GLASGOW will host a new television festival in a bid to save the “crisis-hit industry”.
The first-ever Glasgow Telly Festival has been organised by author, producer, and screenwriter Claire Duffy and will kick off next month.
The series of events held across the city will allow “both household names and emerging talent” to showcase their ideas to the public – with an app available for audiences to give their feedback.
One of these events will be the rehearsed readings where actors, writers and directors can perform their “authentic” and “ambitious” TV drama pilots in front of a live audience.
The talent of the festival participants will also be featured in one-minute-long pilot videos that will be shown in various pubs across Glasgow.
Dawn Steele, Blythe Duff, and Carol Smillie are among the Scottish stars who have backed the festival, which comes in the wake of the BBC cancelling River City.
Duffy said: “Not many people realise that TV was actually invented in Glasgow, so this is a really exciting and important event for the city, and for the Scottish TV industry more widely.
“It’s no secret that TV work has dried up in Scotland – and we’ve all heard about the recent catastrophic axing of River City. The opportunities and the budgets simply don’t exist like they used to but what does still absolutely exist is the talent and the appetite for great Scottish stories.
“We want to find solutions to these challenges.
“Nobody knows great TV better than the people who watch it and I believe audiences should be at the heart of the TV industry going forward, providing feedback and informing decisions.
“Plus, Glasgow audiences have long been known for their no-nonsense feedback which is exactly what we need!”
The festival intends to breathe new life into Scotland’s declining TV industry considering Scottish soap River City’s recent cancellation.
