Irvine Welsh

After his pivotal novel Trainspotting was published in 1993, the debut work of Irvine Welsh quickly took the world by storm, spawning theatre productions, the iconic film by Danny Boyle, sequels and even an acclaimed stage musical.

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The incredible stories of how some of Scottish football’s biggest stars made their names on the pitch... and off it.

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Wiz's Weekender (1992) was a film ahead of its time, both in form and content. It engaged with contemporary issues that mainstream media were eager to sensationalise. Consequently, it was branded with an 18 certificate and banned by both the BBC and ITV, never reaching a wider audience. For the past three decades, Weekender has bubbled just below the surface, gaining genuine cult status and influencing a vast network of creators. In the run-up to its thirtieth anniversary filmmakers Tabitha Denholm and Adam Dunlop interviewed people involved in the project. I Am Weekender is built around those conversations.

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The big names behind the big stories. Laura Kuenssberg talks to those making the news, inside and outside politics.

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The true story of the rise and fall of Creation Records and its infamous founder Alan McGee; the man responsible for supplying the “Brit Pop” soundtrack to the ‘90s, a decade of cultural renaissance known as Cool Britannia. From humble beginnings to Downing Street soirées, from dodging bailiffs to releasing multi-platinum albums, Creation had it all. Breakdowns, bankruptcy, fights and friendships… and not forgetting the music. Featuring some of the greatest records you have ever heard, we follow Alan through a drug-fuelled haze of music and mayhem, as his rock’n’roll dream brings the world Oasis, Primal Scream, and other generation-defining bands.

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Irvine meet artists and writers who discuss the risk of offending in the current climate. Through several, informal conversations he talks to them about their belief in the right to offend and to be offended.

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SHANKLY: NATURE'S FIRE explores the remarkable life and career of BILL SHANKLY, the legendary Liverpool Football Club manager who came to leave such a legacy in his adopted home city. The film is a nostalgic journey into the origins of the world's favourite game, and how legends are born and transcend generations. Perhaps no one before or since has personified the spirit of the working class culture that gave birth to the modern game. Shankly's passion for football was boundless to the point of obsession. This unique feature length documentary is an exploration of the determination and commitment to community that emerged from Britain's industrial heartlands and manifested itself in this unstoppable game: creating a love affair still etched in the hearts of the generations that followed.

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After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie.

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In this new documentary, Susan Kemp explores the life and work of the great British director Antonia Bird, who died in 2013. Bird blazed a trail from the radical hotbed of the Royal Court Theatre in the 70s, via the groundbreaking early days of EastEnders and Casualty in the 80s, all the way to Hollywood in the 90s and back again. She always had something urgent to say, but her career was a long struggle to get her voice heard. Featuring many of her close collaborators, including Robert Carlyle, Irvine Welsh, Kate Hardie and Mark Cousins, this documentary is the first to examine Bird’s legacy, and to place her where she belongs – among the most important British film, TV and theatre directors of her era.

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David’s life is on the slide: he’s broke, in the middle of a divorce and ‘can’t get it up’. His girlfriend, Alice, is his rock, but the magazine she writes for is going down and the pressure is on to find a story. While job hunting online, David stumbles across the perfect antidote to his boredom: a ‘Swingers’ site. The resulting inbox of lewd invitations on the home-laptop justifiably upsets Alice, until she realises this could be just the ‘story’ she needs. The idea of uncovering the swinging scene causes quite a stir in Alice’s office and, much to David’s chagrin, she is urged to pursue the story. Their first reluctant foray is an hysterically low-rent initiation, however, an unexpected upturn for David’s manhood is all the extra encouragement they need. As events accelerate beyond their control the once adoring couple become lost and fundamental questions are asked of their relationship.

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Documentary that outlines the 1990s and the decade the changed the world.

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A modernization of the classic western in which the Cowboys are a struggling local amateur soccer team, the Indians run a nearby Tandoori restaurant and the bandits are a group of menacing thugs led by a maniac known simply as 'American Bob'.

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Trigger Happy TV is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series. The original British edition of the show, produced by Absolutely Productions, starred Dom Joly and ran for two series on the British television channel Channel 4 from 2000 to 2003. Although Channel 4 is owned and operated by the Channel Four Television Corporation, he made a name for himself as the sole star of the show, which he produced and directed with cameraman Sam Cadman.

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The compelling tale of how a group of sacked dockers got together with scriptwriter Jimmy McGovern and novelist Irvine Welsh to turn their unique story into a film. In September 1995, five men were sacked for walking off the job when their overtime agreement was ditched. Dockers: Writing The Wrongs tells how the dockers spent a year producing the script based on their own experiences of the dramatic two and a half year dispute.

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A surreal triptych adapted by "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh from his acclaimed collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard-talking drama, the film reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche.

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Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.

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This topical debate series based on Any Questions? typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer pre-selected questions put to them by a carefully selected audience.

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Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

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After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie.

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A modernization of the classic western in which the Cowboys are a struggling local amateur soccer team, the Indians run a nearby Tandoori restaurant and the bandits are a group of menacing thugs led by a maniac known simply as 'American Bob'.

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A darts player slides into depression after an heart attack spooks him so much he loses his skill.

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Stubbornness is the strength of the weak.

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A darkly humorous look at the lives and loves of four modern women, each with their own remarkable, intriguing and often tragic stories.

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A man infected with HIV exacts his revenge on the person responsible. Based on a chapter from Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel Trainspotting.

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Jimmy McGovern's depiction of the mid 90s Liverpool dockers strike. Featuring script contributions from Irvine Welsh and the real dockers themselves

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A surreal triptych adapted by "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh from his acclaimed collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard-talking drama, the film reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche.

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