|
 Billy
Wolfe tells an excellent story about John McGrath and his most famous
play, "The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil".
Billy went to see the first
performance of the play in 1973 when he was leader, taken there by
Chrissie MacWhirter who was National Secretary of the Party. He was
overwhelmed by it and asked John McGrath at the end if it could be
performed at the SNP National Conference in Oban
— to be held only a month later.
Amazingly John agreed and the
performance in Oban was the biggest to date. The cast were energised by
the hugely supportive reaction and took repeated curtain calls at the end.
Eventually John McGrath joined them and indicated he wanted to speak. In
total silence he stepped forward and said "I think I should tell you that
none of us are nationalists". Whatever he expected as a response, all he
got was even louder applause!
None of the cast may have been
Nationalists at the time but it was not long before one or two joined
— most notably Dolina MacLennan,
still making PPBs for the Party when called upon and still a passionate
advocate of both independence and Gaelic.
John himself, at least to my
knowledge, never joined the Party but he certainly expressed very
considerable support and sympathy for it as year succeeded year. His
"Border Warfare" is at times overtly Nationalist (no wonder Donald Dewar
looked askance at it) and all his work on Scottish themes owes something
to the "Satire of the 3 Estates" which is as good a pedigree for a
Scottish writer as you can get. John McGrath himself saw all such work as
being part of the struggle for a Scottish Parliament and for a nation that
would wish to build its democracy onwards and upwards.
John McGrath’s background was Irish
and Liverpudlian and he made his early reputation with a very English play
— "Events while guarding the
Bofors Gun" — which was filmed in 1968 with a cast that included John
Thaw.
"The Cheviot, the Stag and
the Black, Black Oil" was agit-prop theatre and arose out of lobbying by a
group of politicians and community activists. But what could have been
only propaganda — no matter how good — was transformed by John’s
theatrical skills into a huge entertaining tour of Scottish and Highland
history which combined real passion for the people and their plight with
real anger about past and present exploitation.
It toured Scotland during 1973 and
was filmed and broadcast in 1974 to great acclaim. It needs to be seen
again on screen and I am surprised that the BBC has not scheduled
it in tribute to a man who contributed much to broadcasting and to
broadcast audiences.
Some of John’s subsequent work with
784 showed less skill, falling as it did over the edge into didactic
preaching. But "The Game’s a bogey", about the life of John MacLean, was
as inspiring as the Cheviot, though perhaps justifiably even more angry.
McGrath’s prodigious talents found
an outlet in other places too. He spent a period of time on the Board of
Channel 4 Television, before which he had set up Freeway Films at the
invitation of the Channel’s first Director Jeremy Isaacs. Freeway
contributed some important
items to the Channel and to UK cinema over years including Carrington
and Ma Vie en Rose which won the 1996 Golden Globe for best
foreign picture.
He developed a strong interest in
Gaelic, making sure it was used creatively not just in the Cheviot but
also in films such as Main Mhor for BBC Scotland and his final
project (not brought to completion alas because of the obstruction of the
usual small minds in the Scottish creative community) was Neil Gunn’s "The
Silver Darlings" which arose from a Highland tradition and which would
have brought to the screen a work and a writer that have been long and
unjustifiably neglected.
John was the most approachable of
men and the most civilised of companions. His socialism was of the open
and inclusive sort — no Tommy
Sheridan, he, fortunately —and his genuine passion for a better country
that belonged to its citizens made him gentle in all but his criticisms
except when roused to anger by the arrogant abuse of privilege and wealth.
He was also a fine teacher, holding positions at Cambridge University and
the University of London and being an Honorary Doctor of Stirling
University. Just two years ago he became, at the request of Robert
Redford, Artistic Director of Moonstone International Screen-Labs, the
European equivalent of the Sundance Institute in Utah. It is already a
strong force in developing professional talent.
Writers and artists who have a strong affection for our
country but who are not afraid to speak of its faults are rare
commodities. Scotland does not just need cheer leaders — it needs
affectionate critics whose intelligence can guide us forward.
John McGrath was such a
man. Nationalist or not, he is a loss to a Scotland that needs to continue
to change. "The Cheviot" woke up a generation that was beginning to lose
sight of its duty to struggle for a better, fairer, more equal Scotland.
We could do with being woken up again to those vital imperatives as the
dead hand of New Labour deliberately dumbs down expectations and deserts
the ideal of social justice. |
