BBC Radio Scotland highlights - October 2011

October was another busy month on BBC Radio Scotland. We had a strong presence at the annual BBC Good Food Show, Mary Ann Kennedy's Global Gathering broadcast a live concert from the Pacific Quay foyer to launch the 2012 Celtic Connections Festival, the education season continued and there were as always some great interviews, sessions and features.

The BBC Good Food Show takes place annually in October at the SECC in Glasgow. This year we were there in force with MacAulay and Co, Off the Ball, The Beechgrove Potting Shed, The Kitchen Café and The Culture Café all in attendance. Kaye Adams, John Beattie and Gary Robertson took part in a cook off under the beady eye of Nick Nairn, watch this video to see who won...

The Kitchen Café had some lovely sounding recipes for us to download and try at home during October including pheasant casserole, spiced pumpkin soup, luxury fish pie and oven backed lamb chops.

For the first time, Celtic Connections had a launch concert, which was broadcast on Mary Ann Kennedy's Global Gathering. Festival Director Donald Shaw talked about some of the artists and events he's booked and we were treated to live music from The Ross Ainslie Trio, Chasing Owls, Sol i Serena and Rab Noakes. There are videos from all four acts on our Celtic Connections 2012 website.

We started publishing some of the large archive of Jazz House Pocket Legends on the blog and Jazz House pages including guides to Count Basie, Dexter Gordon, Ella Fitzgerald, Glenn Miller, Peggy Lee and Ray Charles. This is an amazing resource for anyone interested in jazz.

And talking of jazz, we also launched a third music collection, the Stephen Duffy collection showcasing jazz and classical music. And if you're a fan of classical music you might have heard Nicola Benedetti appearing in an hour long special on Classic's Unwrapped - producer Dominic Jewel wrote about it on the blog.

Nicola was also a guest on The Culture Café as was Nigel Havers who talked about his forthcoming guest appearance in the Christmas edition of Downton Abbey...

We lost Scottish singer-songwriter Bert Jansch in October, Davie Scott, who had featured his self entitled album on an earlier series of Classic Scottish albums, wrote us a touching blog in tribute.

Out of Doors broadcast a special programme on Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean whilst Shereen's guest was Scottish crime writer Val McDermid.

And finally, Tom Morton listener Al Issner wrote about his surprise at bumping into Jedward at Hadrian's Wall!