Publisher's Synopsis
The BBC is rightly and properly recognised and regarded as one of the world's most reliably trusted and best-loved institutions. A vast organisation that - on both television and radio - is renowned and respected, for bringing entertainment, education and information to the masses. Even if its current status and importance has been a little under siege of late. But for a relatively young and humble BBC employee fresh from school, what was the Corporation really like to work for? A time frame for someone who was more often than not, on the outside looking in, anonymous, vaguely unimportant, a little insignificant, and not viewed as being directly, or creatively involved in the sharp cutting edge of the broadcasting world. So this book gently escorts the reader on a bizarre and humorous journey, a comical adventure along the fringes of broadcasting at 70s, to a time almost forgotten and now long past. With the primary intention being in telling a few tales, while sharing a few laughs at some of the crazy and bizarre antics that erupted on an almost daily basis, within the BBC's headquarters in Edinburgh! Stars of stage & screen, high-powered politicians, as well as writers, musicians and artists of all shape, size and variety, make numerous guest appearances throughout the narrative. But the real celebrities, who are justly celebrated within the book, are the staff themselves: the un-heralded minions, who manned the desks, answered the phones, served the lunches, poured the teas, cleaned the studios, drank the booze etc. This is their story and one that has - up to now - never been told. Considering that there has never (up to now) been a book that focuses entirely upon the BBC's presence in Edinburgh, this first time effort (taken from a very personal and slightly off kilter viewpoint) may very well turn out to be a major work of reference for all future students of the Scottish broadcasting arts. Dedication, determination, decisiveness (and lets not forget, a little drunken debauchery along the way!) always went hand in hand in the creation of some vibrantly successful programmes that were produced down the years! So it's fair to say that the BBC in Edinburgh has a lot to be proud of. Yet it is also fair to say that like many a large, unwieldy and cumbersome organization, it equally has its own share of embarrassing secrets and kilted skeletons hidden in so many cupboards!
