Picture Perfect: The soft power that comes with seeing Scotland on screen

Industrial icons like airlines and carmakers once stood as emblems of national identity. Italy was synonymous with Fiat, Lufthansa with Germany. 

National pride and power in the third decade of the 21st century are more likely to come from cultural exports than flag bearing industries. 

The new Netflix hit, The Leopard, is a case in point, being a phenomenal success for Italy, and particularly Sicily, where it is set. 

Based on Tomasi di Lampedusa’s classic novel, The Leopard is set in the 1860s, as the aristocracy adjusts to the upheaval of Garibaldi’s campaign to unify the country. 

It’s also a passionate drama that’s gorgeous to behold – think Downtown Abbey with citrus groves, sunsets and smouldering romance. No wonder the Sicilian tourist board supported it and Italian embassies are holding gala screenings to showcase their country’s considerable talent. 

Here in Scotland, we have long understood the soft power of a gripping costume drama. Outlander, the time-travelling Jacobite series, has delivered economic, cultural and social benefit – not just for the creatives, but for armies of people who build the sets and service the production teams. 

I say this as someone fortunate to see behind the scenes of Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld, where Outlander is made. I was there with colleagues from the parliament’s former Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee, which I convened, during our enquiry into the screen industry in 2018. 

Our report, Making Scotland a Screen Leader, identified the potential of platforms like Netflix and the importance of investing to attract international productions and build infrastructure. 
Recent figures show that Scotland’s screen sector contributes £617.4m to the economy and employs over 10,860 people. A new strategy, unveiled this year by Screen Scotland, sets a target of £1bn of GVA – added economic value – by 2030. 

But with Outlander now in its final series, where is Scotland’s next global hit? We all know that we can be used as a location for productions not necessarily set here. This generates jobs, revenue and supports infrastructure. 

However, enabling the creation of uniquely Scottish stories that project our country, history and culture to the world is vital too.

Screen Scotland rightly identify work devised and developed in Scotland as key to the success of the 2026-2030 strategy. 

Step into the spotlight then Wax Fruit, a historical drama series developed by Little White Rose Films, which has already received maximum seed funding from Screen Scotland. 

Like The Leopard, Wax Fruit, based on the novels by Guy McCrone, is a family drama set in the 19th century. As with the Sicilian story, the personal intrigue plays out against a background of social and economic turmoil.  

But while Lampedusa’s tale charts the decline of an aristocratic dynasty, Wax Fruit, which was first published in the 1940s, follows the rise of a family from a humble farm in Ayrshire to the pinnacle of Victorian wealth and social success. It is, in many ways, the origin story of modern Scotland. 

Set in Glasgow, then the second city of Britain’s global empire, it brings to life the extraordinary changes of the time. Statistical accounts only go so far in conveying the staggering success of Scottish shipbuilding, trade, engineering innovation and textile production; the mercurial swings in family fortunes; the vast movements of peoples from Ireland and the Scottish Highlands; the palatial West End villas and boulevards sitting astride the cholera-blighted slums. 

Add to all this summer holidays spent in the idyllic surroundings of Arran, the arrival of a mysterious and beautiful highland orphan and the social ambitions of the family matriarch, Bel, and it’s not hard to see Wax Fruit lighting up the screen. 

Sarah Purser, executive producer with Little White Rose Films, has already made a short pilot and assembled a talented team. Actors in the “teaser”, which is for industry use only, include Martin Compston, Shirley Henderson and Bill Paterson. Screenwriter is the Bafta-winning Andrea Gibb. 

Filmed on location in the National Trust for Scotland’s Holmwood House, it has already enlisted the support of historical advisers such as Alex Galloway, our foremost expert in Victorian stained glass. 

But a multi-season TV epic does not come cheap. Costume drama can cost between £1m to £8m per episode, more for the biggest hits. 

Purser is now seeking to have it commissioned as a returning series. McCrone wrote five books covering several generations, so success could replicate the benefits of Outlander for years to come. 

One online petition supporting the production has attracted thousands of signatures. The excitement has generated fresh interest in a literary masterpiece and McCrone will soon be back in print. If goodwill was all that was required to make Wax Fruit a success, it would be on our screens already. Let’s hope goodwill translates into the hard cash the production, and Scotland’s screen industry needs and deserves.