91Èȱ¬

The phrase "whistlestop" could have been invented for the Dr Who tour.

Barely had actor Matt Smith - aka the 11th doctor - and the rest of his entourage arrived in Inverness for a soggy photocall on a beach near Loch Ness, and a screening and Q&A at Eden Court Theatre with local schoolkids, than they were back on the bus and headed for a similar session in Sunderland.

Never would a TARDIS have been more handy. (although one installed with a DVD player for the box set of True Blood, which Mr Smith is working his way through as he travels.)

It is of course a promotional exercise for the new series, which begins on Saturday, but for the 180 children who got tickets for the screening (and many more who waited outside for autographs) there was another benefit.

Most of the children at the event attend regular drama sessions through Eden Court.

It was there that Karen Gillon - who plays Amy Pond, the doctor's flame-haired assistant got her first taste for drama.

The same's true for her little cousin Caitlin Blackwood - who appears in episode one as Amy as a child.

Yet, these drama classes - which reach thousands of children in the Highlands - may be under threat. Highland Council is currently reviewing a number of schemes as part of ongoing cost cutting - the drama courses among them.

Let's hope they think twice about that particular cut.

Not just for the handful of children who go onto professional careers - brandishing their own accents on mainstream television - but for the thousands more who simply learn a bit of extra confidence for whatever career path they choose.

Glasgow Art Fair seems to have had another good year.

Popped down on Saturday for a wander, and while some stalls were reporting a slow start to the week, others could barely keep the stock on their shelves.

Queen's Gallery has to make the dash back to Dundee after just one day's business.

New work by Catriona Millar completely sold out, while just one piece by emerging artist Frank To was left unsold.

Grumblings about the cost of entry and the lack of affordable art, seems to be bearing fruit with several galleries offering prints for around £100.

Fiona Watson's Aviary Suite - a series of original digital artworks - seemed to go down well.

At the other end of the scale, there was no red dot on the £135,000 Hornel oil painting at Duncan Miller Fine Art (even with the prospect of a major retrospective of the Glasgow Boys in just a few weeks time).

But a portrait of Tracey Emin - painted in 1984 by her ex, Billy Childish, did sell, at David Lilford Fine Art - a snip at £15,000.

But the buzz at this year's event wasn't just about prices.

The whole direction of the event, held under canvas in George Square for the last 16 years, is now in question - with the news that director Pete Irvine is stepping down.

The three-year contract to stage the art fair, by Glasgow based events company UZ under Mr Irvine's direction, is due for renewal with Glasgow City Council and it'll be interesting to see whether there are any other bids for the contract, or whether UZ will simply return with a new director.

Few answers at the Art Fair, at the weekend, but lots of questions.

If you ever needed proof that artist Jack Vettriano still retains a down to earth manner, it was waiting in the porch of Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery.

Yours truly arrived 45 minutes late for the interview.

Flightier artists might have flounced off, or busied themselves with artistic matters.

Vettriano is simply standing on the doorstep, a gloomy figure in a coal-black coat, quietly watching the rain pouring down and the world passing by.

Inside, an exhibition of 40 new works is hung and ready to open to the public.

And while Kirkcaldy, London, Milan isn't the usual order of an international art tour, for Vettriano, who has studios in all three, it makes perfect sense.

Kirkcaldy was where, as a 30-year-old amateur artist, he soaked up the gallery's famous Colourist Collection, and learned some of their best techniques.

He points out a Peploe, and the way the artist has built up colours on an orange base to create glimpses of sunshine, just one of the tricks he took to his own painting.

They, like Vettriano, divided their time between the South of France and Scotland - creating warm and vibrant visions of the French Riviera and cooler, but equally stunning views of the Scottish islands.

Modern technology means it's a far easier option for Vettriano - who can order a missing paint colour or change locations the same day.

Of course, as well as being those who'll splutter their tea at the mere thought of Vettriano being mentioned in the same sentence as the Colourists, there are plenty who argue he doesn't even merit the title "artist".

The National Galleries of Scotland retain a resolutely Vettriano free zone, although could a breakthrough be on the cards?

Next year marks Vettriano's 20th year as a professional artist and he's keen to stage a retrospective on home turf.

When I ask him, on camera, if he thinks there could be scope for an exhibition at NGS, he insists he doesn't discuss it, then proceeds to do so.

"it's all been said before,"he says,"but I think we can find a way to be reconciled. We've all said things we ought not to have said.

"We've drummed up a head of steam we shouldn't have. Let's let it be. Maybe late next year or early the year after we might do a retrospective...."

His press agent is frantically shaking her head. Vettriano puts his own head in his hands. "I wasn't supposed to say that."

Talks are at a delicate stage, apparently, but it appears that Vettriano's next major exhibition could be in Edinburgh.

And does he care that his work causes such extreme reaction?

"Not in the least," he says with a laugh.

"Where better to be than right in the middle - with half the population loathing you and half loving you.

"Every dinner party, they're talking about you. That's a great place to be."

As to his next subject matter - he has his sights set in ballroom dancing.

He was recently given access to the backstage area at the World Ballroom Dancing championships - where he sketched and photographed for a new series of paintings.

"The thing is, I've been into ballroom dancing for years - way before Strictly Come Dancing.

"Remember I did the singing butler?

"I love the atmopshere. The way these couples are pinning numbers on and adjusting costumes.

"The way they train for years for two minutes in the spotlight and they go out and perform and come back and they're glaring at each other and you think Oh My God, somebody stood on somebody's toe there.

"It's an amazing place to be. And of course as a ballroom dancing teacher once said to me, it's the sexiest dance you can do, so I'll give anything a go..."

Days of Wine and Roses by Jack Vettriano is at Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery until May 2nd.

When Australian composer Jonathan Mills was first appointed director of the Edinburgh International festival four years ago, one London-based critic was quick to dismiss him as a "minnow".

And while it's fair to say few people on this side of the world knew him well, in the four years since, he's worked hard to prove he's a big fish worth catching.

His fourth festival programme - announced in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning - finds him in familiar territory, marking the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the new world.

Australia is represented - of course - with a new opera by Opera Australia based on the Peter Carey novel Bliss.

Art form

The Americas are represented by Porgy and Bess (although performed by Opera De Lyon with French hip hop dance as an aside) and Gospel at Colonus, which will feature both the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Abyssinian Chancel Choir from Harlem.

There's also a new work by the Wooster Group as well as a festival debut for Chilean companies Teatro Cinema and Teatro en el Blanco.

Closer to home, the festival will work once more with the National Theatre of Scotland and director Anthony Neilson and the Paco Pena Flamenco Dance Company to create a production about the failed attempt by Scotland to establish a colony in Panama.

The dance programme features work from Brazil, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands while the music programme features the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Slap bang

And while there are those who may miss the regulars Mills' predecessor Brian McMaster brought to the capital, or bemoan the need for themes at all, in the current climate, getting such an eclectic international line-up to Edinburgh, on time and on budget, is an art form in itself.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh City Council has confirmed that Creative Scotland will have its main base in Edinburgh.

The body - which will come into being in June - will be based in a yet to be named city centre location (while the city council will take over the Scottish Arts Council's current building in the city's west end).

'Hotdesking policy'

Edinburgh cultural bodies are cockahoop - not least the festivals - but there's a "plus ca change" feeling around the rest of the country, particularly from those arts organisations well beyond the central belt.

Dundee - where the transition body was based - would have sent out the message that the new body was slap bang in the middle of the country.

Glasgow at least retains the Scottish Screen offices - so a city centre presence for the new re branded organisation.

Creative Scotland insist they'll have a "hotdesking policy" which will ensure the new body is relevant and accessible across the whole of the country.

We'll have to wait till June to see how that works.

From war of the worlds to walking with dinosaurs, we're getting more and more accustomed to shows on a gigantic scale but last night's Star
Wars- The Concert took that to a new level.

The convoy of trucks outside hinted at the scale of the event.

Each date of this tour requiring an 80ft screen, massive set, the entire Royal Philharmonic concert orchestra, a choir, cast, crew and original costumes and props from the six Star Wars films.

At the centre of it all is John Williams' epic score - with its six distinctive themes woven back around edited sequences about the films' heroes and villains, its love stories and tragedies, all projected behind and overhead as the orchestra performs.

Everything about the show is on a grand scale from the music to the images to the ticket prices ( not to mention the eye wateringly expensive merchandise - £12 for a 4in flashing lightsaber!)

Does it work?

Despite the fact that hall four of the Secc is only three quarters full on Friday night, it is lovingly received by fans and newcomers alike.

The orchestra plays magnificently.

Narrator Anthony Daniels gets the chance to step out from behind the mask of C3PO - although there are plenty of little references from his gold waistcoat to an impromptu impression.

It's also true, as he said earlier, that it's much easier to follow the Star Wars story when it's told in sequence.

Purists might dismiss it all as nonsense but everyone here, from very small children to older fans, seems to lap it up and its fair to say the audience are just as gripped by the encore when the orchestra plays the main theme on its own - no lasers, no light sabers, no film clips - just a great piece of music which still stands the test of time.

Having witnessed the birth of the National Theatre of Scotland four years ago, it was interesting to sit in on final rehearsals for the opening production of the new National Theatre Wales this week.

Like Scotland, there's been a long running campaign to establish a national English language theatre [it already has a Welsh language national theatre - Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru].

Like Scotland, devolution has played its part in pushing the argument, and in finding the funding for the new company, which officially launches tonight in Blackwood, Gwent with A Good Night Out in the Valleys.

The show - written by Alan Harris - focuses on the Miners Institutes, which were once a feature of almost every town in the south wales valleys.

Paid for by the miners themselves, they're proof that culture doesn't have to be dumbed down for the masses.

A good night out here would have once encompassed everything from opera to bingo, via chamber music, political speeches and foreign films.

Some, like Blackwood Miners Institute, have been revived as modern arts centres [the latter, where rehearsals have been taking place, also has the high profile support of the Manic Street Preachers, who grew up locally]. Others have been given a new lease of life for the tour.

But all send out the message that National Theatre Wales - like the National Theatre of Scotland on which it's modelled - is a company which has neither a building, nor any boundaries when it comes to staging work.

"There's always been theatre - it's been in places like these," says Professor Dai Smith, who as chair of the Welsh Arts Council has championed the new company.

"This is where Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson would have performed their shows, it's where Aneurin Bevan walked into the Reading Room with a copy of the Pravda and the New York Times, it's where Neil Kinnock watched his first foreign films.

"This is nothing new. It's just a rerouting of what's always been there but that's why it's so important."

Already, director John McGrath has plans for performances in Swansea Library [in a collaboration with Welsh National Opera who'll be providing "singing librarians"], the beaches of North Wales, Snowdonia, and even a disused army range in the Brecon Beacons.

He admits Wales, with just a handful of professional theatres, and comparatively low levels of paying theatre goers, will be a challenging place to launch a national theatre, but he's confident that by-passing more conventional audiences to bring in completely new people will pay off.

As well as performing in local communities, rehearsals are held there, so that audiences can see how theatre is made, as well as watching the finished product.

John McGrath says: "One of the great traditions in Wales is amateur participation, whether that's choirs, or drama groups or whatever, and that's something we hope to tap into."

"With this show, we invited people along and asked them for their memories and made them into part of the show, and now they're incredibly enthusiastic about coming along to what might be their first professional show."

The launch coincides with a massive increase in TV production in Wales, largely due to the decision by the 91Èȱ¬ to relocate Dr Who there in 2005.

Now, with the three Dr Who strands [torchwood and the sarah jane adventures as well as the Doctor] and the long running medical drama Casualty and the cult series Being Human relocating from Bristol to Cardiff, a new drama village is having to be built to cope with it all.

And while there are plenty of people who're unconvinced as to how much work that will actually entail for the local sector - it's already having a positive impact on National Theatre Wales.

Michael Sheen - only this week, seen on stage at the Oscars - will return to his native Wales to direct, and star in, a forthcoming production. It's hoped other Welsh actors will be persuaded to follow suit.

"There's huge scope for crossover," says John McGrath.

"We are already working to develop writers together. It's a very significant moment when there's enough work to sustain writers and actors and production crews - whatever area they work in - and I think that corner is about to be turned.

"As well as making it clear that you can work in both television and theatre, and you don't have to choose."

The 30th anniversary screening of Gregory's Girl wasn't the only sell-out film on the closing day of the Glasgow Film Festival.

There were no tickets to be had for the new Mogwai documentary, Burning, which was filmed over two days in Brooklyn and definitely none to spare for the closing gala Legacy.

This psychological thriller is testament to the determination of first-time feature film director Thomas Ikimi, who was at last night's world premiere.

As well as writing, directing and editing the film, he raised most of the finance, having been given a body-swerve by most of the UK funding bodies (their argument is that a thriller set in a Brooklyn hotel room, about the traumas of a black ops soldier, has little to say about modern British culture).

That said, the film which stars Idris Elba (the British actor from the Wire, who also co-produced it), was made here in Scotland, offering a showcase for local crew (most of whom were at last night's screening).

Despite the knockbacks, Ikimi refused to give up. He placed an ad in Total Film magazine - funded he admitted last night, by the sale of a friend's X Box - which asked for support.

It was answered by husband and wife team Arabella Page Croft and Keiron Parker of Glasgow based Black Camel Pictures, who read the script and agreed to be the film's producers.

Ikimi then spent four months touring businesses in Nigeria - where his family come from - trying to raise the money. He returned with £300,000.

And many of the business people who supported him - most of whom had no film connections - were in the audience last night.

"He felt if Obama could get into the White House, he could get his film made," said Arabella at last night's screening.

"From our point of view, it was madness. To take on an unknown London/Nigerian film-maker, with a budget which wouldn't keep James Cameron in shoelaces but it was enough for us."

Idris Elba brought some actor contacts of his own - including fellow Wire star Clarke Peters. The whole film was made in a mere 22 days in Glasgow's Film City, and on location in Dumfries and Galloway.

It was still being edited just hours before Sunday's screening.

"Close to the Wire, if you'll excuse the pun," says Arabella.

Although Idris Elba wasn't there in person, he did send a recorded message, and his mum, who was in the audience.

Although yet to secure a distribution deal, Black Camel are confident that they'll have a deal soon, thanks to Elba's extraordinary performance.

Meantime, they're already onto the next venture. A bigger budget sequel to their first film Outpost - an every day tale of Nazi zombies in Eastern Europe.

Or Dumfries and Galloway, which will once again double for Eastern Europe. Would-be zombie extras should keep their eyes on the local press for announcements.