YOU certainly can’t accuse Sarah Purser of letting a good idea go to waste. It’s been more than 20 years since she hatched a plan to bring one of Scotland’s most fascinating but forgotten novels to our television screens.
For most of that time, she kept it filed away while getting on with life. But the last few years have brought a burst or creative activity that’s as exhausting to think about as it is impressive.
She’s put together what amounts to a magazine explaining the characters, detailing plot lines stretching through five series, featuring gorgeous photography and original illustrations and explaining the benefits it will bring to Scotland and Glasgow, the city where she was brought up, in particular.
Purser has put together a cast featuring the cream of the country’s acting talent; set them to work creating an astonishing seven-minute trailer for the series; persuaded Glasgow City Council to hold a civic event for the project in the City Chambers; generated coverage in most established media; captured the attention of the educational world, and even prepared a potential Wax Fruit tourist trail.
If you have managed to remain ignorant of the media maelstrom that surrounds Wax Fruit, you are remarkably disconnected from most modern methods of mass communication. The level of interest it has generated would be remarkable for a drama series about to be unveiled to a waiting world, never mind one that has not yet actually been commissioned.
“I know it will come to pass,” Purser tells me, sitting in front of a wall covered in cuttings, photographs, doodles and all things Wax Fruit. “It’s too good not to. And so we will make it happen. It’s a bit like we have built the house, but we now need the land, and the land is the broadcaster, or the streaming platform. This is a big show and it’s not cheap because it’s period drama. That said, we’re very competitively priced within that genre because we can do it nimbly.”
Purser is so committed to her dream that no smart person would bet against Wax Fruit becoming a reality. Failure is very much not an option. She has known the potential ever since reading the first of the five books over which Guy McCrone chronicled the epic story of the Moorhouse family published between 1940-52. It follows them from a humble farming life to an elite position in Victorian Glasgow society.
Purer refers to the explanation given by Alasdair Gray in Lanark as to why Glasgow’s qualities have too often gone unnoticed and undervalued. “Glasgow is a magnificent city,” said McAlpin.
Purser (above) added: “Why do we hardly ever notice that? Because nobody imagines living here ... think of Florence, Paris, London, New York.
“Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger because he’s already visited them in paintings, novels, history books and films.
But if a city hasn’t been used by an artist, not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively.”
For Purser, Wax Fruit holds the potential to change the way the world sees and appreciates Glasgow. She tells me: “Ultimately, this would be so fantastic for the city. And Glasgow needs something like this.
“It’s shining a spotlight on the city in a way that hasn’t been done before. It’s really entirely about the city, as well as being set in the city.
‘’It is the story of a family that comes into the city. They make it big. They are the nouveau riche on the make. They work in shipbuilding, they work in finance and in the arts and the creative industries.
“It’s set in an exciting time for the city, which was really inventing the modern world, creating a blueprint for cities in America. The story touches on so many areas … industry, the arts, heritage and business. It’s just massive.’’
The pitch document for the show says it aims to portray Glasgow’s role as “the engine room of the world”, where deals worth a fortune are sealed just a stone’s throw away from grinding poverty and desolate slums.
The story encompasses the prejudice which met Highlanders coming to the cities to work and the parallels with the Irish experience, as well as referencing the growth of the Lipton grocery business from a small Glasgow shop to a global tea brand and the emergence of Sir William Quarrier as a shoe retailer and philanthropist.
It explores the city’s vast gulf between the rich and the poor and also celebrates the central role of women in the story of Glasgow. In short, its scope is vast.
Purser says: “Culturally, this touches on so many really interesting and important areas. They will just work dramatically, naturally. They’re not being shooed in. They’re just there. That’s what’s lovely about this story. We tick all the boxes without trying.”
Many of the central characters have already been cast. They appear in the trailer and, subject to availability and timing, they will appear in the series once it has attracted the finance and been given the green light.
They include Martin Compston of Line Of Duty fame, Ashley Jensen, star of Shetland, Bill Paterson, Shirley Henderson, Elaine C Smith, 14- year-old Frankie Corio, from Livingston, the star of Bafta-winning Aftersun, and more.
Purser sees their involvement as a testimony to the quality of the material. She said: “I’ve known Ashley Jensen for more years than I care to say out loud. Ashley had known about these books and she has come to this not because I’m a friend, but because she loves this.
“Screen Scotland gave us some money for the episode one script, which is fantastic. We’ve got a fantastic script. We’ve got a stunning pitch deck, which is illustrated by a wonderful Glaswegian artist, Paul Bell, who I met at a football match by chance and who has done stunning illustrations which in themselves are works of art that just capture the city and that period perfectly.
“Absolutely some people have come on because we can pick up the phone to them but they don’t do this unless the quality of the material is good.”
It has been Purser’s ambition to adapt Wax Fruit for television since she and her husband bought a flat in Grosvenor Terrace in Glasgow in the early 2000s. The previous owner left them three gifts – a card, a bottle of wine and a copy of Wax Fruit.
Purser says: “There was one page in the book marked out. Belle Moorhouse, the book’s wonderful heroine, finally moved to the West End into one of the fabulous new houses in Grosvenor Terrace.”
That’s not the only personal connection. She found out later that McCrone was her godfather, “so I really have to make this work”. Purser has worked in the film and television industry since starting out as a runner on Peter McDougall’s acclaimed 1993 television drama Down Among the Big Boys.
It was while working on that programme that she met Jensen and her husband, Tommy Gormley, an assistant director who has worked on a string of hit film franchises, including Star Wars, Wonder Woman and Mission Impossible.
Purser originally thought of being an actor and enrolled in drama school: “All parties parted company happily after a year. I was not destined to be in front of the camera and was very happy not to be.’’
When she came home to Scotland she worked in Glasgow restaurants and then studied Scottish literature at Strathclyde University – a “knockout course”.
She loved Wax Fruit when she first read it at Grosvenor Terrace and saw its television potential but filmmaking was not then at the forefront of her mind and when children came along, her attention focused on other matters.
But the book continued to fascinate her and she asked her father why he had not told her about it. It had sold a million copies and been named book of the month by the New York Times. “My father said he had told me about it but I hadn’t listened. He then told me Guy McCrone was my godfather.’’
Purser is convinced there is a huge market for the Wax Fruit series, not least in the United States, where there is a widespread interest in aspects of Scottish culture.
“You can’t move across America without finding a [Robert Louis Stevenson] library or a Stevenson school or a Stevenson this, that or the other. Everyone’s got A Child’s Garden Of Verses on their bookshelf.”
The success in the US and elsewhere of Outlander has not escaped her attention either. “Outlander is coming to an end, and if you follow anything on social media and on fan pages, they’re all wanting the next thing and we’re ready, waiting in the wings with something that speaks to what is absolutely appealing about Outlander.”
Purser has been working seriously on the Wax Fruit project for three or four years, and she has talked to everyone she can about her plans for the television series.
“We’ve had the most phenomenal support ... off the scale,’’ she says. ‘’Our creative team, they’re all Scottish, based in Glasgow. We’ve got Bafta winners coming out of our ... whatever the expression is.
“The reason they’re on board is that it’s a great story. It’s a no-brainer. Our cast is loving it. Our creative team is loving it because it’s got such huge integrity, and because it’s about the city, and it’s the city’s story that’s not been told yet.’’
Purser is determined that Wax Fruit will not become something that is filmed in Glasgow and then moves on. “Glasgow has often been a backdrop for big Hollywood movies,” she says.
“And they come in, use it for that, and then they go away. It’s just the nature of the beast. They bring their own team that’s already on board. There’s a logic to that and, to an extent, it’s great for Glasgow. But this is different because we’re rooted in the heart of this city.
"Everything is coming from this city. The producers, the DP [director of photography], the directors, the cast. Obviously, the nature of our industry is that people travel internationally, and that’s also how they become successful, and that’s what we want.
“But this has got great integrity, being rooted in the heart of the city. It has been written by someone who was here. It’s about the city. It’s being produced by someone who’s Glasgow born and bred and lives and breathes our city.
“When we shot the seven-minute teaser – which is fantastic – about 80 crew came out. We’ve put as much money in as we can, and we put our money where our mouth is.
“We’re not grifting or looking for freebies from people, left, right and centre. We’ve had a lot of support but we’ve put a lot of our own money in because we care about it and we want it to happen.
“But at the same time, we’ve had monumental goodwill from the most incredible cast and crew because they want to see this made. They want to get it over the line, and not just for selfish interests.
“It would be great to bring a high-end, world-class production to the city that could run for years. That would be the dream. People are also doing it because hopefully, they like what it’s about, they like the way we operate and the integrity of the production and the quality of it.’’
Purser’s commitment to Wax Fruit is awe-inspiring. “We know that people want to see this,” she says. “We’ve sold out the books in the city. We’ve got it back on the curriculum of Strathclyde University, City of Glasgow College is working with us.
“I’ve approached people such as Andy Scott [creator of The Kelpies], Alec Galloway [stained glass artist] people in the heritage field and architects … across the board, people are doing amazing stuff in this city and for it, and they see the value of what a show like this, an international flagship show, could do for it.’’
Purser sings Wax Fruit’s praises to everyone she meets. People like Duncan, a workman she started chatting to while they both bemoaned the crumbling state of an Alexander “Greek” Thomson building in the city.
‘’Before I’d parted company with this lovely guy – who I’m now chums with – he’d ordered the books online. Here’s this guy in his 30s, an electrician. He’s not the target demographic for a family saga. But he said, ‘This sounds great. I’d love to watch that’.”
The outpouring of support has moved and humbled Purser. “It’s going to be the people of this city that will help me get this over the line. People are so excited about it and want to see this happen.
“And now I have to deliver. I’ve had so much help and support and goodwill … I have to deliver.’’
You’d be crazy to bet against her succeeding.
