By William Peakin
Too much time and effort has been spent “throwing public money” at feature filmmaking in Scotland, according to one of the UK’s leading independent television producers.

Eileen Gallagher, chief executive of Shed Productions, makers of Waterloo Road, Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives, said: “Scotland has spent far too much time and effort, in my personal view, throwing public money into the holy grail of feature films. Films, that if they do get made, rarely get seen.”

She told a public service broadcasting event hosted by Ofcom in Edinburgh earlier this month that it was not just a Scottish issue, but a UK-wide “obsession”. She highlighted the existence of 17 filmwriting courses funded by Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for Creative Media, and contrasted that with the existence of just one TVwriting course which does not even receive Skillset funding.

Gallagher was speaking about the place of programme making in the context of Ofcom’s consultation on the future of public service broadcasting and the Scottish Broadcasting Commission’s recent report on the future of the industry north of the border.

She said that the future held great promise, but that Scotland was at its best when it was outwardlooking “taking on the world” rather than “talking to ourselves”. Programmes made in Scotland should be as good as or better than network productions. If they were in turn funded by the network and exported around the world, they would be both a source of wealth creation and national pride.

Gallagher, a former director of broadcasting at Scottish Television and managing director of LWT, cited Scotland’s rich tradition of exportable drama, such as Taggart and Tutti Frutti.

She said that in her ten years with Shed Productions, which also makes Supernanny and Who Do You Think You Are?, she had “come to realise the world is a small place”. The company now has a 100-strong office in Hollywood. Last week, Shed opened a base at the new Digital Media Quarter at Pacific Quay in Glasgow, and has begun production of its first drama in Scotland, the network commissioned Hope Springs.

Gallagher said if Scotland was to take advantage of some of the positive developments it had to grow its talent base and training would be key; her company is working with Glasgow Caledonian University and the BBC to launch a postgraduate course in television fiction writing. “Our aim is to make Scotland a centre of excellence in TV fiction writing in the UK and the world.”

She added: “We can make content that is as good or better than anything in the UK, Hollywood or anywhere else. The UK market is a fantastic gateway to the world, so let’s make sure that whatever we do with Scottish broadcasting, we don’t turn our backs on them and we don’t let the UK networks turn their backs on us.”