Live coverage of Belladrum returns to BBC ALBA with Scotland’s friendliest music festival welcoming headliners Elbow, Jess Glynne and Chvrches.
Fans can catch much of the weekend festival action live on BBC ALBA, hosted by Fiona MacKenzie and Niall Iain MacDonald, from Thursday 1st through to Saturday 3rd August, with festival highlights also available on the new BBC Scotland channel on Friday and Saturday nights.
The 16th annual festival takes place in the Scottish Highlands, on the Belladrum Estate near Inverness. The festival’s main stage, in the estate’s idyllic Italian walled garden is the central location for three nights of lively music and festival colour which will be broadcast live on BBC ALBA. Coverage will also include some very special acoustic sets and on-site interviews with many of the headlining artists.
Belladrum’s reputation as the festival hot ticket with an eclectic line-up sees the rootsy folk machine Skerryvore rubbing shoulders and sharing stages with Johnny Marr, Tom Odell, Dodie and the fabulous Lewis Capaldi and Jess Glynne, bringing a great final evening to a close.
BBC ALBA has broadcast live from Belladum since 2011 and this year partners with the new BBC Scotland channel to offer more coverage than ever before across the two channels.
BBC ALBA’s Head of Service, Margaret Mary Murray: “Belladrum lies at the heart of BBC ALBA’s summer schedule and is much anticipated and greatly appreciated by audiences. We are delighted that this year’s music festival collaboration with BBC Scotland, which started so successfully at TRNSMT, continues at Belladrum and will offer enhanced and extended coverage, which we are sure music fans will love.”
Thursday 1 August
BBC ALBA, 9.30pm – 11.00pm
Friday 2 August
BBC ALBA, 9.00pm – 11.00pm
BBC Scotland, 11.05pm – 12.00am
Saturday 3 August
BBC ALBA, 9.10pm – 11.00pm
BBC Scotland, 11.05pm – 12.00am
MG ALBA has requested an urgent review of Gaelic broadcasting whilst launching its 2018-19 Annual Report.
The organisation that operates Scotland’s Gaelic-language television channel in partnership with the BBC has called upon the BBC, Ofcom, the Scottish Government and the UK government to engage in a dialogue aimed at reaching a new settlement for Gaelic broadcasting.
Currently, BBC ALBA is severely challenged by a 75% repeat rate, whilst 50% is the expected limit for BBC Scotland; and is available only in standard definition (SD) on television.
Writing in his Chair’s Message, Allan MacDonald states that “there is no acceptable basis for Gaelic speaking viewers to have a second-class service.”
MG ALBA has called upon its BBC partner to ensure that BBC ALBA enjoys the same opportunity and quality of provision as the new channel and the other minority language services of the UK.
In 2017, the BBC publicly announced up to 100 hours of additional programmes per year for BBC ALBA coming in the wake of the new BBC Scotland channel investment.
Allan MacDonald has sought assurances on the delivery of this ambition: “We will encourage the BBC to be open and transparent about the principles and protocol on which it bases its allocation of resources to Gaelic broadcasting, and how it ensures parity of approach between the indigenous minority languages which are part of its overall cultural responsibility across the UK.”
BBC ALBA celebrated its 10th anniversary last year and announced some momentous achievements, including the launch of its award-winning sketch comedy show FUNC and in establishing itself as the Home of Women’s Sport in Scotland.
BBC ALBA created the story of the night at the Royal Television Society Scotland Awards 2019 by receiving four awards.
Winning the major prizes in Comedy, Children’s and Sports programming, BBC ALBA was recognised for the quality of its programming across its 10th anniversary year.
BBC ALBA’s technical and craft excellence was also celebrated with a win for Daibhidh Martin of MacTV in the Professional Excellence: Camera category for his outstanding work on Sùlaisgeir: An t-Sealg.
BBC ALBA’s Head of Service Margaret Mary Murray said: “We are thrilled to receive these awards as they further highlight the skill and creative ingenuity of our producers. All our winners and nominees are superb examples of the fantastic work production companies who supply BBC ALBA achieved not only across the past very special year, but in the past decade.”
FUNC, the daring comedy sketch show, was an instant audience hit on BBC ALBA and across social media in 2018. Michael Hines creator of FUNC, commented: “I’m extremely proud to have won. We have a wonderful young cast, great crew and some brilliant writing. There aren’t many channels that show so much trust in programme-makers and so much commitment to up-and-coming talent and I think the show reflects that trust and we can’t wait to bring out FUNC series 2 later this year!”
Children’s drama, Buidheagain from Sorbier Productions was competing against large-scale productions from CBBC in what was BBC ALBA’s debut nomination in the category. The programme, created as part of a scheme by the European Broadcasting Union was directed by former River City star Tony Kearney and told the story of a young traveller girl’s campaign to make a farm her home.
Patsi MacKenzie, director of Sorbier Productions and writer of Buidheagain, said: “This is great for Sorbier and for what we’re trying to do with BBC ALBA. We’re creating programmes that are perfect for our Gaelic-speaking audiences but also that can be easily versioned for our European partners and this award is proof that it’s working!”
PurpleTV celebrated a hat-trick of RTS Scotland Awards with the success of their Tommy Burns documentary, matching the achievement of Purple’s films on Jim Baxter and Jock Stein.
Director, Margot McCuaig: “I would love to thank Tommy’s family for sharing their story with us. BBC ALBA has a track record for commissioning honest and emotional stories and it is an honour to have been part of that journey as well as winning RTS Scotland Awards over the past few years.”
Sùlaisgeir: An t-Sealg (The Hunt) from MacTV received three nominations in this year’s awards. It was short listed in the Science and Natural History category; Neil Campbell was shortlisted in the Director Category and Daibhidh Martin went on to win the award for Professional Excellence: Camera – a first for BBC ALBA at the RTS Scotland awards. This documentary has already seen success in the past year with a prize at the Chicago International Television Festival and was shortlisted for the globally prestigious Grierson award.
Winning Camera operator Daibhidh Martin paid tribute to his director, Neil Campbell, who was also nominated for an RTS Scotland award: “It was thanks to Neil that we gained access to film on Sùlasgeir. I’d also like to thank the men for trusting us to tell their story. Neil and I had to truly embed ourselves with the guga hunt, and we had to go the extra mile to bring this programme to the screen – not only while we were on the island but in the months beforehand. I’m really delighted that the programme has been received so well.”
The RTS Scotland Awards 2019 took place at The Old Fruitmarket venue in Glasgow on Wednesday, 12 June, 2019 and the awards were hosted by Jennifer Reoch and Des Clarke.
BBC ALBA has been successful at the Royal Television Society Scotland Awards 2016 with the channel’s Jim Baxter programme, produced by purpleTV, winning the Best Sports Programme category.
The award ceremony took place at Òran Mòr, Glasgow last night (Wednesday 25 May) and was hosted by newsreader, Catriona Shearer and popular TV actor, Sanjeev Kohli, with awards being presented across 13 categories, including Best News Programme, Best Current Affairs, Best Live Event and Television Journalist of the Year.
The Jim Baxter film, presented by Alex O’Henley, provided an intimate portrayal of the personal and professional life of the renowned Scottish football legend who died of pancreatic cancer in 2001 at the age of 61.
Tartan Pride, also produced by purpleTV for BBC ALBA had been shortlisted in this award category. Tartan Pride, again presented by Alex O’Henley, documented the rivalry between Scotland and England since the world’s first ever international fixture, the ‘Auld Enemy’, was staged in Glasgow in 1872.
Technical awards included Best Camera, Best Sound and Best Post Production: Editing where Vilte Vaitkute, editor of media co-op’s ‘The Wee Govan Pipers / Pìobairean Beaga Bhaile Ghobhainn’ documentary, produced for BBC ALBA, had been nominated. The hour long documentary was about the setting up of a children’s pipe band in the Govan area of Glasgow.
Alan Esslemont, head of content for BBC ALBA was delighted to see BBC ALBA together with purpleTV achieve further success at the RTS Scotland awards having won the Best Sport Programme for the Jock Stein documentary in 2015.
Mr Esslemont said: “BBC ALBA is thrilled to see the Jim Baxter production claim this prestigious Royal Television Society Scotland award and we congratulate purpleTV on their latest success. The sport documentaries produced for the channel have always been very popular across a wide spectrum of BBC ALBA viewers and it is wonderful to achieve this industry recognition.
“To have had three programmes shortlisted in this year’s RTS Scotland awards and win one category is a huge testament to the high quality content available on BBC ALBA across a variety of programme genres.”
The RTS awards are the gold standard of achievement in the television industry recognising excellence across the entire range of programme making and broadcasting skills.
A superb celebration of choral singing comes to BBC ALBA this summer as Scottish choir, Alba debut at the Eurovision Choir 2019 competition in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Pitted against nine of Europe’s best amateur choirs, Alba will perform in a live spectacular, broadcast to a Europe-wide audience on Saturday 3 August. Each choir will try to impress a panel of international choral music stars by performing an unaccompanied selection of music in a variety of styles.
Musician and television presenter Joy Dunlop leads the forty-strong Alba choir, drawn from all over Scotland. The Mod medalist from Connel in Argyll, equally well-known as a tv and weather reporter, has sung all her life and took on the task of assembling a choir with typical enthusiasm.
Joy said, “As a lifelong fan of Eurovision, I’m absolutely thrilled to lead a choir for such a prestigious singing competition. I’ve always had the secret dream of performing on a Eurovision stage and this is a real honour. Bringing a Gaelic Choir to Gothenburg this year is a big step. This competition provides the opportunity to introduce viewers from across Europe to our Gaelic language and heritage. I can’t wait to represent Scotland in a competition of this magnitude in our native tongue. This is a priceless opportunity and one that myself and the choir are whole heartedly embracing.”
Ahead of the live broadcast in August, the journey that Joy and her choir make will be documented by BBC ALBA in a programme to be shown in the run up to the competition. The half hour film will chart the progress of the choir, through the trials of rehearsing, wardrobe decisions, anxiety over musical arrangements, choreography and nail-biting deadlines.
To prepare for the biggest event of her life, Joy takes advice from conductors, dancers and even Graham Norton, the voice of Eurovision. She travels to Wales to meet Ysgol Gerdd Ceredigion the choir representing Wales at Eurovision and chats to award-winning conductor, Islywn Evans
Singing in an arena in Gothenburg is the biggest challenge that her she and Alba will face. To get an idea of the scale of the competition, Joy travels Tel Aviv to soak up the atmosphere of the Eurovision Song Contest, an event that caught her imagination as a youngster in Connel and has obsessed her ever since.
Margaret Cameron, Channel Editor BBC ALBA, added “We’re proud a Gaelic choir will take to the stage for Eurovision Choir 2019 and that audiences Europe-wide will get a real flavour of Gaelic song at the highest level. We’re excited to see Alba take on choirs from all over Europe and to bring a new experience to the BBC ALBA audience with a great look inside the trials and tribulations, and joys, of mounting an entry to the competition from scratch”.
The documentary and live competition show this Gaelic choir setting foot on the biggest stage that any of them have seen. Blending spectacular staging and a live stadium ambience with eclectic musical performances from a wide range of traditions and cultures, Eurovision Choir 2019 will again take viewers on a colourful journey in search of Europe’s best amateur vocal group.
Eurovision Choir 2019 is produced by Bees Nees Media for BBC ALBA. The documentary programme will broadcast on Wednesday 31 July at 9.30pm with the choirs’ competition broadcast live on Saturday 3 August at 7.30pm.
MG ALBA welcomes the news that Marion Sinclair has been appointed to the MG ALBA board.
Marion was nominated by the BBC, who are obliged by statute to nominate one member of MG ALBA’s board, and Ofcom’s recommendation for the appointment has been agreed by John Swinney MSP, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. This follows an independent selection process by Ofcom in Scotland.
Marion has been appointed for four years and will take up the role on 1 June 2019.
BBC ALBA has earned seven nominations at this year’s Royal Television Society (RTS) Scotland awards, at this prestigious industry event. The RTS Scotland Awards are the gold standard of achievement in the television industry, recognising excellence across a of programme making and broadcasting skills.
Last year, BBC ALBA celebrated its 10th anniversary and the nominations in seven different categories including comedy, children’s and animation acknowledge the range and excellence of the programming available on the channel.
Iseabail Mactaggart, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at MG ALBA, which operates BBC ALBA in partnership with the BBC, said:
“All of us at BBC ALBA are proud to have the quality of the channel’s programming recognised with this number of nominations. We’re proud too to work with such rich, creative talent within the Gaelic media supply sector – all of whom, those nominated and those not – constantly work to deliver the very best for BBC ALBA’s audiences. That commitment and creativity is at the heart of what makes BBC ALBA a success.”
Sùlaisgeir: An t-Sealg leads the way for BBC ALBA with three nominations, including for Documentary and Specialist Factual: Science and Natural History. MacTV’s documentary has already seen success in the past year with a prize at the Chicago International Television Festival and its shortlisting for a Grierson award.
The superb craft skills which contribute to the channel’s output have also been recognised, with MacTV’s Niall Campbell and Daibhidh Martin shortlisted in the Director and Camera categories for their work on Sùlaisgeir.
Seumas Mactaggart, Head of Production and Development at MacTV, said: “Daibhidh and Niall were embedded with the group of men who were harvesting the young gannets on the isolated island of Sùlaisgeir and had to carefully plan the logistics of filming. Powering their cameras and preserving their footage proved particularly challenging. Over the two weeks they became part of the team, sleeping in the bothy and taking their turn to cook. This resulted in a unique and revealing portrait.”
Sketch comedy was a new addition to the BBC ALBA schedule last year with the new show, FUNC, from the award winning Still Game director Michael Hines. With the help of the BBC Writer’s Room to source new writing talent over one hundred new Gaelic sketches were produced for the show which proved an instant hit with the BBC ALBA audience, both on TV and on social media.
Michael Hines, from The Woven Thread, said: “I’m extremely proud that we’ve been nominated. We have a wonderful young cast, great crew and some brilliant writing. There aren’t many channels that show so much trust in programme-makers and so much commitment to up-and-coming talent and I think the show reflects that trust.”
In the Animations & VFX category, a commission commemorating the Iolaire disaster is BBC ALBA’s debut nomination for this award. Tha thu air Aigeann m’Inntinn from Am Bocsa productions is animator Catriona Black’s beautifully poignant interpretation of Britain’s worst peacetime naval disaster set to the eponymous poem by Iain Crichton Smith.
Catriona Black said: “I made the film for the people of Lewis and Harris and it was warmly received by them but it’s great to see the film being recognised on a wider scale like this.”
Buidheagain by Sobier Productions is BBC ALBA’s debut nomination in the Children’s Category. Made as part of a European Broadcasting Union initiative it sees a family of travellers struggling to protect their way of life from a nasty farmer and his egg business.
BBC ALBA has had a great track record in the Sports category, and this year purpleTV have again received a nomination, this time for their biographical documentary about the Celtic football legend Tommy Burns.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on the 12th of June
BBC ALBA has agreed the broadcast of all of the Scotland Women’s National Team’s upcoming warm-up friendlies ahead of their first ever appearance at the Women’s World Cup, held this summer in France.
The first of the final warm-ups sees Scotland face Chile at the Pinatar Arena in Murcia, Spain, live on BBC ALBA at 6pm on Friday 5th April.
BBC ALBA will also show Scotland as they face 2007 World Cup finalists Brazil on Monday 8th April at 7pm, again live from the Pinatar Arena in Murcia, Spain.
Scotland’s final friendly, also live on BBC ALBA, will take place at Hampden on Tuesday 28th May where they will be hoping for a record attendance for a proper send-off.
Scotland’s group contains England, Argentina and 2011 World Cup winners, Japan. Scotland’s first game will be versus England on June 9th.
All of Scotland’s group games will be broadcast live on the home of Women’s Sport in Scotland, BBC ALBA.
Iseabail Mactaggart, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at MG ALBA, which operates BBC ALBA in partnership with the BBC, said:
“BBC ALBA has been on this journey with the women’s national squad for ten years, and we are enormously excited to be showcasing the three friendlies as they build up to participation in this competition, as well as to be broadcasting the group stage games. We’re so proud to be able to support them as they make history.”
Scotland midfielder Leanne Crighton said:
“It is great for us and the team. It’s not just about this tournament, but the support BBC ALBA has given us in previous qualifiers. We know that friends, family and supporters cannot always be at the game, so to have that access to be able to watch and follow the journey with us certainly means a lot to us.”
A total of 13 Gaelic programmes have been nominated from BBC ALBA and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal for the 2019 Celtic Media Festival awards.
Among the BBC ALBA nominations were Sùlaisgeir: An t-Sealg, Gaol is Call and Bannan.
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal has also been nominated for station of the year, whilst programmes including Tormod – An Oiteag Uidhisteach and Frances: Ceum air Cheum are shortlisted for awards.
Donald Campbell, MG ALBA Chief Executive, said: “With the festival returning to Scotland again, 40 years after the first festival in Benbecula, it’s great to see so many Gaelic programmes on the shortlist – proving how successful we’ve been in the past year – the tenth anniversary year of BBC ALBA.”
The Celtic Media Festival this year takes place in Aviemore from 4-6 June.
The BBC ALBA programmes which have been shortlisted in 2019 are:
Children’s Programme
Leugh le Linda: Là Mòr na Glaodhaich (Produced by BBC Gàidhlig)
Drama Series
Bannan (Produced by Young Films)
Factual Entertainment
An Drochaid (Produced by MacTV)
Factual Series
Sùlaisgeir: An t-Sealg (Produced by MacTV)
History
Call air Cladach Ìle (Produced by Caledonia)
Single Documentary
Gaol is Call (Produced by HG Productions)
In addition to its nomination in the Radio Station of the Year category, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal also has a number of programmes shortlisted across radio categories:
MG ALBA has today (Friday 15 March) congratulated the BBC on the successful launch of its new channel and warmly welcomed the new opportunities for the production sector that lie ahead.
But the organisation that operates Scotland’s Gaelic-language television channel in partnership with the BBC has called upon the corporation to ensure that BBC ALBA has the same opportunity to shine as the new BBC Scotland.
Ten years after its launch, BBC ALBA is severely challenged by a 75% repeat rate, whilst 50% is the expected limit for BBC Scotland; and is available only in standard definition (SD) on television.
BBC ALBA has built a strong reputation for creating original, distinct, and inspiring content and has been a major media success story in Scotland since its launch a decade ago.
The channel has helped significantly boost Scottish creative industries, with a thriving media industry sector across the country. It has also given a real voice to some of the country’s freshest music talent and created a platform for professional women’s sport to be seen on terrestrial TV.
MG ALBA has called upon its BBC partner to ensure that BBC ALBA enjoys the same opportunity and quality of provision as the new channel, and looks forward to a clear timeline for delivery of the new Gaelic programming promised at the announcement of the new service.
Allan MacDonald, Chair of MG ALBA, which operate BBC ALBA in partnership with the BBC, comments:
“We warmly congratulate our colleagues at BBC Scotland on an outstanding launch and we continue to wish them well as the channel comes to life in the months ahead.
“However, the launch of BBC Scotland has also served to shine a light on two significant concerns for the board of MG ALBA around the delivery of BBC ALBA, which has an unacceptably high 75% repeat rate and is still only available in SD on television. The BBC has committed to delivering 100 hours of additional content, and we look forward to this being delivered.
“At a time when other public service broadcast channels such as BBC One, STV, and the new BBC Scotland have adopted high definition (HD) as the ‘standard’ for TV delivery, it is a source of major concern that BBC ALBA is seen as a poor relation available on television only in SD.
“Put simply, it is not acceptable for the viewers of BBC ALBA to receive a second-class service in terms of picture quality.
“Whether it is powerful documentaries, thrilling live sport, the best break-through music channel or our seven-day news service, our viewers deserve to be – quite literally – getting the best picture. For us, this – and growing the hours of first-run programmes on the channel – is a major priority.
“On both counts, we look forward to our BBC partners making a clear committment to a timescale for delivery.”
