Headed in a new direction

MOVING from the comfortable and generally female world of lifestyle programming - with a raft of credits including The Home Show, Scottish Passport and Scottish Women under your belt - to the gritty and sometimes chauvinistic world of drama is no mean feat - especially when you are working with budgets just a tenth of the network shows you compete with.

But Agnes Wilkie, STV’s head of features, won a BAFTA Scotland drama award for her first series High Times last year - and a nomination for short film Afterlife this week signalled the best is yet to come.

Wilkie is bucking a trend with her appointments by bringing in women to direct, produce and research projects. "It’s not something I’ve been conscious about, but it seems I have hired more women than men as my producers - and there are female directors coming through," she says.

"Women are capable of being as good as, sometimes better, than men in programme-making. However, for some reason, women still tend to be the producers and the men directors. I think it is because men are single-minded and only concentrate on one big picture, yet women multi-task. In film and television, you need to be multi-skilled but more women should get the chance to direct."

As the only ITV licensee to produce regional drama since the death of High Road, STV’s new drama High Times, broadcast last year, was an extremely ambitious project for Wilkie. Unlike previous STV dramas such as Taggart or McCallum, there were no murders, no car chases, no forensics - just life. Shot in a high-rise flat in Dalmarnock, High Times was an affectionate look at the ups and downs of the characters living in the fictitious housing scheme of Fairmyle.

"The reviews were unbelievable and the series was produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd, who is definitely one to watch," says Wilkie. "I do not know how she does it with four young children, but she was fantastic. We are hugely excited about High Times. Winning a Bafta award and beating off Monarch of the Glen and Taggart has been fantastic. We are hoping it will be recommissioned and it’s given us the opportunity to bring together the cream of Scottish acting talent and to show Scottish drama can be high-quality and attractive to viewers. We’re proud that we’re continuing to encourage new and existing talent - male and female - and something which is vital to the indigenous screen industry here in Scotland."

Sinclair Kidd has now moved on to produce Scottish TV’s new drama, Cracked, set in a rehabilitation clinic in the Scottish countryside, following the ups and downs its clients, it’s due for transmission this year. Wilkie has also brought on board Clara Glynn to direct - and says there are subtle differences when women are used. "They can have more empathy with characters," Wilkie says, "I think it is a psychological barrier which prevents them trying to direct. We have completed six episodes, and dealing with issues such as mental illness can be tough to handle, but it is brilliant and uses a fantastic cast including Martin McCardie from Sweet Sixteen and Gary Sweeney from Small Faces. The quality of the acting is astonishing," says Wilkie.

Before joining Scottish TV, Wilkie worked as a journalist on DC Thomson publications - Jackie magazine, the Scottish Farmer and was features editor of Horse and Hound. As head of features at Scottish TV/SMG Television since 1993, her recent programmes include Trout’n’ About and Natural Born Winners, but moving into drama presents new challenges.

She is developing drama for Scottish and Grampian television with Scottish Screen, and was executive producer on two 90-minute features as part of the New Found Films initiative.

Afterlife, directed by Alison Peebles and starring Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Anna Karenina), won the Audience Award at the 2003 Edinburgh International Film Festival and Blinded, directed by Eleanor Yule and starring Peter Mullan, won the Jury Prize at the 2004 Celtic Film Festival.

"Both films were made on low budgets and we have managed to secure distributors for the projects," says Wilkie. "The success of these two films has increased not only my confidence but also confidence within the Scottish film industry that projects can get off the ground. We’re now going into production on two 90-minute feature films and hope to begin filming at the end of February."

Catherine Aitken, an Edinburgh-based film producer with a background in short films, documentary and TV, who runs her own company, Gabriel Films, says it has been a slow process getting female directors coming through: "It is difficult. You can use the example of pushing for development funding or finance for films about women.

If you suggest a female road movie, or a movie with two female leads, you are always shot down with ‘Oh, we’ve had Thelma and Louise’. Can you imagine how many road movies there are about men?"