Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero

The films of director Bill Forsyth blazed a trail for the Scottish movie industry in the 1980s. Yet for his early work, few of the actors had any real experience and he drew on talent from the Glasgow Youth Theatre which was based in a tough neighbourhood in the city.

From humble beginnings he made That Sinking Feeling which Mark Kermode described as ‘a British comedy with more urban grit and whimsical wit than anything else around at the time’. Forsyth then found inspiration in one of Scotland’s new towns, and Gregory’s Girl is the only romantic comedy ever to be set among the roundabouts and housing estates of Cumbernauld. It was a surefire hit.

With the success of Gregory’s Girl, Bill Forsyth teamed up with producer David Puttnam to create one of the best loved films of the 1980s, Local Hero. Set in the Highlands of Scotland, it tells the story of an oil executive sent over from the USA to build a refinery on the pristine coastline, only for him to fall in love with the place and people. On release, it was the audiences who fell in love with the film.

From Gregory’s Girl, Kirsty Wark is joined by Rab Buchanan who also played the lead role in That Sinking Feeling at the age of 16, Caroline Guthrie who played Carol, Douglas Sanachan the cheeky window cleaner, and Clare Grogan who famously danced lying on the ground in the final scene of the movie.

From Local Hero, we are joined by the film producer David Puttnam who helped nurture the idea of a film based on the exploitation of oil in Scotland, Denis Lawson who was Gordon Urquhart, the lawyer, hotelier, along with a multitude of other jobs in the village, his screen wife Jennifer Black, Jenny Seagrove who played Marina, a mysterious mermaid-like diver, and from the USA, Peter Riegert, who starred as the American executive Mac. In the words of Peter Riegert, “Nothing in my career has ever topped Local Hero.”

Producer: Mark Rickards
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4