Big TV premiere for film portraying top artist

THE theatrical version of Angus film maker Anthony Baxter’s Baftawinning Eye of the Storm will hit Scottish television screens tomorrow.

Hailed by critics as “sublime” and “inexpressibly moving”, it tells the story of late Montrose artist James Morrison.

Glasgow-born Morrison, who made Angus his adopted home, was widely considered one of the nation’s finest watercolourists.

He died in 2020 at the age of 88.

In Eye of the Storm the artist talked candidly about the impact of deteriorating sight in his later years.

The one-hour version of the documentary received the Scottish Bafta for best factual film last month.

And the acclaimed theatrical version will screen at 7pm on BBC Scotland tomorrow.

A UK-wide network premiere on BBC4 will take place at a later date.

Anthony said: “We are very proud of the Bafta, but this version best reflects what I wanted to do with the film.

“And we are excited and grateful BBC Scotland agrees it should be seen in a peak time slot over the festive holidays.”

Eye of the Storm charts Morrison’s remarkable life – from training at Glasgow School of Art to his extraordinary trips to the Arctic.

It also focuses on his landscapes painted around his beloved Angus and the west coast of Scotland.

The theatrical version of Eye of the Storm is also contending for a prize in China – the Golden Kapok award at the country’s largest documentary festival in Guangzhou.

It is also enjoying an outing at cinemas across Scotland with upcoming special Q&A screenings this month, including the Dundee DCA, Eden Court Inverness, the new Montrose Playhouse and Birks Cinema, Aberfeldy.

Baxter, 52, is known for productions You’ve Been Trumped and Flint.