Please read Understanding catalogue records for help interpreting this information and Using footage for more information about accessing this film.

Title: HOLYROOD FILES, the

Reference number: 8080

Date: 2005

Director: d. Stuart Greig

Sponsor: Scottish Screen, BBC Scotland

Producer: Stuart Greig

Production company: IWC Media

Sound: sound

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 87.00 mins

Description: Filmed over five and a half years, The Holyrood Files is the inside story of how the construction of a new parliament building for Scotland divided the nation. With unique access to unfolding events and key players, the film offers a compelling insight into the longest running and most controversial story in recent Scottish history.

Screened at 59th Edinburgh International Film Festival, August 2005.

Re-edited version of material originally filmed for BBC television series, 'The Gathering Place'.

Credits: exec. p. for IWC Gail Burne
exec. p. for BBC Ewan Angus
exec. p. for Scottish Screen Claire Chapman
ass. p. Susan Bain
film ed. Berg Saetre
camera Neville Kidd, Dave Otter, Mike Cuthbert, Jerry Kelly
camera ass. Francis McNeil, Steven Mochrie, Keith Ingram, Andrew M'Itwamwari, Siubhan Lorimer, Ross Neasham
sd. Douglas Kerr, Mike Riley, Brian Howell, Martin Belshaw, Alan Brereton, Dave Eden, Tommy Hair, Stuart Bruce
dubbing mixer Paul Wilson
graphics design and colourist Berg Saetre
online ass. Alistair Ferguson
narr. Simon Donald
w. Stuart Greig
addit. w. Gail Birnie, Susan Bain
p. man. Helen Moore, Su Bainbridge, Dominique Middleton
unit man. Nicky Murphy
legal affairs David Smith
archive BBC Information & Archives, The Scottish Parliament, Jonathan Messer
archive research Ruth Patrick
addit. research Laura Gordon-Duff
business affairs for Scottish Screen Anita Cox

Thanks to Jenny Attala - Scottish Arts Counci, Steve McIntyre - Scottish Screen

Special thanks to EMBT, RMJM, Bovis Lend Lease, DL&E, The Scottish Parliament, Arc Facilities, Fiona MacDonald, Roy Templeton, Jane Gilmartin, Robert W. Black Architect, George Cathro, Clare Kerr

© IWC Media Linited MMV

Shotlist: The creation of a devolved government in Scotland was intended to embody the confident rebirth of the Scottish nation. After 300 years, Scotland was finally to have a parliament of its own. To symbolise this pivotal moment a new building was to be created to represent the new, accessible politics intended for Scotland. What could possibly go wrong?

Three years late, costing over £430,000,000, dogged by tragedy and ruthless political warfare, Scotland's new parliament, far from being a cause for national celebration, had become instead the country's most damaging scandal.

During the six years it would take to complete the building a catalogue of disaster would unfold. Both Enric Miralles, the project's visionary designer and chief architect, and Donald Dewar, Scotland's First Minister and the building's chief political sponsor, would die before the building was anywhere near complete. The building project would come under intense scrutiny - there would be six parliamentary debates, three audit reports, two independent enquiries, five changes of project leader and an unprecedented tide of media and political hostility. And though it all, director Stuart Greig and his film team were on the inside, charting the building and its builders' progress through the storm of controversy.

Filmed over a six year period, the Holyrood Files is a unique record of the birth of a parliament. Told though the eyes of the architects and builders behind the building's construction, it reveals the competing forces conspiring to hamstring the nation's ambitions. It is a tale of struggle - and triumph - in the face of fierce opposition.