A much anticipated second series of BBC Scotland’s Inside Central Station returned to the TV this month, following the everyday life of the dedicated station staff, who keep everything running smoothly day and night.
In the new series, the cameras step behind the doors of the iconic Grand Central Hotel for the first time to hear about the hotel’s portrait competition, which took place in 2019. Held in partnership with The Herald, artists were invited to enter paintings of the hotel’s many famous guests, from Frank Sinatra to Sir Winston Churchill, with the chosen paintings later to be displayed in the grand staircase of the hotel.
READ MORE: Opinion: Iain Macwhirter: No country for old men. The bitter harvest in Scotland’s care homes
This Sunday’s episode, which airs at 9pm on the BBC Scotland channel, follows a day in the life of Steven Murray, Grand Central’s Linen Porter and budding in-house artist. The cameras discover what goes on behind the scenes at the hotel as Steven prepares guest rooms and cleans the hotel’s awe-inspiring public spaces. Steven tells the stories of the famous guests who stayed in those rooms, including the rock star Mick Jagger, who Steven depicted in a vibrant and dynamic portrait for the competition.
Steven said: “Everyone stayed at Grand Central Hotel when they came to Glasgow, from Vivien Leigh and Charlie Chaplin, to The Beatles. I reckon Mick Jagger must have been a fan of the hotel. He stayed here the night before the European Cup Final at Hampden Park on 12th May and he stayed again with The Rolling Stones in 1978, just after they released their album Some Girls. I’m really honoured to have a piece of my artwork hanging on the walls of a hotel which has so much great history.”
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon expected to reveal lockdown exit plans
“The champagne is on ice at Grand Central Hotel waiting to welcome our guests back and to officially celebrate the opening of this incredible gallery wall, featuring our famous guests from over the years. There are brilliant portraits of Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Sammy David Jnr and of course the winner of the competition, Glasgow’s own Billy Connolly.
It is a brilliant display of some incredible local artistic talent and we hope it becomes a must-see landmark for visitors into the city who pass through the hotel and the station, when it is eventually safe to reopen. Until then, we hope people enjoy the glimpse at what it is like working behind the scenes at our usually very busy hotel at the heart of Glasgow on BBC Scotland this Sunday evening.”
Inside Central Station is on tonight at 9pm on BBC Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here