(444)  THE GATHERING PLACE: WHERE ARE THE STARS?

THE GATHERING PLACE: WHERE ARE THE STARS?

 

The first episode of the Wark-Clements production, The Gathering Place, was broadcast by the BBC on 10 March.  The programme began in medias res, in summer 1999, and did not touch at all upon the choice of site, the design competition, or the letting of the contract.  It focused principally on the tensions within the design team and the Parliamentary debates about the continuation of the project, suggesting that MSPs were concerned primarily to score political points rather than with the completion of the project.  There were some brief interviews with Enric Miralles but nothing at all with Donald Dewar.  Alan Clements had indicated in the Sunday Herald the previous week that tapes of interviews with Dewar and Miralles would be handed over to the Fraser Inquiry (which is still technically open for the purpose) and given a media screening after the series is broadcast.  It is rumoured, however, that there will be no Dewar material in episode 2 of the series, due to be broadcast on 17 March, or in later episodes either.