Paddy Higson: Scottish film legend behind Gregory's Girl dies age 83

Scottish film producer Paddy Higson - known for her work on productions including Gregory’s Girl - has died aged 83.

The producer, who also worked on The Magdalene Sister and Orphans , as well as TV programmes Monarch of the Glen and Taggart, started her career as a production secretary at the BBC in 1970.

She worked as a producer with the director Bill Forsyth on the 1981 cult classic Gregory’s Girl.

In 2018, she won a Scottish Bafta for for her outstanding contribution to the Scottish film industry.

Actor David Hayman described her as "the mother of the Scottish film industry". She worked to improve diversity in the Scottish film industry.

An image from the Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film Gregory's Girl projected onto the Filmhouse in Edinburgh in 2022. | PA

Her children wrote on social media: "Not only have the three of us lost our amazing and extraordinary mother, we as a wider community have lost a kind and generous, supportive and selfless pioneer.

"We are heartbroken but find comfort in knowing she is no longer suffering."

In Gregory’s Girl, a person in a penguin costume who appears in the film was played by Ms Higson’s son, Christopher. Inside the suit was Christopher Higson, son of production supervisor Paddy Higson.

Ms Higson was made an honorary doctor of drama by the RSAMD (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in 2007, was awarded a BAFTA for her Outstanding Contribution to the Industry by BAFTA Scotland in 2018, andwas awarded an OBE for services to the film and TV industry and to diversity and inclusion in film and TV, in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.