Watch: Scottish presenter unveils dance to Welsh weatherman's drum beats

A Scottish weather presenter has staged a ceilidh dancing tribute to a Welsh colleague who has gone viral drumming along to the BBC news theme.

Weather presenter and Gaelic singer has created her own dancing tribute to the BBC news theme. Picture: Craig Watson

Joy Dunlop recorded herself step-dancing along to the beats produced by Owain Wyn Evans in his own video, which has been viewed more than 12,000 times on YouTube in the space of a day.

Dunlop, who has been working from her home in Glasgow during the lockdown, posted on the video on Twitter today during a break from her forecasting duties with BBC Scotland. She recorded a brief introduction pretending to sign off from a regular bulletin, to match the one Evans did. The video then shows the pair appearing to perform together in different parts of the country.

Dunlop told her Twitter followers: “Finished my bulletin just in time to join @OwainWynEvans for a #BBCNewsTheme weather presenter cèilidh! @bbcscotweather @BBCScotlandNews @BBCNews #ScottishStepDance #WorkingFromHome #Gaelic”

Evans responded by telling Dunlop: “Omg Joy I love it! xx”

Dunlop, who is originally from Connel, in Argyll, combines broadcasting with Gaelic singing and teaching. A former gold medal winner at the Royal National Mòd, she has been nominated several times as Scotland’s Gaelic Singer of the Year and is also an award-winning step dancer.

Last year Dunlop led Scotland’s first ever bid for Eurovision, conducting a Gaelic choir in a brand new choral competition.

Dunlop told The Scotsman: “When I first saw the clip of Owain drumming to the BBC news theme, I thought that it was just amazing.

“I've been enjoying the remixes that have been floating around online but this took it to another level. He's such a great weather presenter and clearly a fab musician, so it seemed like a stroke of genius.

“It was actually my friend, harpist Rachel Hair, who suggested that I should record myself dancing along to his video. At first, this seemed like a crazy idea but then I thought - why not?

“I think that we're all looking for something to distract us during lockdown and this seemed just perfect!

“It wasn't easy to record - there were limited options in the house that included a big enough space to dance in, had a hard floor and somewhere that I could prop up my phone, but I got there in the end!”

Evans posted his own video, in which he is seen wearing a three-piece suit, on social media with the message: “When they said try working from home I didn't realise they'd expect me to do the music too."

He said later: "I mean, the BBC News theme is a brilliant piece of music and I thought perhaps it would sound good rocked up with some drums, but I honestly didn’t expect such a fabulous response."

An award-winning English fiddler, Ciaran Algar, has also posted a video of himself playing along to Evans’ drumming tribute – and the BBC has now created a video showing all three in action together.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website.

While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app.

With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Visit www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Frank O'Donnell

Editorial Director