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The National
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Mental health takes centre stage in powerful debut by young Scot
Written by 21-year-old Glaswegian Milly Sweeney, Water Colour is the winner of the St Andrews Playwriting Award and is directed by Sally Reid who played PC Sarah Fletcher in Scots Squad. Starring Molly Geddes and Ryan J Mackay, both fresh from the Netflix production of Lockerbie, it will open at Pitlochry on Friday before moving to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews at the end of the month. Sweeney told the Sunday National that the story was entirely fictional but the Clyde bridge drama had been a catalyst for tackling the issue of mental ill health. READ MORE: 'It's needed now more than ever': Thousands march in support of Scottish independence 'I found from talking to other people that these kinds of stories of helping strangers in their time of need are not really uncommon – it is more of a universal experience than I had anticipated,' she said. 'Something like one in four people will struggle with their mental health throughout their lifetime. There is increased awareness of mental ill health and more people are reaching out for help but the funding for getting these people help from the NHS has not mirrored that increase. 'They can't get the help they need and there are waiting lists and barriers to getting diagnoses so these are all things I was wanting to explore.' Sweeney said she herself had struggled with bouts of mental ill health as had some of her friends. (Image: Milly Sweeney) 'There is a general sense of hopelessness I feel in the world just now which is quite hard to ignore,' she said. One of the characters in the play is a budding artist who specialises in watercolour and Sweeney said she had been keen to explore the relationship between artists and mental illness. 'I think sometimes creative people are more susceptible to it but there have also been various studies on the positive impacts of the creative arts on mental health and that is again something we explore in the play.' Despite the subject matter, Sweeney said the overall message of the play was one of hope. 'Even in the murkiest of waters there is colour to be found so it is this idea that you can extract some sort of positivity from a dire situation,' she explained. 'If you sit with it long enough there is always colour to be found.' Although this is her professional playwriting debut, Sweeney has had a lot of experience in playwriting despite her young age, having joined Glasgow Acting Academy at the tender age of eight and attending regularly until she was 18 years old. 'I'm proud to have gone there and grateful to have had that as the staff pour pore so much love and effort into it,' she said. 'I write shows for young people there and I have a queer, female-led theatre company with my friends called Cuttin' Aboot. We produce original plays and I have been writing for them since we started. 'Having theatre is where I go to for my healing and recovery. Having something that you are passionate about and something to look forward to gives you the motivation to get well and get stronger. 'I also count myself very lucky to have a solid support system – kind, patient friends and family.' Sweeney added that she also felt very lucky to have won the St Andrews Playwriting Award when she had just graduated from New College in Lanarkshire. 'I still can't believe it is all happening the way it is,' she said. Director Sally Reid said she was thrilled to be going back to Pitlochry to direct Sweeney's debut play. 'The first time I read it, the characters sprang off the page and I was immersed in their vivid worlds,' she said. 'Milly's play delves quickly and succinctly into the heads and hearts of the characters as they navigate through the complexities of staying afloat in their young adult lives, surviving in Glasgow, a new city to both of them. It brings hope when the characters believe there is none and hopefully the audience will feel that sense of uplifting hope when they leave.' Water Colour is co-produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Byre Theatre and the Playwrights' Studio, Scotland and runs in the Studio at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from May 9-17 before heading to the Byre Theatre on May 28-29
BBC News
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Chief: Comedy police boss 'always digs himself into a hole'
In one of the most famous sketches from the hit comedy Scots Squad, chief of police Cameron Miekelson is seen at a press conference apologising to one offended group only to succeed in insulting a different beekeepers, bald men and the "avian community" get an apology as The Chief struggles to avoid using accidentally insulting turns of phrase."He just always digs himself into a hole," says actor Jack Docherty, who has been playing the character for more than a decade. "Sometimes you just want him to stop talking."For Docherty, the comedy comes from The Chief's failed attempts to say the right thing despite his desperate desire to be seen as "woke"."I think it is funnier if he accepts it and embraces it and then messes it up," he who rose to fame in Scottish sketch show Absolutely in the late 1980s, has played Chief Commissioner Miekelson in eight series of the BBC comedy show Scot Squad but now the top cop has finally got his own show."We want the fans of Scots Squad to come with us but this is a different thing," Docherty says. "It was a mock documentary but this is a sitcom. We are not improvising quite as much. It's a little bit more real world." Docherty says he wants the audience to feel like The Chief is more of a real character than he was in the sketch show. "I loved playing him behind that desk when he's being an enormous buffoon but I don't think you can be like that for an entire half an hour," he says."We thought it would be nice to see what that character is like at home."In the sitcom, he is reunited with his estranged daughter and his ex-wife (played by Lorraine McIntosh) also pops up to cause him problems. For Docherty, it's funny to see a senior officer whose life is totally policed by other work it is his deputy, Katriona Muldoon (played by Carmen Pieraccini), who is really in control as well as the head of diversity and inclusion who is on hand to try to stop Chief Miekelson putting his foot in home, his daughter is a climate activist who wants to control her father's home all this, The Chief is flailing around trying to remain relevant. "We wanted the idea that he is holding onto the cliff with his fingertips going 'don't sack me'," Docherty his flaws, he insists The Chief is a likeable character. "There are certain monstrous aspects of him because he's so pompous and he's so certain that he's right and everybody else is wrong but I think he is trying his best," he says. The Chief starts on Thursday 20 February on BBC Scotland at 10pm. All four episodes are available on BBC iPlayer from the 20th.
