| Tinsel Town | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Starring | Dawn Steele David Paisley Kate Dickie |
| Opening theme | "Tinseltown in the Rain (Remix)" by The Blue Nile |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Barbara McKissack Scott Meek |
| Producer(s) | Robbie Allan |
| Location(s) | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Running time | approx. 42 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC2 Scotland |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original run | August 7, 2000 – December 10, 2001 |
Tinsel Town is a television drama co-produced by BBC Scotland and Raindog/Deep Indigo Productions. It ran for two series, the first debuting on BBC2 in 2000 and the second airing on BBC Choice the following year. Set throughout the city of Glasgow, Scotland, it deals with the lifestyles of eight main characters who each have the titular Tinsel Town nightclub in common. In the second series, the Tinsel Town name has extended to feature a clothing retail store in addition to the nightclub.
Produced and broadcast in the wake of 1999's controversial TV drama Queer as Folk, and promoted as a "Scottish version" of that series, Tinsel Town was defined by its broadcaster as "a cutting-edge saga of life and love in Glasgow club land". In its debut year the series was nominated for four BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards: Best Television Performance nominations for Dawn Steele and Kate Dickie, a Best Producer nomination for Robbie Allen and a Best Television Director nomination for actress turned director Caroline Paterson.[1]
These characters include Stevie Allen as 37-year old policeman Lewis Reid, and David Paisley as his 17-year old boyfriend Ryan Taylor. Ryan's sister Sandra (Mandy Mathews) is also a central character with her friendship with Jack Donnelly (Thomas Hicky) providing humour and balance to the cast.
The first series also centred on two highly charged and competitive drug dealers, Brady (Mathew Duffy) and Coutts (Stuart Sinclar-Blyth). Throughout Series 1, Brady embarks on a sordid affair with Coutts girlfriend Teresa (Steele) resulting in the end of series cliffhanger. New club DJ Lex (Dickie) is introduced at the start of the series and we see her battling to escape her sadistic ex-husband with the help of the club owner, transvestite Stella (Jim Twaddle).
Series two saw the transmission times reduced to 30 minutes and the loss of Brady and Coutts who were central to the plot and cliffhanger of series 1. It aired again on BBC Choice in 2001 and then BBC2 in 2002. The first series was released on VHS, and neither has been repeated by the BBC since. Rights to both series were acquired by Rapture TV, who are at least theoretically Scottish-owned, and began airing in May 2006. This is one of the first times that a BBC series has been sold to a free-to-air broadcaster, or been shown FTA other than on the BBC itself.
The shows effective "theme song" is "Out of Control" by the Chemical Brothers and Bernard Sumner, which plays through the majority of in-club sequences as well as other times in the show. However, the actual opening and closing theme is a remix of "Tinseltown in the Rain" by Scottish band The Blue Nile.