The ‘lift and shift’ method that gives Scottish TV jobs to London production companies

Hello readers, we hope you’ve been enjoying the sunshine. Here’s hoping this isn’t Glasgow’s premature summer… (Editor’s note: it definitely is). 

In this week’s briefing, we’ve got the lowdown on the axing of Glasgow’s favourite soap opera, a recommendation for fair weather taproom pints and a review of an Alasdair Gray-inspired comedy night. 

Now, onto your briefing. 

Big story: The ‘lift and shift’ method that gives Scottish TV jobs to London production companies

Topline: Glasgow-set soap opera River City is getting the axe after more than 20 years on screen, with BBC Scotland telling cast and crew last week that production would be wound up in autumn 2026. 

But, said BBC commissioners, don’t worry because we’ve got three new Scotland-based programmes in the works: Grams, a "comic thriller” set in Springburn, Counsels, a legal drama about elite lawyers in Glasgow, and an adaptation of Graeme Armstrong’s gang novel, The Young Team. 

Cast off: This news has proved little balm for the numerous River City cast and crew who now stand to lose their jobs. The soap is currently Scotland’s only ‘homegrown’ one, following the residents of a fictional Glasgow area, Shieldinch. 

“River City is a huge training ground in every respect,” says Edward Corrie, who’s played “villain” Jonathon Whitlock in the show for the last two years. “You can imagine the crews it employs, the training ground it offers [from runners to scriptwriters] for someone getting into that world. It's a huge employer in Scotland, not least for actors as well”. 

“I think it's the only Scottish institution, certainly, that employs such a vast array of talent, of creatives behind and in front of the camera,” he adds. 

• Corrie says he had no inkling of the show’s imminent cancellation. He was aware the Dumbarton site where BBC Scotland filmed the soap was up for lease renewal — and says there was an issue with RAAC concrete — but: “The first that we found out about [the axing] officially was after the press release went out”. 
• BBC commissioners invited crew on the site to a meeting to deliver the news, while those not shooting that day were given a Zoom link. But whilst everyone was on the call, the press announcement went out. “I was getting messages from friends, screenshotting the BBC announcement before the commissioners actually told us directly,” Corrie tells The Bell. 

A route in: While younger audiences the BBC are chasing may not miss River City, young talent will. “What we will see with the loss of River City,” says Marlene Curran, Equity national official for Scotland, “is that you're going to have far [fewer] working-class Scottish actors on screen”. 

Equity wants the BBC to “rethink their decision” on the soap’s cancellation, says Curran, adding that the newly announced shows won’t fill the gap left if River City ends. 

• This is for a few reasons. Firstly, the new shows set in Glasgow — Grams and Counsels are both being produced by London-based companies. Such production outfits “tend to not use Scotland-based talent,” says Curran. This production method is called a “lift and shift”. 
• “They'll have their cast and crew already lined up, and then they'll bring it up to Scotland, use our locations so that it looks as if it is a Scottish production made in Scotland, and then take it back down south to edit it again,” says Curran. As of yet, there’s no confirmation that the companies lined up to produce Grams — which is created, written and directed by Springburn local James Price — or Counsels will employ such an approach but it’s a concern. 

Shrinking industry: What is certain, is that both Grams and Counsels are much smaller productions than River City, meaning far less employment opportunities. Grams is also only commissioned for an initial six-episode run initially. Curran also says River City’s disappearance from screens means fewer opportunities for working-class Scottish people — particularly Glaswegians — to see a specific type of representation. “There is a family-orientated appeal to River City that you don't always get with the high end dramas,” she says, choosing her words carefully.

• These new dramas, Curran fears, will also opt for established “big name” actors, over giving fresh local talent a chance. 
• These actors, Curran adds, “may be Scottish, but they don't necessarily live in Scotland, and that is what we would want to push BBC Scotland for.”
• “This is Scottish public money that has been spent, a fee raised in Scotland,” she says. “The least [BBC Scotland] can do is make sure that the money raised in Scotland for the BBC license fee is spent in Scotland, on Scottish talent”. 

Bottom line: River City was certainly losing eyes; current viewership is down by 300,000 per episode from the 500,000 who used to regularly tune in. But Curran says the BBC’s £9m yearly investment in the soap goes far beyond the programme itself, as both a way into a competitive industry with increasingly closed doors, and giving underserved audiences regular event TV.

“It shouldn't be one or the other,” she says. “It shouldn't be high end or River City. The budget that BBC Scotland has is £95m; it costs £9m to run River City over a year. There’s no reason why it can’t continue”. 

Stories you might have missed: 

🪧 Glasgow Film Theatre votes on becoming entirely BDS-compliant
Earlier this month, Glasgow Film Theatre workers, represented by hospitality union Unite, won an unprecedented victory: GFT management agreed to stop stocking Coca-Cola products, in line with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. BDS, for those unacquainted, uses boycotts, sanctions or divestment to pressure Israel to end its occupation and apartheid regime in Palestine. And now, Unite rep Nick Troy tells us, the GFT board is voting on becoming entirely BDS compliant, “which would mean cutting advertising agreements with Barclays and McDonalds, and a cultural boycott of BDS-listed actors, directors and film companies”. Glasgow is pretty unique here; Troy adds that “This (to my knowledge) is the only case of industrial action for Palestine in Scotland (potentially Britain) other than our members at The Stand [on Woodlands Road]”. 

🗳️ SNP claim two council seats
By-elections in North East and Southside Central resulted in a double victory for the SNP — and a slap in the face for Labour. The party had initially triumphed in the North East by-election held in November 2024 but candidate Mary McNab was disbarred from taking up her post after she failed to resign her role as a council official in time. North East voters subsequently snubbed new Labour candidate Debbie Duffy in favour of the SNP’s Donna McGill, while longtime SNP politician Mhairi Hunter took the Southside Central seat. Meanwhile, Reform UK came third in the North East, increasing their first preference vote share by over 5%, and the Greens followed behind Labour in the Southside, with a 3% rise in first preference votes since the last set of local elections. 

Read/listen/watch: Whispers of the Wyndford 

The city’s pre-eminent chronicler of its disappearing buildings documented the Wyndford towers for the Guardian back in 2022. “Glasgow is no stranger to demolitions – the city’s built environment has been torn down, built up, and then torn down again every generation,” Leslie wrote. A new photo essay of yesterday’s demolition is imminent, but has yet to be published (check back here later). In the meantime, the testimonies of the towers’ last residents are all the more poignant, in the knowledge that the four multis that once housed them and so many others have now all but disappeared.

We also rec: 

🐀 Must Be Rats on the Brain
We’ve been thinking about rats rather a lot lately, after the GMB’s Chris Mitchell called for the creation of a rodent czar, à la New York city. Okay, it’s not set in Glasgow, but this 2023 This American Life episode reframes the NYC debate entirely, viewing the issue from a rat’s eye view. Hilarity ensues. Radio at its finest. 

📽️ Glasgow Boys: Chaos and Calm
With Adolescence continuing to shape the debate around young men and violence, we were reminded of another excellent radio documentary, this one from 2017, which explores the impact of the Violence Reduction Unit through the lens of a man called Byron Vincent. With online misogyny now in the mix, the problems have only deepened — but the example of the VRU shows solutions can be found in unpredictable places. 

Did you catch… our weekend read about Castlemilk’s food desert? 

When Robbie started working on this story in February, it was pretty under the radar. That all changed when a Castlemilk campaign group took their case to the United Nations, saying the nine-year lack of a local supermarket was infringing on their human rights. 

We published our piece on the conspiracies and conflict surrounding Castlemilk’s never-ending battle for a supermarket over the weekend. “Where's their Good Food Nation[?],” asked reader Mary MacCallum Sullivan. “Lovely long read about a community that just wants a supermarket,” said Kathie McInnes, on X. Bell contributor Eve Livingston even shared an episode of Channel 4’s TV Dinners with her late granny, Josephine Livingston MBE, who fought for the area’s first supermarket in the 90s. 

Read the full piece on Castlemilk’s fight to be fed now. 

Just a perfect day

Every week, one Glasgow resident runs us through their ideal way to spend a day in the city.

Gareth Young, 39, founder of Epochal brewery and taproom

DAWN: First up is Cottonrake bakery for quiche and coffee. People think quiche is bad, but Cottonrake’s is the best I’ve ever had. The eggs are just set, so it's soft and rich, with a nice, crispy pastry. They do good coffee as well. 

From there, it’s the Arlington Baths club. This is the supreme hangover cure. You go for a little bob in the pool, and then you alternate between the steam room and sauna, and you work your way through them alternating steam and sauna with cold showers. They have one of those Finnish cold water buckets where you drop a bucket of cold water over your head, and then you have a little snoozle in the Turkish room. This is a technique that's been developed over time. That should leave you feeling sufficiently rejuvenated. 

MIDDAY: We’re going to Epochal for pints of beer from the barrel and Scampi Fries. We’re drinking stock lager, a wood-fermented lager in the sunshine, watching the wakeboarders scoot up and down. Epochal is my brewery and taproom on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal. It's one of only two breweries in the world with a Burton Union — you can watch it in action if you come visit. 

AFTERNOON: So post-brewery we’re going for food at Same Same — a Malaysian Chinese restaurant.They do their own homemade tofu which has a custardy yellow colour. They do a bunch of dishes with it: a hotpot with pork and a whole tofu — fried and crispy. So we’d go and have some food and green tea. 

DUSK: From there we get the tube to Bridge Street to The Laurieston and drink pints of cask Jarl. It’s a beautifully preserved 1950s Glasgow pub, it’s like a time capsule right down to the Formica bar tops. It’s one of the great pubs of Glasgow. They keep their Jarl nicely. I’d get the pie and peas too. 

AFTER HOURS:  We’ll get the bus down to Koelschip Yard. They have an amazing selection of beers from all over the world. It’s one of the best craft beer bars in Scotland. We’ll go try whatever they have on tap and open a bottle of gueuze. I had a Newbarns lager on cask recently that was exceptionally good. Then we’ll finish it off with some Fernet-Branca. I’m off to my bed after that. 

Unconstructive critique: Gray Matters: A Laugh for Glasgow’s 850 Years. Òran Mór

Alasdair Gray wasn’t exactly known for his parliamentary language, but even still, last night’s comedy show, under the celestial ceiling mural, was a salacious affair. There was talk of al-fresco sex acts in the Saltmarket, getting [redacted] in Ashton Lane, and trying to describe Gray’s pornographic-inspired work, 1982, Janine, to your nan. Alan Bissett gave a compelling excerpt of his new play, When Billy Met Alasdair. Set to debut at the Fringe later this year, Bissett channelled the spirit of the Big Yin and a bespectacled Gray at the Third Eye Centre launch of his ‘head fuck’ novel Lanark, in 1981. Ashley Storrie, meanwhile, romped around the West End visiting the artist’s auld haunts in her video ‘A Little Shade of Gray’ — describing his artworks in a fashion no other comedian could.

It was laugh-out-loud funny — especially her lustful gaze at Gray’s portrait in the archive. Christopher Macarthur Boyd also had the unenviable task of writing half an hour of Gray-inspired stand up material; one wee speccy guy’s touching tribute to another. A tough gig, but CMB delivered. And who was sat front right, happily chuckling away, but the normally elusive owner of the venue (not to mention Castlemilk’s shopping arcade): Stefan King. 

Glasgow calendar: An artistic one night stand at SWG3

David Shrigley, Trackie McLeod and Lucy Skaer are some of the artists combining their work under a single roof for this one-night only bonanza taking over the breadth of the SWG3 complex. 

Celebrating four decades of Glasgow’s artistic legacy, ‘Never Go Out’, will showcase works from some of the city’s most celebrated creatives — and its rising stars. It’s also not limited to 2D: sculpture, installations and live musical performances will all be on offer. Oh, and it’s in aid of a good cause, with proceeds going to support a new documentary exploring the early years of a Glasgow School of Art department that helped shape the city’s hugely influential artist community. 

27 March, 7pm onwards. Concessions from £15, general admission from £25.  

Other dates for your diary:

🎤 See Susie McCabe on her ‘best behaviour’
28-29 March, King’s Theatre, 7.30pm; tickets from £24.10

📷 Dive into a photographic history of Glasgow’s tower blocks
24-25 March, New Glasgow Society, opening night 6-8pm; otherwise 10am-5pm. Free entry.