Put your questions to Czar of Hearts production team
Over the past two months, BBC Scotland's Romanov: Czar of Hearts podcast has detailed the story of Hearts, Vladimir Romanov and everything in between.The series has taken the audience on a rollercoaster ride from Romanov saving the club to almost killing it.Now you have the chance to ask host Martin Geissler and the team any questions you have about the work on the show across all 10 episodes.From tracking down Romanov to anything unexpected they may have discovered, send us your questions here and a selection will be answered on this page in the coming days.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
2 days ago
- Powys County Times
BBC Radio Scotland presenter Bryan Burnett announces cancer diagnosis
BBC Radio Scotland presenter Bryan Burnett has announced that he will be taking a break from his presenting role following a cancer diagnosis. The broadcaster, 59, announced on Thursday that he would be stepping back from his early evening programme Get It On to undergo appendiceal cancer treatment. Speaking on air, he said the tumour was first discovered earlier this year while he was having surgery to remove his appendix. He said: 'Appendix cancer is incredibly rare but the good news is it is treatable, but I do have to have some fairly hefty abdominal surgery next week. 'It's going to mean I am going to be off work for a couple of months and you know how hard I will find that. However, I'm expected to make a full recovery, which is good news, and will be back on air, on the show that I truly love, later in the year. 'Those of you who are regular listeners know that we are such a close team on Get It On, so I also want to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to my brilliant producers for all the hand-holding and encouragement they've given me since they found out my news. I'm sure they will let you know how I'm doing over the next few weeks.' In a statement he said his treatment will begin next week and will involve abdominal surgery and chemotherapy. Burnett said: 'I've experienced the most incredible care and kindness from the NHS staff who have been looking after me. 'My surgeon is a Get It On listener so I know I'm in good hands. 'I will really miss the music and the chat when I'm off but our listeners have given me hundreds of great playlists so that will keep me going over the next few months.' Broadcaster Grant Stott will step in to present the show in his absence. Hayley Valentine, director BBC Scotland, said: 'Bryan is one of our most popular broadcasters on Radio Scotland and I know listeners will join us in wishing him well as he embarks on his treatment. 'We look forward to welcoming him back to the Get It On studio once he's recovered.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
'Honoured' Gordon awarded testimonial match against Sunderland
Craig Gordon's testimonial match will see Hearts face newly-promoted Premier League side Sunderland at Tynecastle next Scottish Premiership club say 42-year-old goalkeeper Gordon has "earned legendary status" after racking up 330 appearances across two Scotland international, and the nation's fourth-most capped player, left Hearts in 2007 for Sunderland, who will visit Tynecastle on Saturday, 26 July."It's a great honour to be granted a testimonial year with the club that I grew up supporting," Gordon said. "The club I have given my all for, the club that I love."Throughout my career I've won trophies, played at the highest level and represented my country, but what fills me with pride the most is pulling on that Hearts jersey and walking out in front of our fans. "To be able to share a testimonial year with our supporters is very special to me. It's also particularly pleasing to look forward to welcoming Sunderland to Tynecastle. "I enjoyed some great times at the Stadium of Light and they hold a special place in my heart."
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Crook who wanted to sell Scottish tea to China is like Ealing comedy
Here's how the synopsis runs. Act 1. Cheeky, confident, former professional rugby player, army officer and acclaimed polymer scientist Tam O' Braan sets up home in a cosy Perthshire village where he establishes a tea-growing estate, The Wee Tea Plantation, on which his home-grown plants are encouraged to rise in defiance of the Scottish climate by a special biodegradable polymer and controlled UV light. This pioneer of our very own tea empire, who once worked for Barack Obama's US government on a major maize project, then produces a very special Scottish tea, a fragrance which hints at Bannockburn, Oor Wullie and indeed the spirit of Muriel Spark. O'Braan then proceeds to sell his home-grown plants onto many other hopeful growers, whom he convinces that the world will embrace their Scottish tea in the way it has whisky, Billy Connolly, and anything with a Tunnock's label attached. But O'Braan doesn't simply sell plants. He takes examples of his heather and thistle infused blends – with names such as Scottish Antlers Tea and Highland Green, and sells the leaf tea to a huge range of upmarket clients such as the Balmoral Hotel and The Dorchester in London, while describing his tasty cuppa as 'the Queen's favourite'. And he makes an absolute packet. The tea man doesn't stop there. The hob kettle that is his publicity machine almost boils over; BBC Scotland offer coverage; John Swinney views his product. More and more hopeful growers buy up his plants. The story has all the hallmarks of Passport to Pimlico independence and defiance. It's as cleverly organised as whisky capture in Whisky Galore. O' Braan's enterprise suggests the precision and wonder of the string quartet who took over Mrs Wilberforce's home in The Ladykillers. He even announces plans to sell his tea to China. Act 2. O'Braan becomes a celebrity, and sales rocketed. Between 2015 and 2018 he supplied 22,000 plants to growers in Scotland at £12.50 each. His loose tea was gulped down by the rich and famous. Tam O'Braan was brewing up to becoming Scotland's first tea millionaire since Thomas Lipton. This was the stuff of Ealing movies indeed, with themes such as community, dreams and ordinary people having the option to create extraordinary lives. However, Ealing stories never, ever turn out how as expected, the initial cosiness often turning dark as a winter's night on Lewis. The new community of tea growers discovered that Scotland isn't the easiest place to keep his plants alive; after battling for seven years, one Perthshire family managed to harvest less than 4oz of finished tea. This was now a Kind Hearts and Coronets tale. Dreams were being murdered one by one. Suspicions arose. A wily Food Standards detective – a Mrs Wilberforce figure (but without the Victorian frock coat and the flat hat with flowers attached) – began to investigate the tale. A tea expert was brought in, who confirmed that tea plants deprived of UV light would in fact die like orchids in a desert. The Ealing Comedy classic The Ladykillers (Image: free) And when the Scottish Mrs Wilberforce attempted to ascertain the provenance of the original plants – and indeed O'Braan himself – he claimed certificates were lost in a flood of near biblical proportions which washed away part of his cottage. Eventually, the 55-year-old did admit the original plants (bought for £3 each) may have originated from Italy. But they became Scottish he argued, as the roots had been sunk into Scottish soil. It was argument not even the most desperate failed asylum seeker has ever made. With their plants wilting like an end-of-season football team in the final seconds of injury time, angry purchasers demanded the Wee Tea plants be tested. Incredibly, O'Braan sold a story to the local press saying thousands of plants had been stolen. (A series of tea leaves with a fleet of tractors perhaps?) And his digital records were destroyed when his IT advisor mistakenly switched off his account. When Mrs Wilberforce investigated further, he discovered that the special polymer conversion kit was little more than a black bin liner. Going into overdrive, the agency detective discovered that O'Braan was a 'stage name'. was in fact Thomas Robinson who sometimes called himself Tom O'Brien or Thomas James. And he wasn't Irish at all but was born in Greenwich, England. Robinson had in fact imported the tea plants from Italy, before showing them on to the likes of buyers for Fortnum and Mason of London. Read more Meanwhile he sold more than a tonne of his loose tea, bought from Malawi and China for 100 times more than cost. And didn't Ealing comedies always satirise greed? But in a way, the Wee Tea company tale reminds us we need stories such as this to spring from the ground. They are a fantastic warning that we can all so easily be conned. It's a story that confirms we shouldn't be sold on Scottishness alone. On hope. Yet, while we felt an element of sympathy for most of the Ealing villains, (even murderer Denis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets) what of Robinson, the charismatic fantasist, the pathological liar and conman who received a lengthy custodial sentence? Not at all. He hurt the Scottish tea industry and propagated nothing more than wrecked dreams. 'I wanted to leave something that would stand in the history of tea,' he said in the dock. And he has. The history of tea in Scotland now has an Ealing of a story. And I fancy Alan Cumming for the lead role.
