FEATURE REVIEW OF 1996
It has been the year of Trainspotting, corset drama, defeat at the hands of the English... and Irvine Welsh (again).
The List remembers...
Nineteen
Grim oop north: Christopher Eccleston In Our Friends In The North
January
OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH is one of the BBC‘s most ambitious television dramas. spanning four decades of political and social change as experienced by four Geordie schoolfriends. It also confirms Christopher Eccleston’s place as the most exciting small screen actor of his generation. Elsewhere. the year is kick-started by the kit-off frenzy surrounding .S‘liowgirlsg but movie-goers prefer the darkness of serial killer movie Seven. Celtic Connections establishes itself as a major player on the international folk circuit. events begin for the 2()()th anniversary of national bard Robert Burns’s death and the opening of The Honeycomb gives Edinburgh a purpose-built club venue to rival Glasgow‘s. Political parties come together for the launch of Scotland Against Drugs. immediately followed by the more realistic and non-political Scotland Against Drugs Hypocrisy.
lladgetasttc: Tralnspottlng puts Edlnburgh drug culture on the map
February
TRANSMITTING the movie finally arrives, buoyed up on background beats by Iggy Pop and Underworld, the whole of the UK decides to go radge. A gaunt Ewan McGregor stares out of every magazine known to man, prompting accusations that the film promotes the junkie aesthetic. Debuting screen star Irvine Welsh awaits his Best Supporting Actor nomination. The film’s other soundtrack stars, Pulp, play lngliston at the start of a year that will also bring Jarvis Cocker notoriety for televised bum-wiggling at Wacko Jacko. More genteel behaviour is assured in Emma Thompson’s film adaptation of Sense And Sensibility, but neither of those qualities seems to be in evidence as the Scott Report on the arms-to-lraq scandal is published. While Government ministers act like sheep, it’s Damien Hirst’s dead woolly one that draws most of the crowds as Edinburgh’s galleries
are taken over by the British Arr Show. In Glasgow, the avant-garde New Moves dance festival takes steps into clubland as Wayne McGregor teams up with Slam at The Arches.
6 The List 13 Dec 1996-9 Jan I997