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.

ODYSSEY PRODUCTIONS

The programmes made by the company

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 threadmills.

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.

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.


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 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 MASON WORD
The history of Scottish Freemasonry.

CHEATING DEATH: A HISTORY OF SCOTTISH MEDICINE


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 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 whisly 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.

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

SCOTS GOTHIC: A PORTRAIT OF EDGAR ALLAN POE IN AYRSHIRE