Thoughtland

PK column in The National: What’s it called? Soulless? Is it really fair to denigrate Cumbernauld?

By Pat Kane. First published on MAY 25TH, 2019

FOR those of a certain vintage, the news that the comedian Craig Ferguson has abandoned the TV studios of Los Angeles, for the sandstone-and-trimmed-bush bourgeois of the West End of Glasgow, is strangely comforting.

From Bing Hitler bouncing off the walls of the Sub Club, to this silver fox ambling down Byres Road, with the vintage microphones and starlet parades of late-night US TV in between, is one of those Scottish journeys to take some pleasure in.

PK column in The National: This is what our Irn Bru love affair tells us about modern Scotland

By Pat Kane. First published on MAY 18TH, 2019

IT’S the quietly disapproving stare from colleagues, optimising themselves like crazy; or concerned family members, surveying the current state of your mid-50s carcass. “What ... are you drinking?”

I am drinking a glass of Irn-Bru, thank you very much. Today, it is in diet form. “Diet! So they’ve added aspartame to the ammoniac acid. Why do you have a death wish?”

PK column in The National: Event TV is what I’d call ‘engagism’ – and a big part of modern life

By Pat Kane. First Published on MAY 11TH, 2019

WHAT makes “Event TV” an event is that it’s not really escapism. It’s almost, to coin a phrase, engagism. Something in the storyline, however formulaic and recognisable, is meshing with our deeper collective anxieties.

Showmakers might well aspire to that moment in their writing – but it takes the public to complete the circuit.

As a respite from the shrapnel of nationality politics, I’ve found myself wrapped up in two “event” TV moments recently.

PK column in The National: Why the climate crisis shouldn't put an end to aviation

By Pat Kane. First published on MAY 4TH, 2019

SO the Scottish Government won’t be cutting the Air Passenger Tax this year.

And the First Minister has declared a “climate emergency”. Both of these, no doubt, are in response to this week’s official UK committee report on climate change. Among a number of other privations, it states simply: we have to fly a lot less.