Ex Caithness Writer Colin Macdonald's Latest TV Film

9th November 2006

Colin Macdonald was brought up in Caithness and Sutherland and has growing list of successful radio plays, televison and films to his credit. His latest is a 90-minute film "Blue Murder" starring Caroline Quentin that goes out on Friday 10th November at 9pm on ITV1. It's called "In Deep" and was filmed in Manchester and Liverpool. Caroline Quentin plays DCI Janine Lewis, head of a murder squad. It's a story of revenge and murder with a twist in the tale.

Colin is kept pretty busy these days and also has new radio play, a thriller set on the sleeper train between London Euston and Edinburgh Waverley, was recorded this week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) at Castle Sound Studios in Pencaitland, East Lothian. It's called "Killing The Butterfly" and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 2nd December at 2.30pm. It stars Simon Tait, who was in "King Of Hearts", which was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in February this year.

Colin MacDonald moved to Wick from Dornoch when he was in primary school and his family lived in West Banks Avenue. He left Wick when he was 17 and worked as a journalist first on the "Mearns Leader" in Stonehaven and then "The Press & Journal". He joined the BBC and was a news editor before going to the World Service and becoming its Scotland producer. He left the BBC to write full-time in 1985.
Since then he has written a stream of work for tv and radio.

Colin's previous works include -
Radio plays:
1986 Burning The Ballroom Down (BBC Radio Scotland, R4)
1987 The Colour of Summer (R4, BBC World Service, ABC Australia)
1991 Doing a Runner (R4)
1995 Hossack's Child (R4)
2004 Hill of Rains (R4)
2006 Killing the Butterfly (R4)

The Battle of The Airwaves (BBC Radio Scotland )
Bottle (BBC Radio Scotland )
Two Shadows Creeping (BBC Radio Scotland)
King of Hearts (BBC Radio Scotland)

Stage plays:
The Gowk Storm (Royal LyceumTheatre, Edinburgh)
The Heart of Saturday Night (Theatre PKF at the Traverse, Edinburgh)

Books:
Moon Mountain (Lunar Press)
All The Young Dudes (Pulteney Press)
Heartland (Exiles Press)

Television films:
The Dunroamin Rising (BBC One) Nominated as best single drama of the year by the Royal Television Society
The Gift (BBC One)
The Wreck On The Highway (BBC One)
Sharpe's Honour (Central Films/ITV)
The Real Thing * (BBC Scotland Schools) *also directed and produced
Simon's Challenge (BBC Schools)

Episodes in television series:
Making News (LWT/ITV)
Dr Finlay (Scottish/ITV)
The Tales of Para Handy (BBC One)
Blue Murder, ITV1, Fri 10 Nov, 9pm, with Caroline Quentin