Odyssey Productions

As a Producer with the BBC, Billy Kay created the acclaimed Odyssey programmes which ran to four influential series on Radio Scotland and two on Radio 4. Odyssey programmes were also broadcast on R.T.E. Ireland, A.B.C. Australia and C.B.C. Canada, while the oral history recorded for the series provided material for two books. His Radio Scotland and Radio 4 series "The Scots Tongue" and the dramatised documentary, "Darien: Key of the Universe" both won Pater awards from the Australian Academy of Broadcasting Arts and Sciences. In 1989, "The Scots of Ulster" won a silver medal in the New York Radio Festival, in 1992 "The Road and the Miles" picked up the bronze medal there.

In 1994 the U.K. Wine Guild gave the Houghton Award for "best radio or television programme promoting wine" to Kay´s radio feature "Fresche Fragrant Clairettis" his co-production with Mike Shaw. This was short listed for a BBC nomination for the Italia Prize in 1995. Odyssey Productions was established in 1994 and has received several prestigious commissions from Radio Scotland. They have met with popular and critical acclaim, with "The Complete Caledonian Imbiber" winning the Wines of France Award for 1996. Odyssey Productions has also received features commissions from Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio Netherlands. In 2005 his musical feature "Hermless: A Portrait of Michael Marra" was nominated for a Sony Award. Recent series have included "Scotland´s Black History", "The Scottish Mission", "People´s History", "The Dutch Revolt" "Meninos da Rua/Street Kids" and most recently "The Mason Word" and "Scots Gothic: A Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe in Ayrshire". In a recent series on the Scottish Enlightenment he interviewed leading historians and philosophers as well as the then Chancellor, now Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In additon to its core function as a radio production company, Odyssey Productions has produced audio material for educational purposes, and dramatised readings by leading actors. It also produced the Scots audio material which accompanied L Colin Wilson´s book The Luath Scots Language Learner.

Appreciations for the work produced and presented by Billy Kay for Odyssey Productions:

In 2009 when BBC RADIO 7 broadcast a number of Odyssey Productions programmes as part of their Year of Homecoming Output, The Head of Radio 7, Mary Kalemkerian gave the following introduction to the programmes as part of her weekly newsletter:

"We are also introducing some excellent features, new to Radio 7, and produced by an inspirational Scottish writer and broadcaster, Billy Kay, whose programmes, mostly in the oral tradition, have been broadcast worldwide.

Billy's work has been compared to that of Charles Parker, an immensely influential documentary maker, who brought "voices of the people" to radio and television from the 1950s to the 1970s. Charles Parker's work has had such a lasting influence, that a Charles Parker Archive, containing historical records, tapes, papers and correspondence is based in the Birmingham Central Library, and an annual Charles Parker Day has been set up, honouring his life and work and continuing his legacy of documentary-making.

Charles is probably best remembered for his Radio Ballads, made in collaboration with Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger and you can hear a marvellous 3 hour celebration of these, presented by Gillian Reynolds and Tim Blackmore, on Saturday morning.*

So many riches to choose from - and so little time in which to listen...

Here are my recommendations for the week ahead:

Exile
NEW TO RADIO 7
Exile has been a Scottish condition for centuries. Author of 'The Scottish World' Billy Kay speaks to people who are separated from Scotland by time and distance yet carry their culture, their music and history with them wherever in the world they go from Archangel to Assam, from Bordeaux to Brazil. First broadcast on Radio Scotland, and part of Radio 7's Scottish Season, I'd be surprised if anyone who is "far frae their ain folk" can listen to this programme without feeling a lump in their throat.

Click here for an extract from the Exile programme.

*Mary's linking of Charles Parker's work with mine is very flattering, but it has happened before. When the great man died back in 198?, the obituary and appreciation in the Melody Maker by Karl Dallas made the point that the only people who continued the tradition of using oral history begun by him were Studs Terkel in Chicago and Billy Kay in Edinburgh!

For a historical perspective on this, I never heard any of Charles Parker's excellent Radio Ballads until after I had made the Odyssey series, so there was no direct influence. My main influence was the work of Hamish Henderson at the School of Scottish Studies at the Universityof Edinburgh.

Review of Scotland's Black History The Herald October 4, 2003 by Anne Simpson

Dovetailing with Radio 4's Black History Month comes Billy Kay's illuminating series Scotland's Black History. Kay traces attitudes to colour from the seventeenth century when, freedom aside, the best an imported slave could hope for was to be ornately liveried and displayed before the houses of the elite in the great houses of the rich. He explores the influence of Scottish missionaries and also jolts our complacency with shaming contemporary examples of racist bullying in schools. As ever, Kay manages to be both insightful and eloquent, his staying power the very proof that Scotland's listeners crave something more than an ever ready diet of inflated twaddle and tosh.

ODYSSEY PRODUCTIONS

The programmes made by the company. ** denotes programmes with high Scots language content.

KINGS OF THE ROAD (1 X 28") **
The men from Scotland and Donegal who build the M8 motorway

STREET GANGS OF DUNDEE (1 X 26") **
Rap poet Gary Roberston and the men of Dundee's gangs.

THE KELTY CLIPPIES (1 x 26") **
The legendary bus conductresses from Fife

THE MILL LASSIES (1 x 26") **
Paisley's Mill girls recall the heyday of the thread mills

TUNNELMEN AND POWDER MONKEYS (1 x 26")
The men who built the hydro electiric schemes in the Highlands

THE SALMON KINGS (1 x 26")
Ghillies on the majestic River Tay

THE TATTIE HOLIDAYS (1 X 26") **
People recall their school  "holidays" howking tatties.

FREEWHEELING (1 X 26") **
The rise of cycling clubs during the Depression

THE BERRIES (1 X 26") **
The tradition of raspberry picking in Strathmore

THE DOOS (1 X 26") **
Pigeon racing in working class culture

THE DUGS (1 X 26") **
The truth about the scams in Greyhound racing

THE CONE GATHERERS (1 X 27")
Forestry workers from Scotland and Poland tell their story.

SHOWBOYS AND MATRIARCHS (1 X 27")
Scotland's showground travellers

WAITIN ON WAN (1 X 27") **
Bingo - cultural Chernobyl or a good night out.

THE BRICKWORKS (1 X 27")
Follow the Errol brick road!

THE PEDS (1 X 26") **
"Professional" runners tell tales of the Highland games circuit"

THE LUMBER JILLS (1 X 26")
The women of the Timber Corps tell their experience of World War 2

WE'LL SUPPORT YOU EVERMORE (1 X 26") **
The tartan army, hilariously celebrate supporting Scotland.

THE CADDIES (1X 27")
The legendary golf caddies of St Andrews

BORDER QUEENS (1 X 27") **
The mill lassies of the Borders

GENTLE SHEPHERDS (1 x 27") **
Part 1 of 2 programmes on Border shepherds

THE HERD'S LAMENT (1 X 27") Part 2 of above **

SINGIN THEIR WAY TO SOCIALISM
The story of the Young Communist League Choir

THE BB'S
Oral History from The Boy's Brigade

THE LAST FISHWIVES **
The Fisherrow women who sold fish from the creel

THE FISHVAN **
The men who continued the tradition of the fishwives

FROM ABERDEEN TO ASSAM
North East tea planters in India

ANDY AND HARRY'S WAR **
Japanese P.O.W.s amazing stories

LITTLE MOSCOWS **
The communist strongholds of West Fife

THE GOTHENBURG EXPERIMENT
Community pubs in the mining area

THE BLUE BONNETS **
The traditions of the bonnet toun of Stewarton in Ayrshire

THE STORE (1 X 26") **
The Co-operative movement and its role in Fife mining communities.

KNOCKSHINNOCH (1 X 26") **
On the Ayrshire mining disaster of 1950

JUTEOPOLIS (1 X 26")
The personal connections between Dundee and India through the jute trade.
(one single repeat)

SIDELINED IN MORAR (1 X 26")
Railway camping coaches shunted up sidings in scenic and not so scenic locations
- an eccentric British holiday tradition revealed

SCOTLAND AT PRAYER (7 X 28") * audio NEW
The Reformation and its aftermath with the history of the major churches

THE MASON WORD (4 X 26") *
The history of Scottish Freemasonry and its take off round the world.

CHEATING DEATH (3 x 26") *
The history of Scottish medicine and its importance in world medicine.

THE SCOTCH SOUTH (4 X 26" and 4 X 30")
On the profound Scottish cultural influence on the American South

THE SCOTCH SOUTH (4 X 26" and 4 X 30")
On the profound Scottish cultural influence on the American South.

THE COMPLETE CALEDONIAN IMBIBER (4 X 26" and 4 X 30") audio
On the historic Scottish love affair with claret, port, sherry, madeira, ale and whisky.

MERCHANTS, PEDLARS, MERCENARIES ( 4 X 26") audio
The Baltic as a Scottish sphere of influence from medieval times to the present day.

TO NORROWAY 0´ER THE FAEM (4 X 26")
The series tells the history of the Scots in Scandinavia.

THE SECRET WAR (3 X 26")
The story of the Korean War told by the Scottish soldiers who fought there.

SCOTLAND´S BLACK HISTORY (6 X 27") audio
Scotland´s historic links with Africa and Africans.

THE SCOTTISH MISSION (6 X 27")
Presbyterian missionaries and their world wide influence.

FREDOME IS A NOBLE THING (3 X 27") audio
Scots involvement in other people´s liberation struggles.

IT WES US (2 X 27")
How Scots football conquered the world.

THE CARNOUSTIE EXODUS (1 X 28")
The men who were pioneers of golf in the United States.

THE AULDEST ALLIANCE 2 X 26")
A celebration of the oldest alliance - between Scotland and France.

THE SCOTTISH MISSION IN MALAWI (1 X 55")
The Scottish influence in the former Nyasaland

THE DEMOCRATIC INTELLECT (3 X 26")
The great figures of the Scottish Enlightenment - David Hume, Adam Smith, Lord Kames, Dugald Stewart.

THE HISTORY OF THE BURNS SUPPER (1 x 28")
From 9 pals of the Bard in Alloway in 1801 to the spread of the phenomenon world wide.

EXILE (1 x 28")
Scots separated from Scotland by place and time talk and sing about identity, longing and loss.

THE FIERY CROSS (1 X 28")
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960's in Scotland and America.

HERMLESS; A Portrait of Michael Marra (1 x 55")

RARE: A Portrait of the band Jock Tamson´s Bairns (1 x 55")

OUR BOY IN BRAZIL A portrait of Paul Mounsey (1 x 55")

CALEDONIA SOUL (6 X 26")
The history of Scots Song presented by Sheena Wellington.

THE HIDDEN VOICE (4 X 26")
One of the country´s finest traditional singers, Sheena Wellington explores the role of women in Scottish song.

BALLADS OF THE BORDERLAND (4 X 26")
The landscape that inspired the Border Ballads.

SCOTS SAWS (2 X 26") **
A celebration of Scots proverbs and sayings

AT HAME WI BURNS (1 X 26") **
People in Burns' native Ayrshire speak movingly in the Bard's and
their own mither tongue about what his poetry means to them.

THE LINGUISTIC LEGACY O ROBERT BURNS (1 x 28") **
A programme entirely in Scots about the effect of Burns on the language.

THE BONNIE BROUKIT BAIRN (1 X 28") **
A feature in Scots on the current state of Scots. Made for St Andrews Day 2010 to co-incide with the publication of the Report by the Ministerial Working Group audio NEW

SCOTS GOTHIC
a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe in Ayrshire (1 x 26")

THE BUICK - AN AMERICAN ICON FAE ARBROATH (1 X 26")
The story of David Dunbar Buick, Scots born automobile pioneer.

DON ROBERTO (4 x 26")
A portrait of R.B.Cunninghame Graham: founder of the Scottish Labour Party and arguably the first socialist in the House of Commons, writer, gaucho, cowboy, swordsman, founder of the SNP, friend and hero of Shaw's plays, loved by Conrad etc etc.

THE WITNESS (3 X 27")
Portrait of the Cromarty polymath Hugh Miller

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT ( 1 X 26")
A human history of the bee!

THOSE BANEFUL ARTICLES (1 X 26")
The spread of tea and whisky in 18th century lowland Scotland

THE LITTLE WHITE ROSE (1 X 30")
Scottish people talk about their sense of identity with their country's culture and history, blended with music, poetry, prose and song.

GEDDES (1 X 26")
A portrait of the brilliant polymath Patrick Geddes

MENINOS DA RUA (1 X 55")
Scots missionary work among the street kids of Brazil

ARTICHOKES CHALK AN HOAT CUISINE (1 X 28")
The culture shock of confronting foreign food in 1960's Scotland

A HISTORY OF ELECTRIC SOUP (1x 28") **
The effect of cheap fortified wine on Scottish Society

THE DUNDEE RIPPER (1 X 28")
The case of William Henry Bury as the notorious Jack the Ripper