Tinsel Town

"Tinsel Town" was a television drama produced by BBC Scotland. It ran for two series, one in 2000 and the second in 2001. Set in Glasgow it deals with the lifestyles of eight main characters which revolve around the 'Tinsel Town' nightclub in series one (in series two, 'Tinsel Town' is a clothing retailer as well as a nightclub). 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 (Dawn Steele) resulting in the end of series cliffhanger. New club DJ Lex (Kate 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 one consisted of ten 45 minute episodes and initially aired on BBC Choice, with a repeat on BBC2 the next year.

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 Scotland 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 will begin 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 a track called "Tinseltown in the Rain" by Scottish band The Blue Nile.

External links

* [http://www.rapturetv.com/tinseltown Tinseltown at RaptureTV]