Brian Beacom

Glasgow

Senior Features Writer at The Herald (Scotland)

Senior Features Writer at The Glasgow Times

Journalist, biographer and tennis player - who's striving to become mediochre.

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Articles

Families Like Ours is a fascinating drama - even better it's on terrestrial telly

4 days ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

Families Like Ours is fantastic TV (Image: PHOTOGRAPHER:Per Arnesen) Don’t like TV series’ with subtitles? Can’t imagine why you would be interested at all in a dark, Danish dystopian tale? Well, stick your misgivings, your preconceptions that Viking telly can’t be possibly all-powerful – and your Netflix-buttoned remote under the sofa cushion for an hour – and take a long, soft look at Families Like Ours (BBC4, Saturday and iPlayer.) The opening scene is set in the near future.
10 films from Scotchland that could escape Donald Trump's bigly tariffs

6 days ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

Mel Gibson in Braveheart (Image: free) US President Donald Trump has announced he will introduce tariffs on films made outside of Hollywood. However, in a secret memo revealed today he reveals that Scotland may be a special case, given the ‘very, very beautiful movies’ that top our film history. Here's how we imagine his email might look. Local Hero Isn’t this the greatest story ever told? Drill baby drill.
The play that the Vatican once described as “blasphemous”

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

Today however, Joseph Farrell, the regular translator of Fo’s work into English, smiles as he suggests that back in 1990 Coltrane was perhaps enticed into becoming Buffero for reasons a little more prosaic than Fo’s awesome reputation and the quality of the writing.
David Tennant has taken a wrong turn in his career - here's why

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

But now he’s gone way over to the dark side, set to drape himself in a shiny suit, comb his hair and become a TV quiz show host. The man from Paisley is now fronting Genius Game, (based on a South Korean series whereby a group of “geniuses” compete in puzzles and games based on strategy and social manipulation, blah, blah.) Now, quiz shows aren’t quite the work of the devil, but you sense they’re dreamt up by some close relative who’s had a little bit of a falling out with God at some point.
The Union flag is an object of sexual desire, is it? Don't be absurd

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

Glasgow’s Tron Theatre is set to stage absurdist play Fleg (Image: free) What is it with theatre’s incessant need to produce absurdist plays? Isn’t it all a bit absurd? Right now, the quite brilliant Gary Oldman is set to appear in York in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, a meandering non-sensical story of a man who listens to old recordings of himself.
Inside story: How Restless Natives made the journey from film to theatre

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

2 1/1 To say Ninian Dunnett is excited is rather like saying Big Country battered out a couple of passable tunes back in the day. Forty years ago, Dunnett was a 24-year-old journalist who wrote a screenplay based on notes he’d scribbled wistfully on a restaurant’s menu card. But on entering his script for a bank’s screenwriting competition, incredibly, EMI turned Restless Natives into a movie.
It's a beloved Scottish film. But can it work as a stage musical?

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

It’s scarier than a musical theatre star losing their voice on opening night. Than a director’s realisation that the Act 2 opening is ropier than a jungle bridge – and the audience are likely to remain in the bar. How can you be sure that film successes which transfer to theatre will still win over hearts and minds? In recent weeks the music of Big Country has played out incessantly in Perth as rehearsals for Restless Natives: The Musical draw to a close.
You might not think it but we can learn so much from Celebrity Big Brother absurdity

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

David Potts in Celebrity Big Brother (Image: free) Celebrity Big Brother is back, offering the chance for another group of desperates, attention seekers and career plummeters to put their name in the frame for a supporting role in this year’s Hackney Empire panto. And once again, producers have reached into their bag of tricks, (ie.
Playwright Neil Simon could teach Scottish theatre critics a thing or two

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

American playwright Neil Simon (Image: AP) A news story in theatre industry bible The Stage this week reads like a call to arms. The artistic director of London’s Yard Theatre warns that cuts to arts reporting are making it more difficult for theatres to get their work reviewed. Jay Miller added that, without good criticism, the quality of culture would suffer. Hang on, does this mean that I’m playing a part in the demise of theatre?
Yee-hah! Hit Scottish musical Wild Rose shows why we will always love country music

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Brian Beacom

Why in tarnation is Scotland so fascinated with country music? What makes Caledonian hearts seemingly beat in perfect four/four time on hearing songs about dead dogs and dead-eyed relationships? What in the name of Tammy or Travis do we have in common with simple three chord tunes with lyrics featuring blue moons, red necks and yellow roses? The fact is, we love country more than cowboys love campfire beans, dramatic sunsets and big bosomed ladies who own their own truck.