BBC Scotland
Management
Review 2013/14

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

In 2013/14, landmark
programmes such as
Hebrides: Islands on the Edgereached nearly one in threeof the population in Scotland.
If you wish to find out more about
the BBC’s year – including full financial
statements and each service’s
performance against its Statementof Programme Policy – then please visit
bbc.co.uk/annualreport

Contents
01
02
04
14
16
17

Director’s overview
Two minute summary
Service performance
Looking ahead
Contacts
Scotland management

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Front cover
The atmospheric drama Shetland,
starring Douglas Henshall, returned
for a second series in 2013/14 and athird series has been commissioned

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Director’s overview‘‘Authoritative, impartial andinformed news coverage,
across all of the BBC’s news
outlets, has been and willcontinue to be the hallmark
of our approach toReferendum reporting.’’

Looking towards one of the most important years in Scotland’s
recent history, much of our attention and activity in 2013/14
was directed towards our programming around the centenaryof the outbreak of WW1, the Commonwealth Games andaround Scotland’s Referendum on Independence.
Those preparations, however, were firmly grounded onanother year of outstanding performance from our teams at
BBC Scotland. In 2013, our network television spend rose toalmost 11% of that of the total eligible BBC spend, exceeding the
8.6% target set for 2016. In the same calendar year, that resulted
in nearly 1,000 hours of network TV produced from Scotland,
more than ever before and more than double the amount we
produced five years ago.
Those increases reflect, and are fitting testament to, the hard
work and dedication of our staff, hard work that also this year
brought industry recognition, including seven BAFTA Scotland
awards. In this respect I would draw particular attention to thework of our Investigations Team which, for the second year ina row, collected both a Scottish BAFTA and a Royal Television
Society Award for the stories they have broken.
Hebrides – Islands on the Edge; the atmospheric drama Shetland;
the continued runaway success of Mrs Brown’s Boys; Fire in theNight, the story of the Piper Alpha Disaster which we commissioned
from STV; the three part documentary series on The Stuarts;
the up-to-the-minute news coverage we provided, across all
broadcast platforms, of the tragedy at the Clutha Vaults in
Glasgow; the continuing rise in audience figures for BBC ALBA,
now averaging 775,000 viewers each week across the year; theperformance of our radio services in the most competitivemarketplace outside of London – these are just some of thehighlights in what has, on the whole, been a year of strong
performances across our output.

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

For the year ahead, we have been able to put in place an ambitious
and extensive programme and content plan across all of the year’smajor events. From coverage of the Queen’s Baton Relay, as it
makes its way across the Commonwealth, to the BBC Radio 1
Big Weekend in May 2014 and beyond, we will offer our audiences
the opportunity to take part in an extensive year-long celebrationof live events, concerts and programmes which will reflect a rangeof Commonwealth themes. In addition to extensive coverage
across our television and radio services, we will provide 15 streams
via the BBC Sport website, ensuring that all 17 sports (including
para sports) are available to viewers.
Authoritative, impartial and informed news coverage, across allof the BBC’s news outlets, has been and will continue to be thehallmark of our approach to Referendum reporting. We havealready provided extensive coverage of all of the key events todate, with live debates and documentaries, across our services
and broadcast platforms, providing informed comment and theopportunity for a range of voices to be heard.
In the period to – and beyond – Referendum Day, we will ensure
that, through our coverage, more light than heat is reflected onto
to the issues that matter to the voting public.

Ken MacQuarrie
Director, BBC Scotland01

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Two minute summary
In 2013/14, BBC Scotland broadcast nearly 2400 hours of originatedTV for audiences in Scotland and across the UK. And there was over
12,000 hours of originated radio hours, with programmes for BBC Radio
Scotland, Radio nan Gaidheal and for the BBC’s network radio services.
BBC News Scotland website
The huge public interest in the disappearanceof Edinburgh boy Mikaeel Kular saw 11.02m UK
Unique Users visit the BBC News Scotland Online
site during week commencing 13 January.

BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
The week-day Coinneach MacIomhair show
celebrated its 20th anniversary on air in April
and its 5,000th show in September 2013.

11.02m

5,000

number of UK
unique users

editions on air

BBC One Share in Scotland
For the first time, share for BBC One
in Scotland move share ofviewing attracted by BBC One UK-wide(21.2% in Scotland v 21% UK wide)

Scottish BAFTA Awards
In 2013, Children’s, Comedy, Factual and Drama
programming were just some of the categories
in which BBC Scotland collected Scottish BAFTA
awards in November, 2013.

7

21.2%

Scottish BAFTA awards
won by BBC Scotland

share of theaudience

Weekly Reach in Scotland(% by service)

79.6

78.3

75.6

55.4

53.4

17.6
52.2

76.4

75.0

2011/122012/13

15.6

72.4

11.9

2011/122012/132013/14

BBC OneManagement Review 2013/14 – Scotland

2011/12
BBC Two

2012/132013/142011/122012/132013/14

BBC ALBA (amongst adult16+ population in Scotland)

2013/14

BBC ALBA (amongst
Gaelic community)02Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Two minute summary
BBC Scotland’s local television hours
Genre

BBC ALBA TV hours
News and Current Affairs

177.76Arts

8.12

Other BBC funded programmes

27.9

Comedy1.90

Total BBC funded programmes

205.66

Current Affairs

191.01

Partner (MG ALBA) funded programmes

442

Drama

51.72

Joint Funded programmes

1.97Entertainment

2.25

Total hours

649.63

Factual58.74

Repeats

1,974.46

Factual Entertainment

13.47

Total hours

2,624.09

Music Performance

15.47

News & Weather

304.44

Religion/Beliefs

1.71

BBC Radio Scotland

Learning

0.48

RepeatsSport

168.74

Total hours

8,776

Total

818.05

BBC Radio nan Gaidheal

3,594

Repeats

110.11

Repeats

1,225

Total hours

928.16

Total hours

4,819

8,070
706

BBC Scotland Network radio hours

BBC Scotland Network TV hours
Originations

BBC Scotland’s radio hours

915

TV highlights
The 20th anniversary of T in the Park, from Balado in Fife, wascaptured across BBC network television, radio, online, red buttonand BBC iPlayer. An anniversary programme showcased someof the best performances of the past two decades.

Originations

592

Radio highlights
Drama from Scotland for BBC Radio 4 included an acclaimed
adaptation of classic horror The Exorcist and an award-winning
production of The Grapes of Wrath. The Steinbeck adaptation won
a Sony Silver for Best Drama, with the judges observing that it was“everything a classic serial should be.”Online highlights
The weekly average number of unique users accessing the
BBC News Scotland online website rose, again, in 2013/14, to
4.06 million. As news broke of the tragic helicopter crash at
the Clutha Vaults in Glasgow in November, the number rose
to 7.94 million.

Weekly Reach in Scotland(% by service)

22.6

2011/1221.9

2012/1320.4

2013/14

BBC Radio Scotland

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

03

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
In a year in which network TV spend in Scotland rose
to record levels, there was significant critical appreciation
for the range and quality of BBC Scotland programmes.
TelevisionNews Online audiences continued to grow, on average, with
The past year saw close cooperation between News and Current more than four million UK unique users a week.
Affairs in Scotland and network news.
Much of 2013 was spent increasing capacity and capability to
On television the early evening edition of Reporting Scotland
deliver for the Independence Referendum. Planning took placeremained the most watched daily news programme in Scotland,
to introduce a new weeknight news programme – Scotland 2014
with audiences in excess of 500,000 each night; and the award– from May 2014 and around 50 new temporary staff joined thewinning BBC Investigations Unit was once again at the heart ofdepartment, including 14 graduate trainees.
the biggest Scottish stories.
The hugely innovative Generation 2014 project brought
There was a poignant reminder of the prodigious talent of thetogether 50 young people from diverse backgrounds acrosslate Iain Banks in his interview with Kirsty Wark (Iain Banks –Scotland. As 16 and 17 years olds with the right to vote in the
Raw Spirit) and the deadliest act of terrorism ever committed
2014 Referendum, they will play a critical part in Scotland’s future.
on British soil was marked with Living with Lockerbie, in which
They have already contributed to a wide range of BBC Scotland
Glenn Campbell considered the legacy of that terrible evening
and network news programmes, including the Today programmein December 1988. The Crash That Shook Scotland recounted
and Jeremy Vine. In a special debate from Pacific Quay, televised livethe events surrounding the Clutha helicopter crash in Glasgow.
on the BBC News Channel, they put politicians Jim Murphy MP
Many of these stories reached UK and worldwide audiences as aand Humza Yousaf MSP through their paces.
result of broadcasts on the BBC News Channel, BBC ParliamentNews and Current Affairs continues to invest heavily in new
and BBC World.
capability to deliver content on the move. The department now
Question Time, which continues to be the major television forum for has a fleet of nine ‘live’ vehicles, allowing reporters and crews to
topical debate and discussion, broadcast a memorable international deliver live and edited content direct to programmes fromedition in South Africa following the death of Nelson Mandela.
locations across Scotland.
Comprehensive reporting of the Independence Referendum
included a number of debates in Pacific Quay and around thecountry and a series of documentaries kicked off in November
with Alan Little’s Our Friends in the North, a look at the relevanceof nation states in Scandinavia to the debate in Scotland. BBC
Scotland correspondents reported on independence issues
from Spain, Norway, Denmark, the United States and Ireland.

The first in a series of referendum debates came from Greenock

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Shetland returned to our screens with a second series of three
two-part crime dramas. Douglas Henshall reprised his lead role asdetective Jimmy Perez, as the brooding skies of the Northern Isles
once again provided the moody backdrop to this atmosphericseries of murder mysteries. Over 10 million viewers tuned in forthe opening episodes.

Generation 2014 brought 50 first-time voters together
to consider Scotland’s future04

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
There was a return also for the award-winning Field of Blood,the second two-part drama adaptation of Denise Mina’s The
Dead Hour. Set against a backdrop of the miners’ strike andthe changing face of 1980s journalism, the stellar cast included
David Morrissey, Katherine Kelly, Jayd Johnson and Ford Kiernan.
A second series of three 90 minute Case Histories, shot in
Edinburgh, once again saw Jason Isaacs return as private
detective Jackson Bodie. The first episode received nearly
900,000 requests to view on iPlayer.
Series Eight and Nine of popular school drama Waterloo Road
were broadcast across the year and River City remained the mostappreciated soap among audiences in Scotland. The dramatic
climax to its child abduction storyline drew half a million viewers.
There were rich offerings in comedy, with Mrs Brown’s Boys, shotat the Pacific Quay studios, the most viewed programme, acrossall broadcasters, on Christmas Day. Brendan O’Carroll’s ribald
sitcom returned a few days later with a New Year’s party special.
Other Festive Season highlights for network BBC included a
Limmy’s Show Christmas Special, in which Brian Limond, fresh fromhis second Scottish BAFTA, returned with his unique take on theseason of goodwill; a chaotic New Year’s Eve party was the setting
for Two Doors Down, with Alex Norton, Jonathan Watson andDaniela Nardini; Only An Excuse? took its annual flying header atthe beautiful game (and drew an audience in Scotland of 1.1m
viewers); and Rab C Nesbitt turned to a life of crime in order tomake ends meet –though perhaps less Robin Hood, more Rab
in Hoodie.
Rory Bremner cast his satirical gaze on the Independence
Referendum in Rory Goes to Holyrood and we produced a numberof comedies for BBC Three, including Badults, the Best of Limmy’s
Show, Sean Walsh’s Late Night Comedy Spectacular and the six-partfast-paced sketch show The Ginge, the Geordie and the Geek.

Jayd Johnson, David Morrissey and Katherine Kelly starredin a second series of Field of BloodManagement Review 2013/14 – Scotland

The Pacific Quay studios were also home to an increasing numberof network entertainment formats, including the BBC One gameshow Perfection, with Nick Knowles; the Saturday night celebrity
game show I Love My Country; the popular John Barrowman quiz
Pressure Pad; and the network BBC One National Lottery
programmes In It To Win It, Who Dares Wins and Break the Safe.
Victoria Wood’s Nice Cup of Tea offered an engaging look at theplant that changed the world, with over 100,000 requests to viewon iPlayer. And comedienne Sarah Millican brought her own
brand of charm and humour to BBC Two with The Sarah Millican
Television Programme.
Audience favourites across the year included Antiques Road Trip,
Country Show Cook Off, Homes Under the Hammer, More Creatures
Great and Small, Motorway Cops, Cowboy Trap and, of course, theever-popular general knowledge quiz Eggheads, with Jeremy Vine.

Rory Bremner offered his own unique take on Scottish politics
in Rory Goes to Holyrood05

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
The fictional island of Struay was the setting for children’s
favourite Katie Morag. Filmed on Lewis, the 26-part live action
drama, produced by Move on Up for CBeebies, was versioned
into Gaelic, as Ceitidh Morag, for BBC ALBA. Nina and the Neurons
returned with 25 programmes themed around Earth Explorers
and the Dark Sky Park and Paisley Observatory were just two of
the locations featured. Nine episodes of the history show My Story
were filmed across Scotland, from Harris to Strathaven andOrkney to Aviemore.

Rugby featured in the Melrose Sevens, in live action from theviagogo autumn test series, where Scotland faced Japan, South
Africa and Australia, and in Grand Slam ’84, which looked back on
Scotland’s first grand slam since 1925. Curling from Perth; shinty,
with the Camanchd Cup Final and the MacAulay Cup; internationalbowls; the Scottish Rally Championships and the Strathpuffer 24,
one of the world’s toughest mountain bike challenges – thesewere just some of the sports featured across 2013/14.

Sport Nation and The Adventure Show gained a new stable mate inSport XIV, which looked forward to the year of sporting challengeahead. In October live coverage of the Great Scottish Run offeredviewers the chance to see double Olympic gold medallist Haile
Gebrselassie cross the finishing line in record time. Just a few days
later, there was live TV coverage of Sir Chris Hoy starting theCommonwealth Games Baton Relay in London. As the baton
In March, three young glee clubs went head to head for a chance
makes its way across the Commonwealth, Mark Beaumont will,
to be crowned Sport Relief does Glee Club winners 2014. All Over thein a series of documentary programmes, report on every step
Place journeyed to the USA and to Australia for its third and fourthof its journey to the opening ceremony in Glasgow in July 2014.
series respectively on CBBC and Tim Fitzhigham put to the test thepowers of the humans who defy science in Super Human Challenge. It was an outstanding year, also, for Factual programming withlandmark programmes delivered as part of the Wild Scotland
A busy year of sports output included football, with Sportsceneseason. Hebrides: Islands On the Edge was three years in the making
covering live League Cup and William Hill Scottish Cup games,
and took two years to film. Narrated by Ewan McGregor, the fourWorld Cup qualifiers and friendly internationals, as well as ahour-long programmes captured the wind-scoured grace andregular weekly diet of Premier League TV highlights. The two cup
beauty of the islands, with a particular focus on the wildlife which
competitions culminated in live finals on BBC One Scotland, withinhabits them. The programmes reached nearly one in three ofCeltic FC collecting their 36th Scottish Cup trophy in May 2013
the population in Scotland and, as well as transferring to network,
and Aberdeen triumphing over Inverness to collect the League
they were versioned for BBC ALBA, with narration provided by
Cup, their first trophy in 19 years, in March 2014. Twenty years
Julie Fowlis.
on, a special tribute was paid to the Aberdeen European Cup
Winners’ Cup side of 1983 in That Was the Team That Was.
The comedy panel show The Dog Ate My Homework launchedon CBBC, featuring a host of panelists, children, celebrities andcomedians and our canine friends also appeared in the third seriesof Who Let The Dogs Out?, as Britain’s best young dog trainers andtheir talented pups featured in this 15-part CBBC favourite.

Katie Morag charmed young audiences across the country
and was re-commissioned for a second series

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Hebrides: Islands on the Edge

06

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
The season continued with Wild Cameramen at Work, which,narrated by David Attenborough, focussed on the work of fiveof the world’s best wildlife cameramen who have their rootsin Scotland. Midsummer Live concluded the season, with a live
summer solstice programme from the standing stones at
Callanish on Lewis.
There was a huge variety of factual TV programming produced
for audiences in Scotland, from the second six-part series of
The Harbour, from Tern TV, which offered a behind-the-scenes
look at life in and around Aberdeen Harbour, to explorations of
the Scottish accent on screen (Dream Me Up, Scotty, with Alex
Norton); the beauty and dangers of Scotland’s rugged terrain(in Mountain Rescue and One Wild Winter in the Scottish Mountains);
the six-part Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands, with Paul Murton:
the story behind the dubious history of Scottish tartan (in Spinning
A Yarn) and the story of one of Scotland’s greatest cultural
exports, in How Auld Lang Syne Took Over The World.
Anniversaries were marked with programmes such as Ever To Excel,
presented by Sean Connery, marking 600 years of St Andrew’s
University; 90 years of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society(in Controlled Abandon); the 75th anniversary of the Scottish
Association of Young Farmers’ Clubs (in Tractors and Trophies);and 100 years of Edinburgh Zoo (in Animal Magic, narrated byJohn Hannah).
On a more sombre note, Piper Alpha: Fire in the Night marked
the 25th anniversary of one of the world’s worst offshore oil
disasters. Produced by STV Productions, it chronicled the eventsof that tragic night in 1988 when 167 men lost their lives.

team, Chris Beardshaw. There was a look at life off the grid in rural
Scotland with a modern crofting family in Power to the Pococks; Old
MacDonald’s Farm followed the MacDonald family over four years
to chart their remarkable life on a Zambian farm, while acting as
foster mum and dad to 27 street kids; and there was a look at thepast, present and future of what is often regarded as one of
Scotland’s most treacherous roads in Life And Death on the A9.
Insane Fight Club reflected the brutal and riotous chaos of thisnewest of subcultures; the Glasgow Pavilion was the star of theshow in Pavilion of Dreams, which offered behind the scenes accessto one of Scotland’s last remaining old-style variety theatres; andthe three-part Teen Canteen lifted the lid on a new businessventure run by pupils at Linlithgow Academy.
How to succeed in business was also the subject matter for thetwo-part The Entrepreneurs. The Great Hip Hop Hoax, however,took an entirely different approach to making it big as the film
followed the fortunes of struggling Dundee rappers Billy Boyd andGavin Bain. Following poor reviews, the pair decided to reinvent
themselves as L.A. homeboys, adopting fake accents and identities
in an audacious attempt to dupe the record business, as
Californian hip hop duo Silibil n’Brains....
By day and night one of Scotland’s busiest streets, the three partseries The Street reflected the lives of those who live, work andplay on the two mile stretch of Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street.
In another three part series, Crime Scenes Scotland took viewers
from crime scene to court, offering an intimate look at the workof some of Scotland’s world class forensics experts.

Rural issues remain prominent, with Landward, which, over 26
episodes each year, covers subjects as diverse as food, farming,the environment and leisure. The evergreen Beechgrove Garden
returned for its 35th series with a new addition to the presenting

In this year of Scotland’s referendum on independence, thethree-part historical documentary The Stuarts, presented by
Dr Clare Jackson of Cambridge University, examined the originsof the United Kingdom and the dynastic family under whose
17th century rule it was forged.

Alex Norton in Dream Me Up, Scotty

Paul Murton in Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland07

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, BBC Scotlandcommissioned a series of programmes to complement thecoverage of the Games themselves. In Clydebuilt: The Ships That
Made The Commonwealth David Hayman told the story of fourships that forged links with the rest of the world.

Following the success of the Royal Television Society award-winning
drama documentary The Challenger, with John Hurt and Brian
Dennehy, The Fantastic Mr Feynman, on BBC Two, celebrated thelife of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who solved the mysteryof the tragic 1986 space shuttle crash.

The centenary of the Great War will be marked with over
2,500 hours of television programmes, across BBC networks
and broadcast platforms, over the next four years. In March 2014,
The Machine Gun and Skye’s Band of Brothers, from our documentary
unit in Aberdeen, looked at the science of the Maxim Gun andhow its brutal efficiency as a killing machine brought devastation
to a company of men from one tightly knit Highland community.

Larger than life Hollywood star David Hasselhoff returned to thesmall screen for BBC Three, to offer his unique take on the movies
with the six-part The Hoff’s Best…Films Ever”

Clydebuilt: The Ships That Made The CommonwealthRichard Hammond Builds A Planet

On Four, one of the most hostile environments on Earth was
examined in The Secret Life of Rock Pools; Danny Baker delved
deep into his record collection for the three-part Danny Baker
Rocks the ’80s; and in Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World Dr Jago
On network, Richard Hammond swapped his place behind the
Cooper presented a documentary of which The Independent
Top Gear steering wheel to take on the ultimate engineering
said “succeeds in completely overturning popular understanding”
projects in Richard Hammond Builds A Planet and Richard Hammond of the ancient peoples of Rapa Nui.
Builds A Universe. Following its outing on BBC Two Scotland, Peter
Billy Connolly may have entered his eighth decade but he showed
Higgs: Particle Man transferred to the BBC News Channel. It told
no sign of mellowing when he met Kirsty Wark, on BBC Four’s
the story of the Edinburgh-based Nobel Prize-winning theoretical
The Review Show, to discuss his latest film role in Dustin Hoffman’s
physicist who predicted the existence of the sub-atomic particle
Quartet. The Review Show also saw Kirsty travel to New York to talkthat became known as the Higgs Boson.
to acclaimed author Donna Tartt and the rich cultural heritage of
Keeping Britain Safe 24/7, on BBC One, followed Julia Bradbury
Edinburgh’s Festivals was captured in a series of special programmes.
and Matt Allwright as they spent a year with this country’s
The Culture Show offered a rich and varied diet of cultural fayre,
everyday heroes.
with programmes on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lady Gaga, British film
On BBC Two, Chris Packham uncovered the secrets of how
director Steve McQueen, the secret life of Mary Poppins andanimals see the world, in the three-part Inside the Animal Mind.
Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre.
The Happy Lands told the story of the people of one Fife mining
community, in 1926, standing up for their rights against thedemands of the local coal company. Dramatic changes in solar
activity were charted in The Secret Life of the Sun. And all you everneeded to know about common ailments was revealed in thethree-part Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

08

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
Artworks Scotland threw open the doors of the Burrell Collectionin Glasgow to tell the tale behind the remarkable collections ofWilliam Burrell, in The Man Who Collected the World. Bob Geldof,
Steve Coogan and David Bailey were just some of the personalities
interviewed in BBC Four’s Mark Lawson Talks… and Rod Stewart
strutted his stuff on Imagine.
What Do Artists Do All Day?, also on BBC Four, offered a series
of intimate portraits of leading artists at work, including Albert
Watson, Antony Gormley, John Byrne and Glaswegian comicbook artist Frank Quitely.
Following its 10 year renovation, Andrew Graham-Dixon went
behind the scenes at Holland’s National Museum in A Night at the
Rijksmuseum. Art historian Helen Rosslyn traced the stories of
those who shaped the history of this nation’s art collections in thethree-part Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections.
And the murky world of art crime was investigated by art critic
Alastair Sooke in The World’s Most Expensive Stolen Paintings.
The ancient Greeks offered the subject matter for two series– Who Were the Greeks? (on BBC Two) and the three-part Ancient
Greece: the Greatest Show on Earth (on BBC Four), which exploredthe roots of drama.
A second, 10-part series of Britain on Film looked at the changing
face of Britain’s political, economic and social landscape in the
1960s. And Secret Knowledge provided a series of authored films
on subjects as varied as The Art of Witchcraft, Walter Scott’s Castle
and William Hogarth’s obsession with pugs.

World-renowned photographer Albert Watson,
in What Do Artists Do All Day?

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

The three-part Unbuilt Britain: Dreaming the Impossible looked at
the grand architectural designs that never left the drawing board
and The Century that Wrote Itself traced the 17th century’s golden
age of writing.
There were appreciations of national icons Andy Stewart(The Man behind the Kilt), the Alexander Brothers and Robbie
Shepherd (I’ll Be Looking For You). Glasgow’s Big Night Out painted
an affectionate portrait of the city as seen through the eyes ofmany of those who played its world-famous venues, including
Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Laurel & Hardy.
Transatlantic Sessions returned for a sixth series, with a sparkling
array of musical talent and there was a celebration of Burns’
influence across the globe in a Burns and the Commonwealthconcert, from the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.
Extensive coverage of events across Scotland ranged from the
Glasgow’s Celtic Connections Festival, where BBC Scotland
broadcast over 20 events, to the World Pipe Band Championships,
Proms in the Park, the Mod from Paisley, T in the Park from
Balado and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Hogmanay Live came from the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow,
with Jackie Bird in Edinburgh and contributions from around thecountry. And this year’s Children in Need extravaganza raised£2.35million for charities in Scotland.

Mel C was one of the artists appearing in this year’s
Proms in the Park from Glasgow

09

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

BBC ALBA
In addition to reporting the stories of the day, An La featured ashort series exploring issues related to the Referendum fromthe perspective of communities across the Highlands and Islands.
This formed part of an integrated approach for the audience
across the television service, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and bbc.
co.uk/alba and included specially commissioned hour-long,bi-media, audience-led debates.
A documentary and accompanying concert Ceòl, Camanachd is
Cogadh marked the beginning of the WW1 commemoration
on BBC ALBA. Through the story of the team who won the
Camanachd Cup in 1913, the programmes charted the links
between shinty, the Great War and traditional music. The
continuing legacy of war and the efforts to deal with it provided
the story of Cunnart, a documentary following Lewis-man Donald
MacDonald who has spent the last twenty years disposing of
landmines and bombs in some of the world’s most troubled
regions. A brother’s search for his missing sibling took BBC ALBA
viewers to the foothills of Mount Ararat as Derick Mackenzie
tried to discover the truth about his brother Donald who went
missing while looking for the biblical Ark, in Braithrean na h-Àirce.
Writing and acting talent were given new platforms this year asa three-part pilot drama series was developed and produced
for the autumn 2014 schedule. Bannan was filmed on locationin Skye and is being developed in partnership with Young Films,
MG ALBA and Creative Scotland.

Derick Mackenzie’s search for his brother in Braithrean na h-Àirce

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Dà La san Dàmhair, an hour-long comedy shot in observational
documentary style and featuring a mix of scripted and improvised
performance, followed six characters on their journey to Gaeldom’s
annual festival, the Mod. As a result of collaboration between BBC
ALBA and CBeebies, young viewers were able to enjoy a Gaelic
version of the drama Katie Morag, set and filmed in the Hebrides.
Sportswoman Kerry MacPhee, an up-and-coming cyclist whosejourney to the Commonwealth Games was documented fortransmission later in 2014, was just one of the grassroots athletes
who took part in the World Island Games in Bermuda last summer
and whose performance was covered on BBC ALBA and online.
Memories of a seminal sports moment provided the basis for anhour-long documentary telling the story of Aberdeen FC’s victoryin the European Cup Winners’ Cup 30 years ago in Gothenburg.
With commentaries on football and shinty matches a popularfeature of the BBC ALBA schedule, the story of the dedicatedwomen behind the shinty players was told at Christmas-time in
S.W.A.G.S – the Shinty Wives and Girlfriends.
In the Year of Natural Scotland Innsean an Iar, with footage
from the Hebrides – Islands on the Edge series, illustrated thelinks between landscape, the natural world and traditional music.
A six-part observational series, From Harris With Love, featuring
the community of North Harris illustrated the highs and lows,
opportunities and challenges of life in rural Scotland today.

Angelina Jolie appeared in the BBC ALBA documentary Cunnart

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performanceRadio
BBC Radio Scotland continues to reach more listeners than any
other station based in Scotland and is second only to BBC Radio 2
when comparing reach figures across all stations available tolisteners in Scotland. The clearer proposition of daytime speechand evening music has been consolidated in the past twelve
months. The biggest audiences come for Good Morning Scotland,
Morning Call, Sportsound and Off the Ball.
New formats launched included the weekly science programme– Brainwaves – and the social history strand Our Story. New comedy
included The Legend of the Holyrood Vampires and pilots such as
Planet Mearns, Wired News and The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected. Production teams in Scotland continued to make high quality
speech and music programmes for the BBC’s UK networks.
New drama included the four part serialisation of The Black House
The daily Four O’Clock Show for Radio 4 Extra enjoyed substantial
and single plays such as Albion Street and Homeless. Richard
increases in audience numbers and a new commission for BBC
Holloway presented a series looking at the history of Britishness
Radio 3 saw production teams travel the world to capture thein Scotland and there was a season of programmes devoted tomusic and stories of the Commonwealth. Other network output
the issues surrounding mental health – Changing Minds – which
included jazz and orchestral programmes for BBC Radio 3,
included the innovative series Feeling Kind of Funny.
The Introducing strand for BBC Radio 1 and, for BBC Radio 4, theAmong a number of single documentaries broadcast in 2013/14,
Digital Human strand (which won the Royal Society Radio Prize
Safe at Last took an uncompromising look at domestic violenceat the Association of British Science Writers Awards in June 2013).
and the poignant and thought-provoking Tales From the Edge of Life
There was also collaboration with BBC Radio 2 for coverage oftold the story of one young woman’s final days after being
the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow
diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Providing the topical bridge between BBC Radio nan Gaidheal’s
BBC Radio Scotland had a major presence at Celtic Connections
morning news on Aithris na Maidne and the traditional music
and the Edinburgh Festivals. The BBC village at Potterrow inentertainment of Mire ri Moir, the week-day Coinneach MacIomhair
Edinburgh was, for three weeks, home to the MacAulay & Co
show celebrated its 5,000th edition. Drawing on community
programme alongside The Culture Studio with Janice Forsyth andexpertise and providing a forum for debate and discussion of the
one-off participation from other programmes.
local and the international, the programme continued to feature
a breadth of subject matter, from visits to Scotland’s battlefields
and analysis of some of the world’s most famous speeches to an
enthusiast’s guide to the insects of Scotland. As part of the Yearof Natural Scotland the series Ceum a-Mach accompanied listeners
as they enjoyed their own local environment.

The Culture Studio with Janice ForsythManagement Review 2013/14 – Scotland

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
The tragedy of Piper Alpha was recalled 25 years on by eyewitnesses and by those who waited at home for news of loved
ones. Journalists who reported on the explosion and those
who supported the families of oil workers also told their story.
Memory as dream, retold over the course of our lives, was the
topic explored by psychologist Donald MacLeod in a series ofenchanting short stories, Eadar Dà Shaoghal.
Personal accounts of living with debilitating illnesses illustrated ashort series, Slàinte, which also featured information and expert
advice. The commitment from a community to amateur sport
was the subject of Cupa Eilean an Fhraoich, a one-off documentarycelebrating 80 years since the introduction of the Lewis andHarris football competition. BBC Radio nan Gaidheal alsobroadcast live commentary from the final of the competition.
The children’s magazine Aileag continued to feature contributions
from children across the country and joined the students in
Edinburgh’s first Gaelic school to capture their thoughts on thedevelopment. Working in partnership with Proiseact nan Ealan
the team supported a project to produce five new WW1-related
dramas. In a joint initiative with MG ALBA, Comunn na Gaidhlig
and the Gaelic college Sabhal Mor Ostaig, young Gaelic writers
and performers saw their sketches broadcast on the station’s
youth programme Rapal.
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s first Tectonics Festival
in May 2013 was critically hailed and 70% of those who booked
tickets were ‘new customers’ for the orchestra. In June, Glasgow
City Halls was Alive With Music for a weekend of free concerts
and a concert screening of Buster Keaton’s The General for the
Merchant City Festival. Summer saw appearances at the BBC
Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and a return to Glasgow
Green for the Last Night Proms Celebrations. Under the batonof Chief Conductor Donald Runnicles, the orchestra’s regularconcert series continued to grow, with a particular rise insubscribers for concerts in Aberdeen.

Rapal, on Radio nan Gaidheal and BBC ALBA, showcased
the latest Scottish music

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Learning work included workshops across the country, aperformance of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde and MONAD, acollaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, theGlasgow School of Art and Scottish Ballet. And in CommonwealthGames year, before setting out on its tour of India, the orchestra
celebrated the work of Bollywood’s Slumdog Millionaire composer
A.R.Rahman at Celtic Connections with a concert broadcast liveon the BBC Asian Network, complementing its regular output
on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland. In India, the orchestra
performed in front of 10,000 children and, in a co-production
with the Indian State Radio and Television networks, its Chennai,
Delhi and Mumbai concerts will be heard across the country, witha potential audience of up to 750 million.
In Learning, Scotland’s new National 4 and National 5 qualifications
were supported with Bitesize content covering sciences, social
subjects, English, French, Maths and the new Lifeskills Maths
course. Videos brought Kidnapped, Sailmaker and Bold Girls tolife and we published motion comics on Scottish history topics.
Work is currently underway to publish Bitesize content for the
new Higher qualifications.
All of BBC Learning’s video content, approximately 10,000 Class
Clips, was mapped to be searchable using Scotland’s Curriculum
for Excellence terminology, with specific suggestions for classroom
uses written best to serve Scottish teachers and students.

There was an SSO concert screening of Buster Keaton’s The Generalfor the Merchant City Festival

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Service performance
Work was undertaken with BBC Scotland’s Referendum Unit
to create resources to support learners, their teachers andtheir families to engage in this historic, first time voting decision.
Pantocracy was a surreal family sitcom, designed to help young
people see how democracy affects them daily and Referendum
issues were also on the agenda within this year’s School Report.

OnlineThe BBC Homepage enjoyed a steady year in preparation for
major change over the next couple of years, with the Scotland
edition in particular selected to be at the forefront of a raft of
new developments.

A newly-relaunched iPlayer along with upgrades to the BBC
Programmes website resulted in a year of considerable progressin the evolution of television shows into the online space. Major
shows to feature notable online enhancements included River City,
Insane Fight Club, Transatlantic Sessions, The Great British Energy
Authors Live this year featured Tony Robinson and Mairi
Saving Challenge, Limmy’s Show, Badults, Teen Canteen, The Fantastic
Hedderwick among other top literary talent. There were CBeebies
Mr Feynman and Waterloo Road.
radio commissions for My Story and Nina and the Neurons: Earth
Explorers and highlights included documentaries and dramas.
On Red Button, over 1.5 million viewers took part in the In It To
Win It play-along quiz; nearly a million pressed red for Sue PerkinsCommonwealth Class is a project involving the BBC, British Council
presented extra coverage and performances from the Edinburgh
and the Commonwealth Secretariat, to offer opportunities for
Festivals; and T in the Park returned for its 20th year with Red Button
online debates for 7-14 year olds across the Commonwealth incoverage of full performances from three stages at the festival.
the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014. With
the aim to engage 100,000 schools, the project made films in Sri
Lanka, South Africa and India. The project was commended by
Her Majesty the Queen in her Commonwealth Day message on
10 March 2014.

The Great Big Energy Saving Challenge, The Secret Life of Rock Pools
and Teen Canteen were re-versioned for schools audiences forbroadcast on BBC Two’s Learning Zone and for use as online clips.

The LAB worked with nursery classes to make animations, with
Larkhall Academy and St Peter the Apostle High School on dramas
based on River City and with Inverclyde Academy on knife crime.

There were full performances from three stages on BBC Red Button at this year’s T in the Park

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Looking ahead
The Commonwealth Games and the Scottish Independence
Referendum will be covered authoritatively and comprehensively
by BBC Scotland across all of our broadcast platforms.
Delivering comprehensive, high quality coverageof the major events in 2014
With the announcement in May 2013 of an additional £5million
investment for our Referendum coverage, we will provide a rangeof programmes and content which will serve to inform viewers
and listeners and offer opportunities for a range of voices, acrossthe debate, to be heard.

With an average of 30 hours live broadcasting each day during theGames, on network BBC One and BBC Three, and live streamingof all sports on the BBC website, audiences will be able to accessall of the action and excitement of the Games via all of the BBC’s
broadcast platforms.

Working with BBC colleagues from around the organisation,
coverage of the Games themselves will be complemented by
We will continue to broadcast our series of 12 TV documentaries, the huge variety of output which will capture the rich cultural
throwing light onto some of the main issues to be considered indiversity of the participating countries and Glasgow itself.
this historic decision. These programmes will complement theIn addition to the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend in Glasgow in May
10 radio documentaries we will offer, providing analysis and2014, there is an extensive and hugely ambitious range of factual,scrutinising all of the key talking points.
entertainment, comedy and drama projects already in production,
Our series of radio and televised debate programmes will travel
which will be broadcast across the BBC’s various radio, television
the country to allow views and perspectives from aroundand online services.
Scotland to be aired and to enable audiences to question
A specially constructed venue at Pacific Quay – BBC at the Quay
politicians and opinion-formers on Scotland’s future prospects.
– will operate across the duration of the Games themselves, from
With 50 new posts in place, including 14 graduate trainees, we
19 July to 3 August. Audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy
will be well placed to deliver the most ambitious and authoritative a huge range of BBC events, live and pre-recorded programmes,
coverage of the Referendum. We will replace Newsnight Scotland
music every night and special interactive attractions. A big screenwith a new 30 minute weeknight current affairs programme –will offer all of the action from the Games. We anticipate that
Scotland 2014 – which, complementing our extensive television,
BBC at the Quay will bring alive all of the drama and excitement
radio and online offer, will ensure we can provide the mostof the 20th Commonwealth Games for tens of thousands ofin-depth and informed coverage of one of the most important
visitors to the site.
decisions for Scotland’s electorate in recent times.
Plans are already in place to ensure that the BBC coverage of theCommonwealth Games for Glasgow will be the most ambitious
and the most extensive ever undertaken.

BBC Scotland’s Referendum reporting team includes
Brian Taylor, James Cook, Laura Bicker and Glenn Campbell

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

A special pop-up ‘Best of the BBC’ festival will take place at Pacific Quay,
Glasgow, over two weeks, as part of the BBC’s Commonwealth Games coverage

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Looking ahead

Improving our programme offer for audiences,across broadcast platforms
We will continue to develop our programme offers for audiences,across broadcast platforms. In particular we will seek to reflect
the interests of audiences in Scotland by delivering high impact
drama – especially on TV – and a sustainable comedy offer.
We will continue to develop our programme output in theareas of Factual, Specialist Factual and Science. And, as part of theBBC’s commitment to the Arts, The Story Of Scottish Art will be afour-part series made in collaboration with the National Galleriesof Scotland; BBC Arts Online will follow violinist Nicola Benedettiand composer James MacMillan on the BBC Scottish SymphonyOrchestra and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s first tour of
India, in April; and there will be extended coverage of this year’s
Edinburgh Festivals.
The provision of live streaming, online, of BBC One Scotland
remains an ambition and we will endeavour to make this a reality
within the coming year.

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Contacts
If you wish to find out more about the BBC’s year – including full
financial statements and each service’s performance against its
Statement of Programme Policy – then please visit
bbc.co.uk/annualreport
If you want to know more about how the BBC is run
then please visit
bbc.co.uk/info
BBC Information is our audience’s virtual front door to the BBC.
If you have a question, comment, complaint or suggestion about
BBC programmes and services, then please write to us here:
BBC Information
PO Box 1922
Darlington DL3 OUR
Telephone: 03700 100 222*
(Lines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Calls maybe monitored or recorded fortraining purposes.)

Textphone: 03700 100 212*
Website: www.bbc.co.uk/feedback
To find out more about BBC Scotland and our services,
programmes, activities and events visit us atwww.bbc.co.uk/scotland
www.bbc.co.uk/alba*0370 numbers are called ‘UK wide’ and cost no more than calls to 01 or 02
geographic numbers.

Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

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Management Review 2013/14 – Scotland

Scotland management

Ken MacQuarrie
Director, BBC Scotland

Ewan Angus
Commissioning Editor,
Television and Head of Sport

Wendy Aslett
HR Director

John Boothman
Head of News& Current Affairs

Alan Dickson
Chief Operating Officer

Mairead Ferguson
Head of Marketing,Communications & Audiences

Natalie Humphreys
Controller, BBC
Factual Production

Donalda Mackinnon
Head of Programmes& Services

Bruce Malcolm
Head ofCommonwealth Games

Margaret Mary Murray
Head of Gaelic

Ian Small
Head of Public Policy& Corporate Affairs

Catherine Smith
Head of Strategy

Jeff Zycinski
Head of RadioManagement Review 2013/14 – Scotland

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