Atlantic: A Scottish Story
When it comes to Scottish podcasts, The Big Light are knocking it out of the park.
The production company, co-created by BBC Radio Scotland alumni Janice Forsyth, has developed Blethered with Sean Mcdonald, Unspeakable Scotland and The Tartan Noir Show to name a few.
As well as these factual shows they’ve also developed strong fictional productions, the pick of the bunch probably being Atlantic. It’s a mouthwatering journey in eight parts through the history of one of Scotland’s most remote locations, St Kilda.
The series was written by award-winning musical theatre partnership, Noisemaker – author and lyricist Scott Gilmour and composer Claire Mckenzie.
The pair have penned a soaring score, and attracted a star-studded cast featuring Blythe Duff, Kate Dickie, David Hayman and Richard Rankin.
The podcast stemmed from a hit stage show written by
Gilmour and Mckenzie, both Royal Conservatoire of Scotland alumni.“when the pandemic hit, we, like so many artists working in live entertainment, were left wondering how we could continue to work,” said Gilmour.
“We were fortunate enough to know Janice already and it was on a very hopeful whim that we contacted them and asked,‘have you ever thought about making a podcast musical?’ The answer, thankfully, was,‘no...but we’d love to!’
The podcast, which was nominated at The Radio Academy’s prestigious Arias awards last week, has been so successful that Forsyth reckons it could be coming soon to a screen near you.“when Scott and Claire approached us, we said yes immediately as they are two of the UK’S brightest theatre talents and we always wanted to produce drama,” she said. “We’ve already had interest in the show from the film world. So watch this space.”