Writers like Darren McGarvey and Graeme Armstrong are helping to bring working-class voices onto the screen in Scotland – Brian Ferguson

A recent hour-long documentary marking 100 years of the BBC in Scotland was an irresistible opportunity to take a trip down memory lane.

Writer Graeme Armstrong will be presenting a new BBC Scotland series exploring Scotland's street gang culture.

There was plenty of archive footage of the comics Gregor Fisher, Andy Gray, Gerard Kelly and Elaine C Smith, along with Hogmanay hoolies, hard-hitting drama series and major news stories. But one of the most striking segments was devoted to the fly-on-the-wall documentary series The Scheme, including a news report on how Scotland’s first reality TV show was attracting more viewers in Scotland than Eastenders.

Famously branded “poverty born” by some commentators when it was originally broadcast, The Scheme was hailed for its bold and groundbreaking, if uncomfortable and divisive, depiction of the lives of families in housing schemes in Kilmarnock. There is little doubt over the level of controversy stirred up at the time by The Scheme, which had to be pulled from the schedule due to two separate court cases and ended up being debated in the Scottish Parliament.

But The Scheme appears to have been a crucial moment in terms of the depiction of working-class Scots on screen. Before it launched in 2010, this was largely limited to gritty drama series. The long-awaited arrival of a dedicated BBC Scotland channel in 2019 has led to a huge surge in the making of documentary series. Although many are historical, others have shone a light into areas of Scottish life which were largely ignored previously.

Writer Graeme Armstrong, a former gang member in his native Airdrie, will be presenting a new BBC Scotland series exploring Scotland's street gang culture.

Some of the most powerful and memorable have been presented by the rapper, writer and social commentator Darren McGarvey, who first made programmes for the BBC nearly 20 years ago after being brought up in the Pollok area of Glasgow. His most recent collaboration with production company Tern TV for BBC Scotland, an exploration of “why Scotland is the most addicted country in Europe”, was named best factual series at the Bafta Scotland Awards.

More evidence of BBC Scotland’s willingness to tackle difficult and uncomfortable areas has arrived this week with news that it has commissioned a three-part series which will attempt to "get under the skin” of Scotland’s street gangs. This would be a fascinating enough premise without the involvement of Graeme Armstrong, one of the rising stars of Scottish literature, who has emerged from the gang culture in North Lanarkshire to become an award-winning author with his debut novel The Young Team, which is already being developed into a TV drama series.

The faith shown in McGarvey and Armstrong by BBC Scotland demonstrates a commitment to ensuring that the resulting documentaries are as credible and far-reaching into the relevant communities as possible. Both have emerged as significant and influential new voices in Scotland in recent years, making an impact in much the same way as author Irvine Welsh, a key inspiration for Armstrong, and playwright Peter McDougall did in previous generations.

It remains to be seen to what extent the impact of Armstrong and McGarvey in recent years has helped open doors for other working-class writers. But the prospect of thrilling new talents and fearless writers taking inspiration from their talents to pursue their own ambitions is a fascinating one.