Thistle Do Nicely

"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on."
- Billy Connolly

This week we are talking about Scotland's most beloved comedian, all round renaissance man and "Greatest Glaswegian" Billy Connolly. 

We discuss his life, his work, his troubles and his many achievements. 

Since we are talking about the Big Yin there will be a lot of swearing in this one (sorry mums). 

Enjoy our audio love letter to one of the most wind swept and interesting men around. 

A continuation of last week's proof that Scotland invented the world!

We are talk Scottish inventions again and almost make it all the way to Z.

No singing this week, but we do take a brief rummage in the Sporran.  

This week we back up what we have been saying all along - Scotland invented the world!
We are talking about Scottish inventions. There are just so many of them we are doing a truncated A-Z of some of our best intellectual gifts to the world.
Rory "sings" at the beginning - but not for too long , thankfully. 
We have also had to split this episode into 2 parts - come back next week for part 2. 

This week we are talking about the humble Scottish origins of the wildly popular video game franchises Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. 

Both games were originally designed and released by the Dundonian company DMA Design (now Rockstar North) who obviously had a penchant for death, destruction and blowing things up. 

Today we are talking about spooky Scotland.

We are joined by Owen Innes from the Scottish History Podcast, bringing with him a little bit of history and a little bit of mystery.  The first half of this episode is on his stream - so jump over there to hear how Scotland invented Halloween (obviously) and to hear Rory's creepy story about the Bean Nighe - like a Scottish banshee but weirder. 

We also tell stories about Sawney Bean, the Gorbals Vampire and The Haunted Greyfriar's Kirkyard

This week we talk kilts!

We discuss their history, their origin, what it's like to wear one and the mystery of what Scotsmen really keep under their kilts. 

We also lay waste to the vicious rumour that an Englishman invented the modern kilt. 

Special mention also goes to Cilla Black, a British national treasure & legendary entertainer who hosted Blind Date from 1985 to 2003. 

This week Rory is back, but we are missing the delights of Chris, so we just have a Wee Sode for you. 

Jonny and Rory discuss 3 of their favourite "Scottish" films: Dog Soldiers, The Wicker Man (the good one) and Local Hero. 

Jonny and Chris host an episode on their own for the first time. But rather than crumble under the pressure, they debate over what is the best Scottish biscuit/cookie. They keep it civil and don't get short(bread) with one another, so which one takes the (tea)cake?

The boys nearly come to blows this week when Rory attempts to describe how haggis came to be and reveals his research is largely a sham. Jonny reveals he may have seen a haggis in a museum when he was a young lad, while Chris believes he may have been that very haggis owing to a childhood mishap. Ultimately, they want the world to learn to embrace haggis and Scotland's national dish as opposed to being influenced by the Irish penchant for Guinness. They also delve into their sporran, or mailbag, for the first time.

This week we explore our second example of Scotland's trinity of tourist attractions: the ancient and loved sport of Golf. We look at the history of the game as well, make some suggestions for how we can help more people enjoy it and, of course, how to best look after your balls.