Scotland is a country of three distinct regions—the highlands, the islands, and the lowlands. These regions are examined, showing how the isolated people contact the outside world with their use of channel boats called “Puffers,” how they observe the customs of the seasons, and how the various clans and regiments celebrate their history at the Edinburgh Festival.

2025

Dame Mary Berry travels to her mother’s homeland of Scotland, where she’s joined by friends Andy Murray, Iain Stirling and Emeli Sandé to cook indulgent Christmas dishes.
2023
Changing Landscapes meditates upon the care and carelessness humans brought to bear on the environment in Scotland. Rare archive combines with performances from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
2022

Best-selling author Graeme Armstrong reveals his passion for rave, meeting some of the superstar DJs and hardcore party people who created the vibrant and little-explored world of the Scottish rave scene.
2021

Schooled in Fife, coming of age in a rock ’n’ roll band, then finding her forte was directing temperamental actors, Cora Bissett is no stranger to theatrical Scottish swearing. So who better to present a celebration of Caledonian cursing? This documentary sees Cora sing, swear and scrutinise why Scotland swears so well. Cora begins with the first hurdle – how does one discuss swear words on the BBC? Aunty Beeb is the institution that has been historically priggish about language - always bleeping words and apologising for those that slipped through. So Cora runs a list past BBC Scotland’s head of editorial standards to see what she can get away with.
2020
Film-maker Conor Reilly is given rare access to the Scottish flat earth community, setting into motion a chain of events that will introduce him to people that are making it their mission to spread the word of flat earth and why they believe in this so passionately. His journey takes him across Scotland, where he meets believers using social media to spread the message of 'waking up to the lies' and those who are taking to the streets with banners and flyers speaking to the public face to face. Finding a small but growing community of Scots leads him to Colorado, USA, and to the second International Flat Earth Conference, where he gets an insight into the movement on an entirely new level. Is this where Scotland is heading?
2019

Ewan McGregor narrates a captivating portrait of wild Shetland and traces the course of a breeding season as the animals on these remote islands battle for survival.
2019

Celebrating Billy Connolly's 75th birthday and 50 years in the business, three Scottish artists - John Byrne, Jack Vettriano and Rachel MacLean - each create a new portrait of the Big Yin. As he sits with each artist, Billy talks about his remarkable life and career which has taken him from musician and pioneering stand-up to Hollywood star and national treasure.
2017

Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard set out to solve one of the biggest puzzles in battlefield archaeology. 700 years ago, Robert the Bruce's overwhelming victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn helped seal Scotland's future as an independent kingdom, although the actual location remains a mystery. With the help of leading battlefield archaeologists, stuntmen, computer-generated graphics and some digging, Neil and Tony go in search of both the real and imagined Battle of Bannockburn.
2014

The quietly insistent and critical DEPOSITIONS attempts to restore some dignity to images of the communities of the Scottish highlands taken from patronizing BBC documentaries and news features from the 70’s and 80’s. DEPOSITIONS repurposes footage from the archives of the BBC and sound from the School of Scottish Studies, it is a film about differences and dichotomies: science and superstition, near and far, community and the individual.
2014

Alex Norton discovers how showbusiness has handled the portrayal of the Scottish accent. For over 100 years audiences have struggled to understand our braw brogue: silent Harry Lauder films attempted an accent in the captions, and in Hollywood's golden era , everyone wanted to paint their tonsils tartan- but as examples from Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles and Richard Chamberlain show, they couldnae. Then Disney made Brave and proved that it disnae have to be all bad!
2013

The rivalry between football clubs Rangers and Celtic goes past typical name calling and dives into violence, racial slurs and pure hatred. The rivalry between Glasgow's "Old Firm" sides is the most famous in world football. It's the game's flagship loathing, proof of the power of the sport to inspire profound levels of tribal loyalty and a near-Pavlovian revulsion at anything to do with a rival. We examine the situation and try to get a handle on the political, religious, and national identity clashes that have shaped the rivalry, speak to fanzine editors on both sides of the divide and travel with the Bhoys' away support to a match at Tannadice.
2012

Work. Eat. Sleep. And back to work. For a long time skippers in the North East of Scotland could not find locals to work on their fishing vessels. That was until Filipino fishermen started coming to town for work. Both nationalities strive to shorten the distance between two very different worlds.
2012

A spectacular live rock climb broadcast from the daunting overhanging cliff face at Sron Uladail on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Dougie Vipond joins leading climbers, Dave MacLeod and Tim Emmett, as they attempt a first ascent of an extreme new route, which promises to stretch their physical endurance and skill to the limit. With absolutely no guarantee that they will be able to conquer the route, and the huge physical and technical challenges involved, this promises to be a unique and compelling live event. Leading Scottish hillwalker Cameron McNeish will also introduce features reflecting the cultural, linguistic and historic importance of the location on Harris and also on its outstanding natural history and landscape.
2010

"Scottish Myths & Legends" explores the magic, mystery and sprinkling of mayhem that covers the dramatic landscape of Scotland. From the ancient tales of the Loch Ness Monster to the stories of shape shifting Kelpies, we go on a fascinating journey of discovery to uncover the stories behind the myths and the magnificent Scottish landscape that has inspired these truly legendary legends.
2010

The story of the first ascent of Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock, the world's first E11 and hardest traditional rock climb. Huge falls, injuries, tears and eventually success!
2006

Exclusive two-disc film documenting the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa in the summer of 1997. The unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the team shows the preparations, the training, the fun, the team selection, the 'earthy' language, the bonding, the awesome task of playing and some shocking footage of injuries. Despite securing the series with wins in the first two tests, the Lions remained motivated by the prospect of a 3-0 whitewash, a feat never achieved against the Springboks throughout the century.
1999

Rolling moors and highlands. Bluebells and heather. Cool lochs and refreshing streams. Tidy villages nestled into rolling fertile farmland. Rocky outcroppings and sleeping seaside towns. Around every corner, over every hill lies still another marvel. And each is yours for the discovering in this comprehensive tour through the colorful land of the kilt and the tartan. Come along, discover ALL of Scotland!
1991

In 1980, Jack Shae and Allen Moore, two ethnographic filmmakers from Harvard University, moved their families to the island of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides. Over the course of 18 months they documented the everyday lives and struggles of the crofters they lived among, whom were even then a vanishing breed. The film is in English and Gaelic. This carefully observed documentary by filmmakers Jack Shae and Allen Moore is a poetic ethnographic film in the style of their mentor, Robert Gardner (“Dead Birds”). It follows the rhythm of life on a wind-swept island in the Outer Hebrides through the four seasons and in the filmmakers’ observation of the day-to-day struggles of a vanishing society we see the deep-time legacy of their kind. The film is in English and Gaelic.
1981

An award-winning wordless documentary that explores the architecture of the then new St. Peter's Seminary which is now seen as one of the most important post-war buildings in the United Kingdom. The film was made in celebration after architect Jack Coia was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1969. Winner of the Medalla de Bronce at the Fifth Union of International Architects Festival in Madrid (1975).
1972