BBC Scotland Executive Report 2007/08

On network, factual programming highlights included The Culture Show, BBC Four's Pop on Trial, the three part 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tsunamis/Earthquakes/Avalanches and Jonathan Meades: Magnetic North, of which Robert Hants wrote in the Independent: “(It) has a sweep, an intellectual confidence and a sense of mischief you won't find anywhere else on TV.”

Children's programming introduced new editions of Me Too! and Carrie and David's Pop Shop for CBeebies (the first network television programme to be shot in the new BBC Scotland headquarters building at Pacific Quay). Raven: The Secret Temple was a mainstay of CBBC and children's programming on network BBC One and BBC Two engaged its young audience with the narrative science magazine Nina and the Neurons and the children's challenge programme Get 100. Hedz, the BBC's first children's satirical comedy sketch show, proved to be a huge hit with its audience.

The new high-tech studio facilities at Pacific Quay also opened up opportunities for bigger, more ambitious programme-making. The network Lottery Jet Set for BBC One, the last major programme to be shot at the Queen Margaret Drive studios in Glasgow, is to be followed by eight editions of the Lottery summer show, This Time Tomorrow, being recorded at Pacific Quay and hosted by Tess Daly. Pacific Quay has also been home this year to the network production of the early evening children v adults game show The Kids Are Alright, with John Barrowman (Doctor Who and Torchwood's Captain Jack). Sitcoms Dear Green Place and Legit, piloted in 2006/07, both went to six-part series and the BBC Scotland staples of Still Game and Only an Excuse? once again proved to be the nation's favourite viewing as audiences saw in the New Year.

Sport – and in particular, football – proved to be as controversial a topic as it was popular with viewers. Many registered their disappointment that the final games of Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign were not available live on terrestrial television. BBC Scotland did, however, show highlights, in addition to carrying 22 live matches across the season, including Scotland's away games against Georgia and Italy, virtually all of Aberdeen's and Rangers' UEFA Cup encounters in Europe, the CIS Cup and the latter stages, including the final, of the Scottish Cup. Televised SPL highlights formed part of a package of sports rights acquisitions that also saw clips of all of the Premier League's goals available, each week, on broadband, complementing the live coverage of every single SPL game on radio and online. Mountain biking, rugby sevens, shinty, curling and equestrianism were only some of the other sports covered across the year.

Learning and education remain a core purpose for the BBC. The Bitesize website continues to grow in popularity with young learners, alongside new television, radio and innovative online content supporting the new Curriculum For Excellence. The News School Report event introduced journalism skills to seven Scottish schools in 2007, increasing to 21 in 2008, with tremendous response from staff and pupils alike. BBC Scotland's drama and learning departments collaborated to offer six mini-episodes of River City, available online and as 'mobisodes', in support of the RaW literacy campaign. The launch of the Learning Space within Pacific Quay offers both a venue and an opportunity for groups to learn how to make movies and animations, conduct interviews and to create their own news stories.

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