Elaine Collins

When Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert dies, she finds solace in her trusted servant, Mr. John Brown. But their relationship also brings scandal and turmoil to the monarchy.

For Govan resident Rab C. Nesbitt, there’s little magic in Christmas when there’s no money to spare. While his long-suffering wife Mary and teenage sons Burney and Gash throw themselves into the festive spirit, Rab remains stubbornly cynical, delivering his usual caustic observations to camera about the commercial excesses of the season. The final insult comes when he discovers that his neighbour and best friend, Jamesie Cotter, has taken a job as a department-store Santa. A confrontation follows, landing Rab in gaol. Although he manages to make it home in time for Christmas, the atmosphere is so miserable that he decides he’d rather spend the holiday back inside.

In Glasgow, Toni Cocozza, age 28, aspires to be a lounge singer; his repertoire is strictly Sinatra, backed by Bill, an aging piano player and his only friend. Toni dreams big and enters a local television talent show. About that time, a local Mob boss decides Toni is great entertainment and invites him to be his guest at a casino. Toni chats up Irene, a cigarette girl, he gets an odd job or two from Chisolm, the mobster's number two, the audition goes bust, and Toni's future is uncertain. One thing leads to another with the Mob. Is Toni at a crossroads, or is there in reality no turning or going back?

Franz Kafka is working on his Metamorphosis, but he's suffering from writer's block; he can't get off on the right track. While trying to decide what Gregor Samsa is going to wake up as, he is constantly interrupted by door-to-door salesmen, young women, and his own inexplicable hallucinations.

A nostalgic look back at City Lights, the iconic Scottish sitcom that captured the spirit of 1980s Scotland, featuring the writer, cast and the famous faces it inspired

In 1981, Gerd Heidemann, a war correspondent and reporter with the German magazine Stern, makes what he believes is the literary and historical scoop of the century: the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler. Over the next two years, Heidemann and the senior management figures at Stern secretly pay 10 million German marks to a mysterious 'Dr Fischer' for the sixty volumes of 'Hitler's diaries'. However, to the dismay of all, it is discovered after the publication of first extract that the diaries are crude forgeries, faked by Stuttgart criminal Konrad Kujau.

Jake lives in the shadow of his dying grandfather, who was once the town's toughest hard man. Despite their hatred of each other, Jake's sole aim is to be as tough as the old man was. One day in Jake's life, as he drifts, drinks and fights, leads to a bleak realisation.

Eight years ago, Gavin, the artistic son of a Scots-Italian ice-cream dynasty, turned his back on Glasgow and moved south to London to make his name illustrating children's books. Now, frustrated and broke, his Uncle Sal appears with an offer. Gavin's father has sold the family business and to get his share of the proceeds, Gavin must return home for his father's birthday party. Swayed by the money, he sets off north and picks up a hitchhiker with a secret. Their journey is difficult but ultimately rewarding.