Reel time: Bill Douglas celebration

WHILE Newcraighall might not have quite the same ring as Hollywood, for film fans around the globe who have been introduced to the works of its most famous son in the Bill Douglas Trilogy (1973-1978), the Edinburgh suburb is far more interesting than LA will ever be.

Born in the small mining village in 1934, Bill Douglas was raised in poverty, first by his maternal grandmother and then his father and paternal grandmother.

With the idea of working in the arts alien to his family, it wasn't until a bout of National Service that Douglas made his way to the bright lights of London and began a career in acting, writing and film directing.

Wanting to tell the story of his upbringing on screen, Douglas wrote a script which would eventually become My Childhood (1972), a short film depicting life in 1930s Newcraighall.

In it, Stephen Archibald stars as Jamie, a young boy whose life is almost identical to that of Douglas. Brought up by his grandmother, Jamie's life, like the village he lives in, is bleak; violence and rejection from his family commonplace.

The success of My Childhood led to a sequel, My Ain Folk (1973), which picks up Jamie's story a short while after the events of the first film, when he is separated from his family and taken to live in a welfare home.

My Way Home (1978) was the final part of the trilogy, following an older Jamie as he fights against his family's dismissal of his dream of becoming a painter and enlists in the Army. Here he meets Robert who encourages him to do what he wants in life.

Part of the reason for the success of the trilogy is their realistic look and tone. Apart from one short clip of Jamie watching Lassie Come Home, everything in these films is shot in black and white.

This lack of colour signifies the harshness of working in the mines and on the land; the life has been sucked from the picture in the same way it has for our hero and his family.

Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom, moments of humour reflecting the fact that few childhoods are ever all bad. Jamie's grandfather offers some light relief, while the moments we see of the young boy just being a boy – running, fighting and answering back – are charming.

Later, Douglas made the little-seen 1986 film Comrades, about the birth of the trade unions and the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a beautifully shot picture that features Taggart's Alex Norton in 13 separate roles and takes the viewer from Dorset to Australia and back again.

Although Douglas always struggled to find funding for his non-mainstream films, his sheer determination to keep trying resulted in a handful of acclaimed films which led to him being recognised as a pioneer of British independent filmmaking and a key figure in Scotland's film history.

Not bad for a lad from Newcraighall.

The Bill Douglas Trilogy and Comrades are out on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday

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