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Daily Record
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Brian Cox takes on role of Adam Smith in new show set for Fringe
The Dundee-born star, who played fearsome media tycoon bully Logan Roy in TV hit Succession, is returning to Scotland for his scariest role in decades It was the banking disaster that brought an old Scottish institution to its knees and sent shockwaves around the globe in the worst financial collapse of modern times. Now actor Brian Cox has set his sights on tormenting the man responsible for it. The Dundee-born star, who played fearsome media tycoon bully Logan Roy in TV hit Succession, is returning to Scotland for his scariest role in decades – as a ghost of one of the country's most famous sons. And Fred 'The Shred' Goodwin is his target. Cox plays the spectre of Adam Smith, known as the father of modern economics, returning from beyond his 18th century grave to haunt Goodwin, who became one of the most reviled figures in modern Scottish history after his role in the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Smith was a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, when Edinburgh became a centre of modern philosophy, elevating figures like him, David Hume and James Hutton and their progressive view of civilisation on to the world stage and into history. And for the 79-year-old actor, haunting the shamed banker from beyond the grave is the theatre role of a lifetime. Cox, who suggested he played the part of Smith himself, said: ' Fred Goodwin was unbelievably self-serving with his singularity of purpose. He certainly wasn't serving his community. 'This guy said he was a follower of Adam Smith but he got it all wrong. Smith wrote two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and then The Wealth of Nations, which was all about how wealth is distributed and who it is distributed to. 'When people think about Adam Smith now, they often think it was all about economics. But it was also about moral welfare. And the reason Goodwin got it all wrong was because he only followed only the second book. He didn't see the books in relation to one another. And the degree of selfishness that Goodwin pursued almost destroyed the RBS.' Cox plays the ghost of the celebrated thinker in a new tragi-comedy by award-winning writer James Graham, opposite Sandy Grierson as the banker responsible for the financial cataclysm. Dubbed Make it Happen, the National Theatre of Scotland production opened on Friday in the actor's home town of Dundee, and transfers to Edinburgh for the International Festival next month. Cox said: 'It's 16 years since 2008 so there's enough time passed now to tell the story. It deals with Fred's election right through to his demise. James Graham's script is pure satire. It's brilliant. 'Adam Smith has been summoned as a spirit because Goodwin has made such a mess of things. He's been summoned up because he's the guy who holds the truth. It's told in an original way and it's very funny. Smith came from Kirkcaldy and he can't believe the town produced a prime minister in Gordon Brown. 'It shows the folly of human nature, how we simply don't progress, and how greed is such a curse of who we are. Always wanting more.' The impact of the so-called economic downturn of 2008 can still be felt today after Brown's government pumped £45billion into the stricken bank, recovering only £35billion since. Goodwin had his knighthood removed but retained his £700,000 pension. 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'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Playwright Graham describes watching the role of then-chancellor Alistair Darling with PM Brown as 'a huge Shakespearean rise and fall'. He said: 'It has always amazed me that there hasn't really been any change in society's model after 2008. We just limped on with the same structures. I wanted to examine that.' Cox moved to London from the US with his wife Nicole earlier this year but still gets emotional when talking about his home city. Despite major cultural successes such as Dundee Rep, the V&A Museum and Dundee Centre for Contemporary Arts, the city has suffered a rise in social problems, mainly linked to addiction. Last year a national report revealed a 92 per cent rise in drug-related deaths since 2013. Cox said: 'I've been critical about what's going on in Dundee and I can't keep my mouth shut about it. It goes back to the social engineering decades ago when they moved people out of the cities. 'They did it in Glasgow then they did it in Dundee. You lived with your neighbour for 40 years and then they moved you out and made sure those neighbours didn't live together again. 'A city is the people and when you move them into the outskirts it leads to drug addiction then criminality because that's what happens when there aren't enough community elements in place.' Cox has held the Tayside city close, filming BBC Scotland comedy Bob Servant there in the 2010s. He even shot an episode of Succession in the city but admits he was annoyed when Logan Roy's background was changed mid-series. He said: 'I always said he could be Scottish but they insisted American. For nine episodes he was from the States, and from the first episode we were celebrating his birthday and he gave a speech saying he had come from Quebec, which is obviously Canada, not the US. 'Then in the ninth episode of the first series, they suddenly tell me Logan's from Dundee. I was really angry about that. I went up to Jessie and asked him what was going on and he said, 'We thought it would be a little surprise.' Well it was a hell of a surprise. 'I've been playing the part in one direction and then in the ninth episode I'm suddenly a Dundonian. The thinking was that he left Dundee when he was three or four, as part of the transport of kids who went from Scotland to Canada at the start of the war. I accepted that. But it was ridiculous.' Cox is breaking unfamiliar ground with Make It Happen, testing his range in singing. "I have a duet with Sandy Grierson, apparently,' he said. 'I used to sing when I was younger, and my son is a very good singer but I got nervous about it when the acting all kicked off. I would have liked to have sung earlier on.' ● Make It Happen is at Dundee Rep until July 26 then at Edinburgh Festival Theatre from July 30 to August 9.
Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
James Graham on why the 2008 crash still defines our politics
Few British institutions have escaped James Graham's spotlight. The British playwright's 2017 West End hit 'Ink' examined Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper and the rise of tabloid journalism in Britain. Two years later came 'Brexit: The Uncivil War,' a televised drama dissecting the personalities and strategies behind Brexit's victorious Vote Leave campaign. In his acclaimed 2024 show 'Dear England,' Graham turned to soccer, telling the story of former England manager Gareth Southgate and the men's national team's impact on the country's psyche. In his forthcoming show 'Make It Happen,' starring "Succession" actor Brian Cox, Graham sets his sights on the Royal Bank of Scotland — which claimed one of the world's largest bailouts after collapsing under risky investments — and its role in the 2008 financial crash, the consequences of which he says remain acutely felt today. 'I've always been obsessed by that moment and why it happened,' he tells Reuters from Edinburgh, where the show is set to open on July 30. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Why tell the story of the 2008 crash now, and why through the Royal Bank of Scotland? I guess I feel the paralysis that a lot of people feel politically and culturally at the moment. Every 25 to 30 years, the West tends to go through these momentous moments of reset and rebirth. A new contract emerges from the collapse of one era and you arrive at a consensus in another one, whether that's World War II or the fall of the Berlin Wall. That didn't happen in 2008. It felt like we limped through the crisis and no new idea, no new proposition, emerged. Seventeen years on, we're still living in the shadow of that huge crisis — whether that was the decade of austerity in the UK or the stagnation in our politics (and) our public life that led to Brexit or (Donald) Trump in the U.S. I can't take any credit for the Scottish angle. The National Theatre of Scotland came to me to suggest the frame of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was at the time the biggest bank in the world (and) therefore needed the biggest bailout. Brian Cox came onboard and suggested that if we're going to do it as a Scottish story, to go all the way back to the Scottish Enlightenment and Adam Smith and the birth of this idea of free markets and modern-day capitalism. What was your experience of the crash like? I just moved to London. I was in my early 20s and I was finding my feet. I was very economically insecure, doing lots of part-time work in bars and factories and warehouses, trying to make my way as a writer. So I remember feeling quite a selfish, immediate fear. We'd been promised that this was the end of history and that everything was inevitably going to be a linear advancement towards progress and improvement. I remember having a visceral reaction — what is this going to mean for the arts, for theatre? I had no idea the longer, bigger crises and anger that was going to be coming down the line. It felt like a very American story: Lehman Brothers and images of people walking out of downtown Wall Street with boxes in their hands. I never saw Edinburgh Castle or Arthur's Seat or statues of Adam Smith, and I think that (Edinburgh) really was the epicenter of this — certainly for the UK, but for the world. All roads now, to me, clearly lead to that city. You credit Cox for bringing Adam Smith into the show. How does he feature? When he first said Adam Smith should be in it, we were having dinner, and it was the first time I'd ever met him. I didn't think he meant literally; I just thought it was Adam Smith's ideas, and I was like, well yeah sure, he's the father of modern economics. Of course he's going to be in it. And he went: 'No, no — in it as a character, and I want to play him.' I like looking at systems and processes and making sense of them in quite a literal, often humdrum way. So having this sort of magical quality in what I thought was going to be a play about corporate banking in Scotland immediately shocked me but rocked me in a great way. It expanded it into something slightly more operatic and gothic and mythic, and I think Edinburgh demands that in a way. It's a city full of ghosts; it's haunted. Its neoclassical architecture demands a drama of scale and of opera and of theatre. So I ran off with that and thought well of course, I can have Adam Smith appear as a ghost that's going to torture (former RBS chief) Fred Goodwin and challenge him about whether Adam Smith's ideas about markets and government regulations and capital and wealth have been misappropriated and weaponized. It's Dickensian, it's Greek. Edinburgh as a canvas gives you that permission to do something quite overtly theatrical. I was really grateful that Brian gave me what I thought initially was a really shit idea because it liberated me from men in suits talking about CDOs and futures. How do you think Scottish audiences will receive this story? I think about that a lot because the people in Edinburgh have to necessarily be a kind of character in it. I come from a mining village in Nottinghamshire of which there was one single industry and that was the mines and the pits. And when they closed, it felt like everybody was a character in that story, whether you worked down the pit or didn't. And it got to the point in which RBS — as a lender and a creditor but also as an employer and a symbol of Scottishness and of Edinburgh — turned the capital of Scotland into the capital of capital. It meant everybody was involved in that story, possibly in an uncomfortable way. Like all of us, we asked the question: In what way were we all complicit? Clearly, this was too good to be true and no one questioned it and we were very happy to take those mortgages when they were available to us. I'm fascinated to see the response from people in that city. I hope this is an empathetic way to look at what people understandably find a quite difficult chapter in their history. After dramatizing the works of Parliament, England's Football Association (FA), and now the banks, which institution do you think is the most broken? It's certainly not the FA. What I find really inspiring about the (former England manager) Gareth Southgate story is it's almost the one singular example I can find in our national life over the past 10 years where an individual or a group has gone into a place and recognized its flaws and its weaknesses but also seen its potential and its opportunity. I know he's got his detractors because he didn't win the World Cup, but he took something that everyone was feeling really bad about and that was in a pretty constant decline and went on the most successful regeneration that's ever happened in its history, and he did that by telling a better story about ourselves. I find it fascinating that (UK Prime Minister) Keir Starmer used a lot of Gareth Southgate's language when he tried to come into power. I think he sees in Gareth Southgate's language this idea that we need to write a new story. I think Keir will be the first person to say that even though he recognizes that's the challenge, what that new story is (has) yet to be identified, and I think that's the case across our institutions. I look at every other part of our national life when it comes to government, our news, or our culture and certainly our finances — none of it feels like it's able to reset and regenerate. What role do you think theatre plays in shaping public conversation today, particularly amid so much division? The thing that frightens me the most, which feels so insurmountable, is the fundamental threats to reality itself. Every other challenge, whether it's foreign policy or domestic policy — I think, well, we can probably tackle all that. But the thing I don't know how anyone even begins to fix is the shift in a commonly accepted reality amongst all of us. The real superpower of theatre, of course, is (that) it demands physical proximity in a space and you just have to be one community and you have to turn your phone off for two-and-a-half hours and share a reality. Theatre demands we see the same thing together and I think that's so socially important, probably more important than it's almost ever been. 'Make It Happen' is billed as a fictionalized satire. What does humor allow you to do that drama doesn't? It's historically a very effective weapon in liberating the tension from something and giving you permission to breathe as an audience. All these moments, especially this one, have a real human cost to it — whether it's your pension that you lost or your job or your small business or your reputation. But there are always natural absurdities in these stories as well, especially when they're of that scale. The hubris of it, the size in which that bank grew itself seems so obviously reckless now. There is a natural absurdity to the human foibles and the human condition that I think it's almost kinder to laugh at and roll your eyes at ... We do need to be able to laugh at ourselves, even if it's through grimaces and winces.
Daily Record
16-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
Revamp complete at Ayr's Queen's Court as retail units available for let
The "unloved and unoccupied" Queen's Court Arcade in Ayr has received a facelift and the owners are now seeking new businesses to move in. An "unloved and unoccupied" retail centre in Ayr has been refurbished and is now ready to welcome new businesses to the town centre. Units at the Victoria era Queen's Court arcade have been "sympathetically" revamped and are now available for let. Retail, leisure and office spaces as well as a 50-cover restaurant are all available at the centre which has faced challenges in recent years. However, new owners have come in and are now looking to give Queen's Court a new lease of life. Already confirmed in the refurbished arcade are Puck Espressoo, an independent coffee brand, opening this month as well as an unnamed clothing retailer and a hair salon. Based between the Sandgate and Newmarket Street, Queen's Court was originally built as a stable block. A variety of spaces are available from £5,000 per year. Market the available units are chartered surveyors DM Hall. Anthony Zdanowicz from DM Hall said: 'Queen's Court is a fine example of elegant Victorian architecture which, sadly, had been lying unloved and unoccupied for some years. 'Since it passed into new ownership, however, it has undergone a renaissance and retail, leisure and office units are now available for lease, several of which are already under offer. 'The Royal Bank of Scotland is located opposite Queen's Court and the local area is characterised by a mix of quality retail leisure, licensed and professional businesses. 'Most properties in Queen's Court qualify for full business rates relief and are competitively priced, with flexible terms available, ideal for local business owners. 'The owners are open to a variety of uses that will add to an artisanal mix and would be delighted to show interested parties around in what will be a rejuvenated town centre experience. 'Anyone requiring further information should contact me, Anthony Zdanowicz, or call 07768 031 297.'
The National
08-07-2025
- Business
- The National
Business confidence in Scotland at highest level in 8 months
The private sector also saw its strongest rise in activity since November, the bank's growth tracker found. BUSINESS confidence has risen to its highest level in eight months, according to a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) survey. Overall, the combined output of Scotland's manufacturing and service sectors rose from a score of 50.5 in May to 50.9 in June. It marks the second consecutive monthly rise in business activity. READ MORE: 'What do they stand for?': What we learned about Labour from new poll of 7000 voters RBS said that while the uptick was modest overall, it was the strongest since November 2024. The growth was driven entirely by the services sector with new project funding and a rise in demand underscoring the uptick. Manufacturing continued to fall sharply, the tracker found. Overall, business confidence improved to its highest level of optimism in eight months. Judith Cruickshank, chair of the One Bank Scotland Board, said: 'Scotland's private sector recorded a sustained uptick in activity at the end of the second quarter, with growth predominantly driven by service providers. 'In contrast, the manufacturing sector faced a challenging demand environment, leading to overall declines in new business and production. 'Despite these sectoral differences, firms exhibited increased optimism about the future, with manufacturers reporting positive growth forecasts for the first time in three months. 'In June, private sector firms encountered sharply rising operating costs, but selling price inflation slowed notably. This suggests a willingness among businesses to absorb some costs to bolster sales. 'The employment landscape remained broadly stable compared to the previous month, with sector data continuing to highlight diverging trends between manufacturers and service providers.' The UK as a whole saw output growth rise to a nine-month high, the tracker found, driven by expansions in business activity across eight of the 12 nations and regions monitored by the survey. Companies in Scotland recorded a ninth successive monthly fall in incoming new orders during June. The reduction in new work was centred on the manufacturing sector as services firms reported another expansion. UK-wide, new business rose for the first time in seven months. In Scotland, private sector companies remained optimistic about the year-ahead for activity in June. The degree of positive sentiment rose for a third straight month to the highest since October but was weaker than that recorded for the UK as a whole. Confidence across Scotland was supported by plans to introduce new product lines, improved operational performance, and strategic marketing efforts, the survey found. And after a slight rise in employment in May, Scotland's workforce numbers were broadly unchanged in June. Services firms reported increases in staffing levels amid upturns in new business and activity. However, this was offset by another month of job shedding at manufacturers. A near universal fall in headcounts was also recorded across the 12 monitored UK regions and nations, with Northern Ireland being the sole exception. Among the remaining areas, Scotland experienced the least pronounced drop in employment and one that was only 'fractional', RBS said. Since mid-2024, Scottish firms have continued to record a drop in backlogs of work, although June's rate of depletion was the weakest in eight months. RBS said that the fall is driven by a lack of orders in manufacturing which has allowed firms to complete outstanding orders. According to the survey, Scottish firms signalled another marked increase in average input costs during June. It found the rate of inflation quickened from May and was 'historically elevated'. Survey respondents often reported higher costs for materials, labour and energy, as well as rising supplier prices. READ MORE: Ancient neolithic festival site unearthed ahead of planned football pitches However, the rise was less pronounced in Scotland compared to the UK as a whole. Firms north of the order also raised their output prices at a reduced rate in June. RBS described the latest increase in charges as 'solid' but still amounted to the slowest rate in 11 months and was similar to the UK-wide average. Where higher charges were recorded, they were primarily attributed to the pass-through of increased operating expenses to customers.
STV News
08-07-2025
- Business
- STV News
Business confidence at highest level in eight months, RBS finds
Business confidence has risen to its highest level in eight months, according to a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) survey. The private sector also saw its strongest rise in activity since November, the bank's growth tracker found. Overall, the combined output of Scotland's manufacturing and service sectors rose from a score of 50.5 in May to 50.9 in June. It marks the second consecutive monthly rise in business activity. RBS said that while the uptick was modest overall, it was the strongest since November 2024. The growth was driven entirely by the services sector with new project funding and a rise in demand underscoring the uptick. Manufacturing continued to fall sharply, the tracker found. Overall, business confidence improved to its highest level of optimism in eight months. Judith Cruickshank, chair of the One Bank Scotland Board, said: 'Scotland's private sector recorded a sustained uptick in activity at the end of the second quarter, with growth predominantly driven by service providers. 'In contrast, the manufacturing sector faced a challenging demand environment, leading to overall declines in new business and production. 'Despite these sectoral differences, firms exhibited increased optimism about the future, with manufacturers reporting positive growth forecasts for the first time in three months. 'In June, private sector firms encountered sharply rising operating costs, but selling price inflation slowed notably. This suggests a willingness among businesses to absorb some costs to bolster sales. 'The employment landscape remained broadly stable compared to the previous month, with sector data continuing to highlight diverging trends between manufacturers and service providers.' The UK as a whole saw output growth rise to a nine-month high, the tracker found, driven by expansions in business activity across eight of the 12 nations and regions monitored by the survey. Companies in Scotland recorded a ninth successive monthly fall in incoming new orders during June. The reduction in new work was centred on the manufacturing sector as services firms reported another expansion. UK-wide, new business rose for the first time in seven months. In Scotland, private sector companies remained optimistic about the year-ahead for activity in June. The degree of positive sentiment rose for a third straight month to the highest since October but was weaker than that recorded for the UK as a whole. Confidence across Scotland was supported by plans to introduce new product lines, improved operational performance, and strategic marketing efforts, the survey found. And after a slight rise in employment in May, Scotland's workforce numbers were broadly unchanged in June. Services firms reported increases in staffing levels amid upturns in new business and activity. However, this was offset by another month of job shedding at manufacturers. A near universal fall in headcounts was also recorded across the 12 monitored UK regions and nations, with Northern Ireland being the sole exception. Among the remaining areas, Scotland experienced the least pronounced drop in employment and one that was only 'fractional', RBS said. Since mid-2024, Scottish firms have continued to record a drop in backlogs of work, although June's rate of depletion was the weakest in eight months. RBS said that the fall is driven by a lack of orders in manufacturing which has allowed firms to complete outstanding orders. According to the survey, Scottish firms signalled another marked increase in average input costs during June. It found the rate of inflation quickened from May and was 'historically elevated'. Survey respondents often reported higher costs for materials, labour and energy, as well as rising supplier prices. However, the rise was less pronounced in Scotland compared to the UK as a whole. Firms north of the order also raised their output prices at a reduced rate in June. RBS described said the latest increase in charges was 'solid' but still amounted to the slowest rate in 11 months and was similar to the UK-wide average. Where higher charges were recorded, they were primarily attributed to the pass-through of increased operating expenses to customers. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
