麻豆社

Peter McDougall鈥檚 unstoppable talent transformed British television in the 1970s. The stories based on McDougall鈥檚 life in Glasgow brought fresh, working class voices to the small screen and caused controversy for their depiction of violence and bigotry.

After years working in Glasgow鈥檚 struggling shipbuilding industry, McDougall moved to London and worked as a painter and decorator. It was whilst painting the house of Colin Welland (then the star of Z Cars) that McDougall was encouraged to commit his stories to the page. McDougall admits 鈥淚 didnae know how to write, so I spelt everything the way it sounded. I didnae have an outline to write to, naebody showed me a script.鈥� Yet despite knowing nothing of screenwriting, McDougall wrote his successful first script, Just Another Saturday. The 麻豆社 hesitated initially and it was McDougall鈥檚 second script Just Your Luck that was first produced and broadcast in 1972.

Just Your Luck tells the story of a Protestant teenager who becomes pregnant to a Catholic sailor and many of the characters are based on McDougall鈥檚 own family. He recalls, 鈥渢here is a rawness about that piece of work and an honesty and truthfulness that is telt in the characters who were relentless and unforgiving and that is exactly what they were like.鈥�

With the success of Just Your Luck, Just Another Saturday was commissioned and director John Mackenzie claims the final film barely needed altered from the original script. Just Another Saturday won the Prix Italia and McDougall went on to subsequent successes The Elephant Graveyard (1976), Just a Boy鈥檚 Game (1979) and Down Among the Big Boys (1993).