Back on the murder trail ... talks over a new Taggart
IT was the TV show that made Glasgow globally famous as the gritty “no mean city”. Now Taggart’s creator has revealed plans are afoot to revive Scotland’s star television detective in a prequel series set in the 1960s.
Glenn Chandler said he has taken part in early-stage discussions with TV producers about the show’s return, eight years after the STV series came to a halt.
Speaking from his home in London, the Scots writer said: “There is talk of bringing Taggart back now, I have to admit ... young Taggart, set in the 1960s, with Jim Taggart as a young detective.
“I have been giving advice on the idea. I think it would be a good idea. But I certainly wouldn’t want to write it as I’m too involved in working in theatre now, and I find that very hands-on.”
STV Productions would not yesterday confirm plans for the retrospective of the detective, who was played by the fondly remembered Mark Mcmanus for 11 years.
But under new chief executive Simon Pitts, he has made it clear the broadcaster should be making more of its own content.
Chandler was at the creative helm of Taggart from its inception in the early 1980s until regime overhaul at STV brought about a change in personnel in 1999.
He has since gone on to write, produce and direct theatre, having set up Boys Of The Empire Productions, and stage the well-received show Kids Play at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, which opens in London next week.
Despite his protestations, the writer admits he could be lured back to TV “if someone threw enough money at me”, and speaks gratefully of the life that 27 series of Taggart has given him.
“It’s in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest-running cop show,” he said. “It gave me a pension fund and a house and has enabled me to work in theatre, which I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise because it’s so expensive.”
The former Edinburgh public schoolboy who made his living killing the people of Glasgow in Taggart plots will return to Maryhill on September 26 for a special screening of the first episode of his STV long-running drama, originally named Killer, which was screened 35 years ago this month.
The screening at Seamore Cinema in Maryhill Road will be attended by original Taggart producer Robert Love and actor Gavin Mitchell.
Chandler was living in London, writing plays for small theatres when he was asked by STV executive Robert Love to write a three-part drama around the character of a Glasgow detective.
“I was very interested in the meekmannered accountant who had bodies under the floorboards, rather than gangland villains,” he said.
“Looking back, nobody had really done whodunnits since Agatha Christie and Francis Durbridge Presents. We gave the audience 10 suspects, then presented them with the murderer at the end.
“STV said the formula worked, and asked for another one. I think it was after 10 series that I finally thought maybe this could run…”
The series also featured Alex Norton, James Macpherson, Blythe Duff, Colin Mccredie and John Michie. It ran until 2010 and was exported to more than 80 countries, including Iceland and Australia, and was responsible for upward of 250 slayings on the city’s streets.
Taggart also scored a significant progressive TV first with DC Stuart Fraser’s character, played by Colin Mccredie, who was revealed to be gay.
“Robert Love and I talked at length about the possibility of making Fraser an openly gay copper, because nobody had done it at the time on TV,” said Chandler.
“We made him a character who wasn’t afraid to be gay and who was successful because he gets the guy in the end. Nobody had done that in a major TV show before and there was a bit of difficulty in STV as to whether we’d get away with it. We were the first to tackle the idea of an openly gay cop, and in Glasgow, even then, that wasn’t easy.”
Taggart: Killer will be shown on September 26 at the Seamore Cinema at 7.15pm, followed by a Q&A with Glenn Chandler, Robert Love and actor Gavin Mitchell.