Friday 9 February 2007
BBC TWO Scotland, 10.00–10.30pm
John Gordon Sinclair stars in a new comedy pilot – Welcome to Strathmuir – set in an information bureau in Strathmuir, a small fictitious Scottish town on the fringes of the Highlands.
The bureau is run by Andrew – a hugely optimistic 40-something man who believes Strathmuir to be the finest place on God’s earth and is never happier than when selling the town, its amenities, and the surrounding area to tourists.
Andrew is thwarted in his efforts to sell Strathmuir by his assistant – Barry – a useless, lazy, spaced out young man.
His other main difficulty in life centres around sacking Muriel, who runs the café attached to the bureau and is also possessed by the spirits of deceased Strathmuir residents, and how he can replace her with Sheena.
Sheena is an over-ambitious, misguided young woman – just out of college and back from the bright lights of Glasgow – wanting to prove how far in the world she has come from when she left the small town of Strathmuir.
Andrew calls on the help of the village lawyer, Deepak, for guidance on how he can resolve his problems before Deepak leaves Strathmuir to sail the Seven Seas.
Andrew is played by John Gordon Sinclair, Barry by David Kay, Muriel by Morwenna Banks, Sheena by Gabriel Quigley, Rev. Sterne by Jack Docherty, Sheena’s Dad by Moray Hunter and Deepak by Nitin Ganatra. Welcome to Strathmuir is also written by Moray Hunter and Jack Docherty.