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Daily Record
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Inside ITV Taggart cast's lives now from new careers, health battles and heartbreaking tragedy
The ITV Glasgow based police drama became one of the UK's longest-running television programmes having first aired in 1983 and ended in 2010 after 110 episodes and 27 seasons. Scottish ITV series Taggart was known as one of the UK's longest running shows, airing from 1983 until it was finally axed in 2010. The hit programme, which had a total of 27 seasons, followed a group of detectives as they solved crimes around Glasgow. Taggart tethered on the brink of cancellation in 2009 despite still bringing in a whopping 5.2m viewers. The show aired its last episode after a run of 110 episodes, prompting an announcement on the Taggart website: "This programme is now over." But where are the cast now? Here we take a look back at some of the beloved fan favourites from the Taggart cast which long time viewers are sure to recognise. Here is what they have been up to since the show came to an end from personal tragedies and heartbreak to new day jobs. Mark McManus Mark McManus found fame as the tough DCI Jim Taggart when the series premiered in 1983. McManus, who stumbled upon acting without any grand aspirations, famously acknowledged: "I had no great talent as an actor, but I learned the techniques and applied myself." The actor became known for his famous catchphrase: "There's been a murder". McManus sadly passed away following pneumonia complications in 1994 at the age of 59. Alastair Duncan Alastair Duncan made a splash in 1983 as DS Peter Livingstone, partner to Mark McManus's character on the beloved detective show. However, the Edinburgh-born actor had bigger aspirations and left Taggart behind for a career in Hollywood. His credits include appearances on hit shows like Mad Men and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and he later ventured into voice acting for video games. After divorcing Breaking Bad actress Anna Gunn in 2008, the father of two stepped back from the spotlight, opting to sell luxury properties in Hollywood instead. He previously shared with The Sun: "I sell Hollywood homes." There were even whispers suggesting the actor-turned-businessman now lives among Hollywood elites like Bruno Mars and Charlize Theron. Iain Anders Iain Anders became part of the Taggart ensemble back in 1985, stepping into the shoes of Superintendent Jack McVitie, earning himself the cheeky moniker "The Biscuit" along the way. The actor graced 40 episodes before his untimely passing in 1997 at the age of 64. James MacPherson James Macpherson stepped into the sidekick role as a detective after Alastair Duncan's departure. Following the death of Mark McManus in 1994, James advanced to become DCI Michael Jardine, only to leave in 2002 following health concerns involving a collapsed lung. In the aftermath, James established an acting company with actress Emma Currie and featured in numerous theatre productions. More recently, he notably voiced the biography of Sir Alex Ferguson. Blythe Duff Blythe Duff remained on Taggart for an impressive 31 years, becoming one of its longest-standing cast members shortly after James MacPherson. She brought WPC Jackie Reid to life, holding the role close to her heart, as she expressed to the Scots Magazine: "I liked the character. She was straightforward, unfussy and a big part of my life. I had a good amount of input on set and I guarded the character ferociously." Beyond the screen, Blythe even tied the knot with a police officer and later pursued roles on the West End. Her recent credits include portraying Professor Minerva McGonagall in 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'. John Michie John took on the role of DI Robbie Ross in 1998 and stayed with the show until it wrapped up. The actor is perhaps the most recognisable in the soap world, having transitioned from solving murders in Maryhill to walking the cobbles on Coronation Street and navigating hospital wards in Holby City. John experienced a devastating family loss when his 24-year-old daughter Louella passed away at Bestival in Dorset after consuming recreational drugs. Alex Norton Alex is best known for his portrayal of the straight-talking DCI Matt Burke in Taggart from 2002 until the show's end. The actor has had a successful career, featuring in high-profile films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Les Miserables and Braveheart. Alex has also made appearances on BBC's Waterloo Road. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. Colin McCredie In 1995, Colin joined the Taggart squad as DC Stuart Fraser, securing his prominent role. He continued with the show until its conclusion in 2010 and has since featured in the soap opera River City. In 2014, Colin also made an appearance on CBeebies in the series Woolly and Tig, acting alongside his young daughter.
The National
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Andrew Tickell: The consequences of axing River City are not trivial
Having mastered the art of keeping still and turning the right shade of green, juvenile artistes became credible candidates for your actual vertical and breathing roles as one of the long-running series' suspects and perpetrators. Speaking parts as stabber rather than stabbee sometimes followed. But even if you had to do it with a mortuary tag around your big toe, that first big on-screen credit got your foot in the door (and sometimes other parts of your anatomy). Sometimes it also helped you reach a very large audience. I've a vivid but decidedly strange memory of turning on the TV in Germany some time in the early 2000s, only to be greeted by Mark McManus's sour puss and Maggie Bell's No Mean City soundtrack creaking out over the iconic aerial shots panning out over the Glasgow skyline from the Campsies. There might as well be a statutory requirement to describe the show as 'gritty'. It certainly projected a particular version of Scotland's largest city to the world, but one that usually managed to blend that characteristically Scottish combination of jaundice, pathos, and mordant good humour. Even with our dramatically declining murder rate, we're still swithering about what version of ourselves to give the world. READ MORE: River City star 'overwhelmed' as Holyrood debates iconic soap's future A significant number of Hollywood careers kicked off for young actors who began their working lives as suspects under investigation by Maryhill CID, including Dougray Scott, Billy Boyd, Ashley Jensen and Alan Cumming – to pick out just a handful of the Scottish actors who put in a turn in the series over the eventful 40-year period it ran on STV. It's a reminder that everyone needs to start somewhere. For many Scottish actors, these indigenous opportunities to gain experience, demonstrate their talent, and catch a casting agent's eye have made all the difference between a long-running career reaching international audiences and ending up as an almost-made-it, saw-it-briefly-in-the-distance, or a never-was. Not everybody made it off the forensic slab – but many did. It's also a reminder that creative opportunities all have a material basis. Can I do my job where I live, or are all the opportunities reserved for people somewhere else? Do I need to change my life in order to pursue these ambitions? And if all the money and the opportunities end up being concentrated elsewhere, why is this the case? Who decided it should be so? There's an awful tendency to look at all this as an accident of economic demands and costs. But as is so often the case in the UK, the fight for what we quaintly describe as 'regional investment and recognition' strains against the many and varied centrifugal forces trying to drag every penny towards the south of England at the expense of everywhere else. Just over a month ago, BBC Scotland announced it would be scrapping its flagship soap River City in the autumn of 2026. Filmed in Dumbarton and first premiered in 2002, the soap opera is set in the fictional Shieldinch distinct of Glasgow and has provided solid work and local opportunities not only for local character actors, but for emerging generations of writers, directors and other freelancers, drafted in over the years to keep this longstanding soap on the air. Over the years, it has blended serious storylines on tricky topics including stalking and domestic abuse with humorous character work in the best Scottish tradition. Old theatre hands have done a dramatic turn in it during their seventh decades, giving their careers an unexpected last act on air. Presumably in response to a shrinking audience, the show has increasingly leaned into boring and basically undramatic preoccupation with gangsters. Like almost all Scottish broadcasting, its depiction of any colourably middle-class character is palpably ludicrous, extravagant, and unrecognisable. But within these constraints, it is clear it has created real opportunities and material benefits for the sector. Last week in Holyrood, MSPs ventilated concerns that the decision 'will have a disproportionately negative impact on performers in Scotland', uprooting established training resources and opportunities for budding creatives in front of and behind the camera to test their wares. Others have described the decision as 'cultural vandalism.' It was reported this week that over the last couple of years, more than 20 Scottish screenwriters got their first on-screen credit thanks to River City. Quite a few of them are graduates, taught by my colleagues in Glasgow Caledonian University's Media and Journalism department. READ MORE: BBC Scotland accused of 'snobbery and classism' over River City axing Behind the camera, the show has become a pipeline opportunity for budding directors, cutting their teeth on the show's half-hour episodes, able to go out to market with this experience under their belts. This isn't just true of the talent in front of the cameras, but all the invisible hands, drafting the dialogue, cutting the scripts, and directing the cameras behind the scenes. In a risk-averse commercial broadcasting culture with an oversupply of content and limited opportunities to stick it on telly and online, nobody is going to blow millions commissioning an untried and untested first script by an unknown quantity with no track record and no history of success. Try knocking together a 28-minute script, show us that you can work within the established forms and create drama from pre-existing characters by finding their voices and using the limited sets and settings to tell new stories – that's the kind of byline a budding new writer can realistically aspire to, and if it goes well, parlay into future credibility and work. Justifying the decision to close the show next year, a BBC Scotland spokesperson said: 'As viewing patterns change and competition intensifies, this is the right time to invest in the next generation of high-impact drama series from across Scotland showcasing storytelling across the UK. Our goal is to grow Scotland further on the global drama map – with a slate of world-class productions that set the standard not just here but internationally too.' You may not, I suppose, find it particularly encouraging that the people tasked with assessing dramatic work talk and think in what might as well be AI-generated gobbledegook like this. But you can understand the sector's scepticism in the face of these amorphous and unstructured kinds of ambitions. 'Always keep tight hold of nurse for fear of finding something worse' isn't always a bad motto. Cancellations are always concrete. Promises of future investment are speculative and unrealised. You know what you're losing. You can't be sure what you might gain. READ MORE: 'Hammer blow': River City editor issues warning for Scotland as BBC axes show Fire up BBC iPlayer, and BBC Scotland's output is currently made up of odds and sods of news programmes. Cultural programming might as well not exist. Food and drink are scantily covered. Original drama is at best episodic and occasional. In the last decade, the intellectual level of news coverage has appreciably fallen. Presenters without an intellectual hinterland increasingly predominate. The landing page on BBC Scotland News feels increasingly static, often spotlighting stories of breathtaking triviality. The potential consequences of this are not trivial. What is the consequence of never seeing the life you live dramatically represented? What does it do to your sense of self, that the sounds and cadences of your everyday life are almost never captured or encountered in any kind of art and drama? What does it do to people, to be allowed only to live imaginatively in a whole series of elsewheres, as if life is only dramatic when it doesn't resemble your life, and nobody who is depicted in it looks or sounds remotely like anyone you know?
Chicago Tribune
12-03-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
St. Patrick's Day 2025: Where to watch Chicago River dyeing and parades
The Saturday before St. Patrick's Day means green will be seen all around the city — including the Chicago River. Here's what you need to know if you plan to catch a parade or the river-dyeing process. The dyeing process starts Saturday morning (usually at 10 a.m.) and stretches from Orleans Street almost three-quarters of a mile east to Columbus Drive. The task usually takes 45 minutes to complete. Spectators can watch along Upper Wacker Drive. The Riverwalk will be closed starting Friday night and reopen Sunday. Bridges will be closed to spectators during river dyeing except for Orleans Street and Columbus and LaSalle drives, which will remain open to vehicles and pedestrians. Want to take a ride on the newly tinted water? Depending on which direction the wind is blowing, the water can stay green for up to a few days. Chicago Water Taxi begins its seasonal service Saturday. Wendella, Chicago's First Lady and Shoreline Sightseeing also offer a variety of tours. That one time the river was dyed blue A crew dyed the Chicago River blue in 2016 to celebrate the World Series champion Cubs on the day of the team's victory parade and celebration. What's the weather forecast? Saturday will be partly sunny but very windy — with gusts up to more than 45 mph at times — and highs in the mid-60s, according to the National Weather Service Chicago office. When does the downtown St. Patrick's Day Parade take place? There is about a two-hour gap between when dyeing of the Chicago River begins and the parade — which is in its 70th year — steps off. Starting at 11 a.m., spectators can only access the parade route via Jackson Boulevard and Ida B. Wells Drive. All bags and purses will be checked at these entrances. Leave coolers, alcoholic beverages and water bottles at home. VIP seating is sold out. Day: Saturday Start time: 12:15 p.m. Stepping off from: The corner of Columbus and Balbo drives and heading north on Columbus about a half-mile to Monroe Street. Road closures: Columbus Drive will be closed to vehicles from Wacker Drive south to Roosevelt Road starting at 8 a.m. Saturday. Theme: 'Trades, technology and education' Grand marshal: Mark McManus, general president of United Association Guest of honor: Mary Ellen Caron, CEO of After School Matters Queen: Cara Walsh Watching from home? Tune into WLS-Ch. 7 's livestream. Details for other parades in the city: Archer Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade: Starts at noon at Archer and Oak Park Avenues and will march east to Merrimac Avenue. Northwest Side Irish Parade: Starts at noon Sunday at 6634 W. Raven St. (outside William J. Onahan Elementary School), then proceeds south on Neola Avenue to Northwest Highway, then north on Northwest Highway to Harlem Avenue. South Side Irish Parade: Starts at noon Sunday at the intersection of 103rd Street and Western Avenue, then proceeds south on Western to 115th Street. Vintage Chicago Tribune: The city's St. Patrick's Day traditions What's the best way to get downtown Saturday? Due to expected large crowds and street closures, organizers say plan extra time to travel to these events and consider using public transportation. Chicago Transit Authority Unlimited ride passes are available for one day ($5) and can be purchased through the Ventra app. Check out for bus and rail fare information, route schedules and maps. Rail lines: Red Line: Exit at Monroe station and walk a few blocks east. Blue Line: Exit at Washington station and walk a few blocks east. Elevated lines (Brown, Green, Pink or Orange): Exit at Washington/Wabash or Adams/Wabash stations. Buses: Road closures will cause reroutes. Metra Metra offers two weekend-pass options. Unlimited rides on Saturday or Sunday are $7. Up to three children age 11 and under can ride free with each fare-paying adult. A weekend pass includes unlimited rides for $10, available only in the Ventra app. Six Metra lines connect to Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center. One connects to LaSalle Street Station. Check for route schedules and maps. Alcohol and bicycles are not permitted Saturday for all lines and Sunday on Rock Island trains.
CBS News
30-01-2025
- General
- CBS News
4 Maryland labor union members presumed dead after plane crash near Washington, D.C.
BALTIMORE -- Four members of a Prince George's County-based labor union were onboard a plane that collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday in Washington D.C., and are now presumed dead, union leaders said in a social media post. The plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, and the Black Hawk helicopter was carrying three soldiers when they collided near Reagan National Airport, CBS News reported. On Thursday, around 8 a.m., D.C. Fire and EMS officials said at least 28 bodies had been recovered and they did not believe there were any survivors, making the incident the deadliest U.S. air crash in nearly a quarter century. Leaders of Steamfitters United Association Local 602 confirmed Thursday that four members were among the victims in the crash. The union represents workers in the heating, air conditioning, refrigeration and process piping industries in the D.C. Metro area. "Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers as we continue to gather more information in the coming days," General President Mark McManus and Business Manager Chris Madello said in a statement. "These members will be forever in our hearts, and may God bless them and their loved ones," the statement read. Maryland officials assist with response Officials from across Maryland responded to the crash Wednesday and were on the scene Thursday to help with the search effort. The Maryland Department of Emergency Management raised the state's activation level to "partial" early Thursday morning and Maryland State Police deployed divers to help. Anne Arundel County Fire officials said they sent 15 members and two boats to the scene, including divers, special operators and administrative staff. Maryland Natural Resource Police also sent patrol vessels along with its Aviation Unit and Underwater Operation Team. Crews remained on the scene Thursday morning to assist with recovery efforts, officials said. The Baltimore Police Department sent its Underwater Recovery & Dive Teams. D.C. Fire and EMS officials thanked first responders from around the state for helping in the emergency response, including Baltimore City Police and Charles County Fire.
