Journalist Lesley Riddoch turns impresario for Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows
Scottish journalist, broadcaster and commentator Lesley Riddoch is turning impresario cum performer during this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Freelancer Riddoch, who writes weekly columns for the Sunday Post and The Scotsman, and occasionally contributes to The Guardian, has her own radio, podcast and TV production company, Feisty Ltd.
She is teaming up with Scottish writer and commentator Andy Wightman over the next two weeks to stage “Debates you don’t get on TV” - an hour-long show at 6pm every weekday night from August 14-24 at Venue 127 St John’s , Princes Street, which seeks to explore thinking for the mooted “New Scotland”.
Riddoch, who has had an extensive and chequered broadcasting career, especially with BBC Scotland, and is a former assistant editor of The Scotsman and contributing editor of the Sunday Herald, explains: “Each evening, Andy will lead off looking at how the nexus of money, politics and property has contributed to a disempowered and unequal society in which too many people are powerless to make a positive contribution to society.
“He will draw some inspiration from experiences in other European countries with a different tradition of finance, landownership and governance including Germany, Finland and Sweden.
Riddoch will tackle a different theme every night. The programme features:
August 14: Whose culture is it anyway? (which musical tradition, whose language and what’s in our galleries and museums?)
August 15: Our tides rivers and wind (how Scots have become disconnected from nature and renewable energy)
August 16: Harpies & Quines (20 years after the magazine launched - is this still Macho Caledonia?)
August 17: Kick the habits (why Scotland is still the Sick Man and Woman of Europe and have ye got tae drink?)
August 20: Love your frozen north (Scotland – Britain’s frozen north or Scandinavia’s fertile south?)
August 21: Have huts (Neighbours east and west escape to huts at weekends. Scots escape to pubs. Why?)
August 22: Early years revolution (… or will we just keep retrofitting skills onto Scotland’s broken teenagers?)
August 23: McKommunes (how Scotland’s over-sized, un-local government is stifling community control)
August 24: Is Scotland Nordic (well – are we made of the same stuff as our high-flying, equality-loving Nordic neighbours?)
Bookings are being accepted online. The ticket prices of £6 are being charged to cover venue costs.