Stephen McGinty: It's time we gave Scotland's history its proper place
IT IS time to blow the dust off an old subject: Scottish History. Or, why we don't know what we should know. Two years ago I wrote a column arguing that BBC Scotland should invest a sum of £2 million – or one tenth of the annual budget of the new BBC Gaelic channel – on a major landmark series that told the history of Scotland.
Sure, we've had Professor Simon Schama swagger his way through a 15-part history of Britain for BBC2 and David Starkey rummage through the bed linen of the monarchy over a similar length, both of which, though wonderful in their own way, made little more than brief forays across the Border.
The argument, I believe, is even more relevant today, and with greater opportunity for success.
While it is only natural for the new Nationalist Scottish Government to work on the fault lines of the Union, they have been correct to raise concerns about the lack of understanding of Scottish history by the general population and, more importantly, among school pupils. This week it was announced that two of Scotland's most eminent historians, Professor Tom Devine, the current occupant of the Sir William Fraser chair of Scottish history at Edinburgh University, and Professor Ted Cowan, director of Glasgow University's Crichton Campus, would be working with the education department to shape the way Scottish history is taught in our schools.
It's a welcome move, but what if we tied this up to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission that is currently conducting an independent root-and-branch review of broadcasting in Scotland? Few would argue against the positive contribution to our society performed by BBC Scotland, but what if it went further and produced a truly landmark historical documentary series which told the story of our nation?
The idea would be to replicate the scope and scale of Ken Burns's magisterial The Civil War and The West, documentaries that became major television events because of the scale of their ambition. Then there is Alistair Cooke's 13-part history of America, first broadcast in 1972, which still remains informative and fascinating, even though it's now 35 years old....
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Sure, we've had Professor Simon Schama swagger his way through a 15-part history of Britain for BBC2 and David Starkey rummage through the bed linen of the monarchy over a similar length, both of which, though wonderful in their own way, made little more than brief forays across the Border.
The argument, I believe, is even more relevant today, and with greater opportunity for success.
While it is only natural for the new Nationalist Scottish Government to work on the fault lines of the Union, they have been correct to raise concerns about the lack of understanding of Scottish history by the general population and, more importantly, among school pupils. This week it was announced that two of Scotland's most eminent historians, Professor Tom Devine, the current occupant of the Sir William Fraser chair of Scottish history at Edinburgh University, and Professor Ted Cowan, director of Glasgow University's Crichton Campus, would be working with the education department to shape the way Scottish history is taught in our schools.
It's a welcome move, but what if we tied this up to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission that is currently conducting an independent root-and-branch review of broadcasting in Scotland? Few would argue against the positive contribution to our society performed by BBC Scotland, but what if it went further and produced a truly landmark historical documentary series which told the story of our nation?
The idea would be to replicate the scope and scale of Ken Burns's magisterial The Civil War and The West, documentaries that became major television events because of the scale of their ambition. Then there is Alistair Cooke's 13-part history of America, first broadcast in 1972, which still remains informative and fascinating, even though it's now 35 years old....