The Years that Changed Modern Scotland

BBC Scotland/iPlayer

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HAVING found herself in the eye of a media storm for her Alex Salmond documentary, Kirsty Wark returned to the cosier territory of popular history last night with this four part series for BBC Scotland.

The Trial of Alex Salmond, shown last August, led to complaints of alleged bias against its subject. The BBC rejected the accusation, noting that the programme had included interviews in support of the former First Minister, and that he had been invited to take part but had declined to do so.

The stushie was a reminder that some big fish swim in the small pond that is Scotland’s media and politics scene, and a few of them bite.

The Years that Changed Modern Scotland, like The Trial of Alex Salmond, was made by Glasgow-based Two Rivers Media. The managing director of Two Rivers is Alan Clements, Ms Wark’s husband.

The Newsnight presenter opened the first episode in Kilmarnock, where she grew up. “This is a people’s history about the last half century in Scotland,” said Wark, “and one that goes beyond the usual assumptions about our past”.

READ MORE: Was Salmond documentary fair?

The viewer could be forgiven for wondering how much this “people’s history” would differ from that explored by her fellow Scot Andrew Marr in his 2007 History of Modern Britain, or his most recent series, New Elizabethans.

Wark’s film, then, had an originality test to pass. The first episode was a good effort, but let us hold off on those congratulatory cigars a while yet.

On the upside, the line up of talking heads was dominated by the kind of“ordinary people” TV says it adores.

Had the programme been made by the BBC Reporting Scotland squad this would have meant cringey vox pops, filmed in the nearest high street, with punters stating the bleeding obvious or the staggeringly banal.

Mercifully, Wark’s team had done its job well, finding fresh faces for her to interview, such as Sawarnjit Burmy, the first South Asian policewoman in Scotland.

But did we really need such well-kent faces as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid to note that the 1970s had brought working class voices to the fore? Was anyone watching this unfamiliar with William McIlvanney or Liz Lochhead? Thought not.

Similarly, some of the topics, from slum clearances to Govan shipyard strikes, have been well covered in many other films.

Must admit, though, I had not heard the tale about Irvine being lined up for a Springfield-style monorail. Later, an interview with former Labour Minister Alistair Darling, recalling his councillor days in Edinburgh, revealed that at one point someone came up with the not so bright idea of linking the M8 to Lothian Road, in front of the Usher Hall. Wark looked suitably horrified.

READ MORE: Women from trial give first TV interviews

The archive footage was a treat. Also welcome was the focus on the arts, with a section devoted to The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil. Wark introduced the segment by recalling how seeing it for the first time had a “profound” effect on her. It was a point worth exploring further, but no dice.

Overall, the film shone when it was at its most personal. When it strayed from this approach, The Years that Changed Modern Scotland was just another unremarkable, “on the one hand, on the other”, clip show.

It was as if Wark was reluctant to put herself at the centre of the frame, to reveal too much about her own views. But this type of series needs a strong, authorial voice, a Schama, a Beard, a Holmes, if it is to stand out. Imagine what a Prof Tom Devine could do with four hours of television to himself.

READ MORE: Herald letters on Salmond documentary

A strong point of view was the last thing The Trial of Alex Salmond needed. Yet it was exactly what was required here.

Here is hoping the style changes in the episodes to come, particularly those looking at the country’s political awakening. Modern Scotland is many things, but bland it is not. It deserves a history to match.