode on The Culture Swally and we’re covering a Scottish institution. We are looking at the 1999 episode of the wonderful Jonathan Watson show, Only An Excuse? Taking a look at the good and bad of Scottish football with a whole host of characters including; Sir Alex Ferguson, Chick Young, Frank McAvennie, Graeme Souness, Dick Advocaat and Sir Kenny Dalglis...

It’s The Swally Christmas Special! This week we take a look at one of the more bizarre Scottish items set at Christmas as we join Robbie Coltrane in 1992’s The Bogie Man. Following a mental patient who believes he is Humphrey Bogart when he escapes from his institution and sets about solving a case around Glasgow. The Bogie Man is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4iG3Xsa...

It’s Saint Andrews Day! So to celebrate the patron saint of Scotland we’re featuring something starring the patron saint of The Swally, James Cosmo, as we look at 2018’s Outlaw King. Directed by David Mackenzie, and set in Scotland during the 14th century, it follows the Scottish King Robert the Bruce who starts a rebellion against the English empire after the fall of William Wallace and leads his...

On this episode of The Swally, we’re going back to 1979, as we look at the BBC adaptation of John Byrne’s, The Slab Boys. Taking place in the Slab Room of a carpet manufacturer in Paisley, the play follows  the antics of Slab Boys Phil, Spanky and Hector as they try to scrape through life in the 50s. Starring Gerard Kelly, Billy McColl, Joseph McKenna and Tom Watson, Slab Boys is available to watc...

It’s the annual Swally Spooktacular! On this episode we look at the 2014 horror film, Let Us Prey. Starring Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna Macintosh, Jonathan Watson, Bryan Larkin, Douglas Russell and Hanna Stanbridge amongst others, it tells the story of Rachel, a rookie cop about to begin her first shift in a Scottish police station in a small town. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in town, al...

On this episode of The Swally we are looking at series two of the Irvine Welsh written adaptation of Crime. Starring Dougray Scott, Joanna Vanderham and Ken Stott, series two picks up a few months after the events of series one. When one of Lennox’s former colleagues is attacked, Lennox and Drummond quickly realise that all is not as it seems as they become embroiled in a case about vengeance, ide...

We’re back in Maryhill on this episode as we look at the classic Taggart episode ‘Nest of Vipers’. In this case, the discovery of two skulls at a building site causes DCI Jim Taggart to re-open a missing person enquiry from four years earlier. As an university professor begins to reconstruct the faces of the murder victims, a batch of poisonous snakes and spiders are stolen from a Glasgow biotech...

We are polishing our lamps and practicing our knots on the latest episode of The Culture Swally as we look at the 2018 film, The Vanishing. Starring Peter Mullan, Gerard Butler and Connor Swindells and based on the Flannan Isle mystery, it tells the tale of three lighthouse keepers who find a hidden trunk of gold, leading to their mysterious disappearance. In the news we meet a scrapyard Gangsta G...

On this episode of The Culture Swally, we are discussing the third and final series of the darkly comic Scottish drama from Neil Forsyth, Guilt. Starring Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives, series three picks up a year after the end of series two, which saw Max heading to Chicago to join Jake. Roy Lynch was last seen on his balcony with Teddy and is presumed to be dead, leaving his widow Maggie Lynch to...