James MacTaggart

  • James MacTaggart & Dennis Potter – ITV Saturday Night Theatre: Moonlight on the Highway (1969) 

    1961-1970Dennis PotterDramaJames MacTaggartTVUnited Kingdom

    Moonlight on the Highway is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on 12 April 1969 as part of ITV’s Saturday Night Theatre strand. The tale of a young Al Bowlly obsessive attempting to blot out memories of sexual abuse via his fixation with the singer, the play was the first of Potter’s works to use popular music as a dramatic device and strongly anticipated Potter’s later ‘serials with songs’ Pennies from Heaven (1978), The Singing Detective (1986) and Lipstick on Your Collar (1993).Read More »

  • James MacTaggart – Play for Today: Orkney (1971)

    1971-1980DramaJames MacTaggartShort FilmUnited Kingdom

    Short stories by George MacKay Brown, adapted for television by John McGrath

    Three short-stories by Orcadian author Brown, adapted to create three short plays, running back-to-back, in an episode lasting just over 90-minutes. It explores the lives of islanders, past and present.

    Brown won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and although ultimately unsuccessful he was shortlisted for a Booker Prize for fiction.

    Take into consideration that there’s three stories with approx. 10 actors and actresses in each, then add in Scottish drama’s reputation for using the same tried-and-tested faces over and over again. That means, if you’re a Scot over 40, you’re bound to end up spending the evening guessing the other things they were in!Read More »

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