The Culture Swally

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...

We’re off on our barge this week on The Culture Swally, as we look at the 2003 film, Staring Ewan McGregor, Peter Mullan, Tilda Swinton and Emily Mortimer, Young Adam. The film follows McGregor as a  young drifter working on a river barge who disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits. In the news we meet a shopkeeper...

It’s Thursday, so you know what that means! Late Night Shopping! Yes, on The Swally this week, we look at the 2001 film, starring James Lance, Kate Ashfield, Luke de Woolfson and Enzo Cilenti. It follows Sean, Vincent, Jody and Lenny who work graveyard shifts in various soul-killing jobs (a hospital, a supermarket, a factory and a call centre, respectively) and meet up in a cafe after work to kill...

We’re off to sea on this episode of The Culture Swally as we look at the 2013 film, For Those In Peril. Written and directed by Paul Wright, it tells the tale of a remote Scottish fishing community, coming to terms with a tragedy. Starring George MacKay, Kate Dickie, Jordan Young and Michael Smiley, it was a first viewing for both Nicky and Greg. In the news we meet the most petty neighbour in cha...

We’ve covered a few police shows on The Swally over the years, but nothing quite like this as we look at the pilot episode and the first series of BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad! The series is a fly on the wall documentary, following the fictional 'Scottish Police Force’, essentially the Real Life Police Scotland, a newly unified force that polices the whole of Scotland. Starring Jack Docherty, Jordan...

It’s a listener request this week on The Swally as we cover the wonderful Ken Loach film from 1998, My Name Is Joe, as selected by Gary from Doric Skateboards. Starring Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis, Louise Goodall, Dave McKay and David Hayman, it tells the tale of two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe, who manages his local football team full of recovering addicts and Sarah, a communit...

We’re heading back to 1983 on this episode of The Swally as we look at the 2023 BBC documentary Aberdeen ’83 Once in a Lifetime. The definitive story of how Aberdeen FC went from the nearly men of Scottish football to winning both the European Cup Winners Cup and European Super Cup. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer, or it's also available on YouTube at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw...

We’ve covered a few Irvine Welsh adaptations on the Swally and on this episode we delve into the film adaptation of his 1994 book, The Acid House. Covering just three of the 22 short stories featured in the book; The Granton Star Cause, A Soft Touch and the story which the book takes it’s name from, The Acid House. Starring Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd, Michelle Gomez, Stephen McCole, Maurice Roeves...

We’re heading back to 1982 on The Swally this week as we look at the first series of the wonderful Scottish crime drama The Field of Blood. With an all star cast including Jayd Johnson, Ford Kieran, Matt Costello, David Morrissey, Peter Capaldi and our favourite Stephen McCole, this is an adaptation of the novel by Denise Mina. It tells the tale of young reporter Paddy Meehan, who investigates the...

We’re getting all legal on The Swally this week as we look at the first series of The Advocates from 1991. A Scottish legal drama, broadcast on ITV, starring Ewan Stewart and Isla Blair. When a young prostitute is murdered by a deadly drug overdose, only Doctor Joe Sangster, who has been treating her at the local health clinic, suspects foul play. In the growing climate of fear over drugs and Aids...

We’re heading off to Westminster Abbey this week on The Swally to get our bloody stone back as we look at the 2008 film, Stone of Destiny. Based on real life events and starring Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Stephen McCole, Peter Mullan and Robert Carlyle, it tells the tale of a group of Scottish nationalists who liberate the Stone of Scone and take it back to Scotland…where it belongs! You can watch St...

It’s a musical interlude on The Swally this week as we tune up our guitars and tinkle the ivories and look at the 2014 film, God Help The Girl. Written and directed by Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch the film tells the tale of Eve, who begins writing songs as a way to sort through some emotional problems, then she meets James and Cassie, two musicians each at crossroads of their own. T...

Your favourite fortnightly beautiful creatures are discussing some more beautiful creatures, in more ways than one on this episode of The Culture Swally. In the news we meet a man who has some exotic beautiful creatures he likes to take care of and then we meet a man who has some more sensible beautiful creatures he likes to pamper and make special meals for. We also discuss fights in chip shops a...

Greg and Nicky are chilling their wine in the burn and eating their sandwiches from the same Mother’s Pride bag as they delve into the Peter McDougall and John Mackenzie classic The Elephants’ Graveyard. Starring John Morrison and Billy Connolly, it tells the tale of Bunny who spends his day hiding in the woods, too frightened to tell his wife he's not really going to work and is actually unemploy...

We’re getting spooky this February as we delve into the 2013 film Lord of Tears also known as The Owlman overseas. The low budget Scottish horror film, directed by Lawrie Brewster, tells the tale of James, a school teacher, plagued by recurring nightmares of a mysterious entity, as he travels to his childhood home because he suspects a link to a dark incident in his past. And it’s available for fr...

We’re jumping on the ferry this week as we look at the first series of the BBC Scotland crime drama Shetland. Starring Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez, the first series tells the tale of Jimmy investigating the murder of elderly Mima Wilson, who is found dead on her croft! In the news Greg tries to annoy Nicky by talking about Aberdeen’s losing streak, we meet a man who got more than he gambled...

We’re back with a brand new episode of The Culture Swally and we’re kicking off 2023 with a belter! That’s right, we’re looking at the 1998 BBC Scotland TV drama Looking After Jo Jo! Starring Robert Carlyle, the show is set on an Edinburgh council estate in the bleak 1980's and follows rising drug dealer Jo Jo McCann who is hellbent on gaining money and power at all costs. In the news this week we...

Happy New Year from The Culture Swally! We hope you had a wonderful time over the festive period and had a belter of a Hogmanay! As mentioned on our last episode, we’re having an extra week off to recover from the most wonderful time of the year. But we thought we’d put together a selection of our favourite news stories from 2022! So if you’ve listened before, kick back, relax and enjoy the best o...

Happy Hogmanay from The Culture Swally! As we get ready to celebrate ringing in the new year we thought we’d better get our best pants washed, so we nipped down to the washhouse to have a look at the Hogmanay classic, 1988’s The Steamie. Written by Tony Roper and starring Eileen McCallum, Dorothy Paul, Katy Murphy, Sheila Donald and a young Peter Mullan, the play focuses on the lives of a group of...