Norman Maclean is the Highland superstar that never was - sidetracked by a long love-affair with the bottle – or perhaps enabled by it. Who knows – not even Norman.
The acclaimed Gaelic comedian, singer, writer, piper and alcoholic Norman Maclean is talkoing about his life to accompany the recent publication of his autobiography, The Leper’s Bell.
Described as ‘a moving tale of the struggle to live between the two cultures of Gaelic and English’ – which it is.
All we can say is that listening to Norman Maclean talk is a rare privilege. The man has poetry in his soul and hearing him makes it contagious. If you don’t believe us, read the piece we published when an earlier television programme on the man was broadcast by BBC Alba: Tormod: If you never watch television again…
Tormod/Norman MacLean – A Life will be transmitted on Monday 18th January 2010 at 21:00.
BBC ALBA is available on Sky channel 168, Freesat channel 110 and live on BBC iplayer.
This was a really interesting and moving programme up until about 40 minutes in when they inexplicably decided to show a clip of an old drama in which a man was threatened by a baseball bat and his girlfriend was called a “slut”.
I’m not ashamed to say I’m the sensitive sort and I choose what I watch on TV carefully (I watch less than an hour a week usually) so I was a bit annoyed that they didn’t stick a warning in Gaelic or English before the show.
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