BBC documentary celebrates 200 years of The Scotsman

As The Scotsman prepares to celebrate its 200th birthday from Wednesday 25th January, its full story is about to be told in a major new television documentary, airing tonight on BBC Two Scotland, at 9pm.

The BBC Scotland film, entitled The Paper Thistle, goes behind the scenes at the newspaper’s headquarters in Edinburgh and explores its vast archives, spanning 200 years of history at the heart of Scotland.

BBC broadcasters Andrew Marr and James Naughtie, Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, and award-winning sports writer Hugh McIlvanney are among the former Scotsman journalists that appear.

Throughout the film, they relive their experience of the newsroom, as well as longer-serving editors, while The Scotsman’s heritage is showcased through the years, looking at the paper’s role reporting on the rise of new technology, making a stand for women’s rights, and documenting how journalistic reporting has evolved over the years. Some standout and striking moments featured in the documentary recall the paper’s coverage of the sinking of the Titanic, the Dunblane shooting and the Lockerbie disaster.

The documentary is the first of a series of activities that will celebrate The Scotsman’s 200 years since the first edition, more details around which will be revealed shortly.