''Your Cheatin' Heart'' is a

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

six-part comedy drama serial, broadcast in 1990 and written by John Byrne. It starred

Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. She is known for playing eccentric and enigmatic characters, often working with auteurs. Her accolades include an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Volpi Cup, in addit ...

, John Gordon-Sinclair,

Katy Murphy Katy Murphy (born 8 December 1962) is a British actress and teacher from Glasgow, Scotland, who has appeared in many television programs, most of them for the BBC and ITV. While most associated with television drama, she has worked across a vari ...

Eddi Reader Sadenia "Eddi" Reader Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 29 August 1959) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known for her work as the lead vocalist of the Folk music, folk and soft rock band Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo caree ...

and

Ken Stott Kenneth Campbell Stott (born 19 October 1954) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor who won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1995 in the play ''Broken Glass (play), Broken Glass'' at Royal National Thea ...

. The format is similar to Byrne's earlier serial ''Tutti Frutti'', but the tone is much darker.

Plot

Cissie Crouch (

) is working as a waitress in an American-themed bar and restaurant in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

called "Bar L", while her husband Dorwood Crouch (Kevin McMonagle) is in prison for a robbery she believes he did not commit. (The prison where Crouch is being held is a thinly disguised version of

Barlinnie Prison HM Prison Barlinnie is the largest prison in Scotland. It is operated by the Scottish Prison Service and is located in the residential suburb of Riddrie, in the northeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It is informally known locally as The Big Hoose ...

, known locally as "The Bar L"). She meets journalist Frank McClusky ( John Gordon-Sinclair) who agrees to help her to clear her husband's name by investigating Fraser Boyle (

), a violent small-time criminal and drug dealer who had been a member of Dorwood's band "Dorwood Crouch and The Deadwood Playboys". McClusky discovers a connection between Boyle and Irish band "Jim Bob O'May (

Guy Mitchell Guy Mitchell (born Albert George Cernik; February 22, 1927 – July 1, 1999) was an American pop singer and actor, successful in his homeland, the UK, and Australia. He sold 44 million records, including six million-selling singles. His best-kno ...

) and The Wild Bunch". Boyle is the father of Cissie's child, who has been taken into care due to Cissie's inability to meet the child's needs and is living with foster parents in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. McClusky uses a taxi operated by Billie McPhail (

) and Jolene Jowett (

), who also perform as Country and Western duo "The McPhail Sisters", and are looking for additional support musicians for what they see as their big chance as support act for the Wild Bunch. McCluskey pretends to be a musician and persuades Cissie to join him in supporting them in order to infiltrate the Country and Western scene in Glasgow. David Cole (Guy Gregory), the owner and manager of the Bar L, has been engaging in large scale international drug dealing, and is murdered by the gang of rival Ralph Henderson (Jack Fortune) over possession of a package of 18 pounds of cocaine which they believe to be concealed in the Bar-L, but are unable to find. Henderson plans to use The Wild Bunch to transport the drugs. Dorwood climbs onto the prison roof to protest his innocence but falls off and then escapes from hospital, still seriously injured, with the help of Boyle who plans, incompetently, to smuggle him out of the country with the Wild Bunch. All the characters converge on the venue of the Wild Bunch concert at the "Ponderosa", a roadhouse bar outside Glasgow. Tamara MacAskill ( Helen Atkinson-Wood), a local radio reporter who has been following the Dorwood Crouch escape and the David Cole murder, appears for a routine interview with O'May and recognises Henderson, who incorrectly assumes that she is investigating the drugs deal and abducts her while he goes to pick up the drugs shipment which has now been found by one of his associates. Dorwood has been left in the car park while the others go into the bar to perform, where he shoots and wounds one of Boyle's associates using Boyle's revolver. Cissie, Dorwood, and McClusky escape in MacAskill's radio car and proceed to Aberdeen where Cissie hopes to find her child. Henderson, now in possession of the drugs and still holding MacAskill, goes to Aberdeen to catch up with O'May at his next engagement. The McPhail sisters go to Aberdeen hoping to perform again with O'May. McCluskey declares his love for Cissie but she is non-committal. Together they find the address where the child is living, but she turns away without seeing him. Henderson attempts to murder MacAskill with a drugs overdose. Dorwood, who has been contemplating suicide, finds Henderson about to deliver the drugs to O'May and leads him away at gunpoint. Henderson is later found dead and the audience is left to speculate on the fate of Dorwood and the drugs. McCluskey and Cissie find MacAskill and save her life. McCluskey walks away from Cissie who he feels has been using him all along.

Cast

* John Gordon-Sinclair as Frank McClusky *

as Cissie Crouch * Kevin McMonagle as Dorwood Crouch *

as Billie McPhail *

as Fraser Boyle *

as Jolene Jowett * Tom Watson as Eric the barber/Timberwolf Tierney/Cherokee George/Fr Tierney/Aberdeen matron *

Peter Mullan Peter Mullan (; born 1959) is a Scottish actor and filmmaker. His credits include '' Riff-Raff'' (1991), '' Shallow Grave'' (1994), ''Braveheart'' (1995), '' Trainspotting'' (1996), '' My Name Is Joe'' (1998), '' The Claim'' (2000), '' Neds'' ( ...

as Tonto *

as Jim Bob O'May * Helen Atkinson-Wood as Tamara MacAskill *

Maggie Bell Margaret Bell (born 12 January 1945) is a Scottish vocalist. She came to fame as co-lead vocalist of the blues rock group Stone the Crows, and was described as the UK's closest counterpart to American singer Janis Joplin. Bell was also promine ...

as Roxanne

Episodes

# "Throwing Up in The Gorbals" # "The Eagle of the Apocalypse and the Sidewinders of Satan" # "This Could Turn Septic On Us, Ya Big Ungrateful Midden" # "Happy Trails" # "Lay That Pistol Down Babe" # "The Last Round Up"

Reception

Reception in the Scottish press was generally very positive, with Kenneth Wright in ''The Herald'' describing the series as "... funny, impressive, and very, very clever". The London press was generally negative with Richard Last in the ''Telegraph'' describing it as "incomprehensible", referring to both the plot and the Scottish dialect of which he wrote "At the start I was getting one word in three". Hugh Herbert in the ''Guardian'' was a rare positive voice calling it "a serial to stay home for". Byrne later said he believed the series had a "loyal following of about three and a half million viewers" in the UK.

Repeats and revival

The series was revived for Cinema performance first at the

Dunoon Dunoon (; ) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the cou ...

Film Festival in 2013, then at the

Glasgow Film Theatre The Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) is an independent cinema in the city centre of Glasgow. It occupies a purpose-built cinema building, first opened in 1939, and now protected as a category B listed building. History and architecture Predecesso ...

in 2014.Murray, Jonathan
Programme Note: Your Cheatin' Heart
Glasgow Film Theatre, 2014 The series was not made available for home viewing until a double DVD was released by Second Sight Films as 2NDVD3275 on 25 May 2015, almost 25 years after the television screening. Byrne, speaking in an interview for the ''Herald'' in 2013, said that although he had been paid "double money up front" for the series to be repeated, it had not been at that time.Leadbetter, Russell
"John Byrne and Eddi Reader go back to the old country with Your Cheatin' Heart"
The Herald, 8 June 2013 It was eventually repeated on the BBC Scotland channel in 2019, twenty nine years after its first showing.

Script

The script by John Byrne with illustrations by the author was published by BBC Books in 1990 as .

Music

Throughout the series many of the characters perform

country and western A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, or d ...

standards in small pubs and clubs. The music was specially recorded for the series under the direction of

Rab Noakes Robert Ogilvie Noakes (13 May 1947 – 11 November 2022) was a Scottish singer-songwriter. He was at the forefront of Scottish folk music for over 50 years and recorded over 19 studio albums. He toured folk clubs and often performed at the Glasgo ...

(credited as Robert Noakes) and

Michael Marra Michael Marra (17 February 1952 – 23 October 2012) was a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician from Dundee, Scotland. Known as the Bard of Dundee, Marra was a solo performer who toured the UK and performed in arts centres, theatres, folk cl ...

. Backing tracks were pre-recorded and the vocals performed live on location by the cast.

Soundtrack album

The soundtrack album was released by

BBC Enterprises The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as BBC CD 791 (5 011755 079123) and on cassette as ZCF 791. Performances were credited to the characters, rather than the performers. Vocals were re-recorded for the CD over the backing tracks originally recorded for the series. “From a Distance” was performed by Tilda Swinton as Cissie Crouch in the series, but the soundtrack performance is by Eddi Reader, credited as her character Jolene Jowett.

References

External links

* *
Listing for 11 October 1990
a
The BBC Genome Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Your Cheatin Heart (1990 Tv series) 1990 in Scotland BBC Scotland television shows British comedy-drama television shows Scottish television comedy 1990 Scottish television series debuts 1990 Scottish television series endings 1990s British comedy-drama television series