The TV adaptation

BBC Scotland making three-part Icelandic thriller

On 18 May 1978, The Stage and Television Today reported the production of Running Blind by BBC Scotland. 1

Desmond Bagley Running Blind article The Daily Express 18th May 1978.

The article said production would start ‘next week’ and that Jack Gerson had dramatised Bagley’s novel; it also said it was not a co-production, as the BBC had fully funded it. The producer, Bob McIntosh, gave indications that the production was to be ready for transmission by September in order to be included in the autumn schedules for 1978.

The cast and production unit would live rough in Iceland, filming in the interior where there were no hotels or visitor accommodation. They would live in tents and were likely the first people that year to enter the interior; filming was expected to take two months. This news had in fact been reported in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið over a month earlier on 8 April.2 The article referred to the production by its Icelandic title, Út í óvissuna (Out into the unknown). The article said the production would be a three-part series of 50-minute episodes. In another Morgunblaðið article a few days later, they named two Icelandic actresses, Jonina Scott (then living in London) and Ragnheiður Steindórsdóttir, as contenders for the leading female role. 3

Robert McIntosh was quoted in this article as saying:

In addition, we will have 8 to 9 Icelandic actors considered for smaller roles, but I don’t want to mention any names now, as no contracts have been finalised.

McIntosh said two English and one Russian actor have been invited and that filming would begin in Scotland in mid-May. The team would travel to Iceland on 29 May and would stay in the country for eight weeks.

On 19 April another Icelandic newspaper Vísir reported that McIntosh had been in Iceland for a short time and had visited both Mývatn and Ásbyrgi looking for filming locations.4

The Icelandic newspaper Dagur published an article on 12 May 1978 in which Vilhelm Ágústsson, the owner of the Icelandic car hire company Bílalelgu Akureyrar, stated that he had been commissioned by the BBC to supply cars to be used in the filming of the television series. In the article titled ‘Bílalelgu Akureyrar cars to be shot at’, Ágústsson said:

The BBC has ordered 10 to 15 cars to be hired for a variable amount of time. The film crew have asked that we obtain a new Opel with 2 or 3 additional windscreens. They also asked us to provide a long-wheelbase Land Rover with a radio and a refrigerator, as the story mentions a man who gets a beer out of a fridge while driving along the Sprengisandur. 5

The article also says it will be necessary to hire a mechanic to refit the car’s windscreens, which will be shot at during filming. The film crew is expected in Iceland at the end of the month, and a few English actors will take roles in the BBC production, which, though mainly set in Iceland, is currently being filmed in Scotland. The film producer, Robert Mackintosh, is reported to have said that the episodes would be completed by early winter with transmission soon after.

On 23 May 1978 the Glasgow Herald reported on the filming of Running Blind, which had taken place the previous day at Duchray Castle in the Loch Ard Forest at Aberfoyle, then the home of Lieutenant-Colonel Alastair Ramsay, late of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. The article can be viewed here.

Yesterday was the scene-setting easy bit for the actors and crew. After some more location work in the west end of Glasgow, the 22-strong team leave for a hectic spell in Iceland, the first time a BBC Scotland TV drama will have gone on location abroad. 6

Desmond Bagley Running Blind article The Daily Express 19th July 1978.

BBC’s Spectacular Challenge

On 19 July 1978, the BBC listed the production of Running Blind in its drama line-up to rival ITV productions.

In 1978, the BBC was experiencing a financial crisis and needed a plan to increase revenue. In July that year, they announced they would invest £12 million in new productions, many of which would be co-productions with foreign television companies. It was thought that overseas sales would raise about £3 million in the first year. One of these productions was Running Blind, to be filmed on location in Iceland. This contradicted the view of its producer, Bob McIntosh, who told The Stage and Television Today that it was in no way a co-production. In fact, BBC Scotland produced it entirely, though it used Icelandic actors, actresses, and an assistant production crew.

The £12 million investment directly challenged the commercial television companies and included productions such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I.T.V. had recently lured away both Bruce Forsyth and Morecambe & Wise as well as former BBC 1 controller Brian Cowgill. The BBC responded by signing names such as Sir Alec Guinness, Dames Flora Robson, Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren, Leonard Rossiter, Michael Crawford and Claire Bloom.

In an interview with the Daily Express published on 19 July 1978, the BBC’s head of drama Shaun Sutton said:

 We can still get the big guns because they know they get quality when they work with the BBC. 7

The BBC was facing a £30 million deficit by December that year and had also decided on a TV licence fee increase to be implemented after the general election.

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References

  • Images © The Stage and Television Today, © Northern and Shell Media Publications.
  1. ‘BBC Scotland making three-part Icelandic thriller.’ The Stage and Television Today, 18 May 1978, p.18. ↩︎
  2. ‘Menn frá BBC undirbúa töku sjónvarpsmyndar hér á landi.’ Morgunblaðið, 8 April 1978, p.48. ↩︎
  3. ‘Út í óvissuna.’ Morgunblaðið, 13 April 1978, pp.48 & 26. ↩︎
  4. ‘Kvikmyndir.’ Vísir, 19 April 1978, p.25. ↩︎
  5. ‘Skotið á bíla frá B.A.’ Dagur, 12 May 1978, p.1. ↩︎
  6. ‘Dirty tricks at the castle.’ Glasgow Herald, 23 May 1978, p.6. ↩︎
  7. ‘BBC’s £12m Star War!’ Daily Express, 19 July 1978, pp.1&2. ↩︎