Legendary Scottish actor slams the BBC…
Screen legend Sir Sean Connery launched a scathing attack on the BBC for its lack of coverage of the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Speaking on the final day of the two week event, Connery – a patron of the festival – referred to the broadcaster as the “British Bullshit Corporation”, and accused them of a general under-representation of Scottish events.
Connery told the audience in attendance for the final award ceremony that “we have more than 300 BBC technicians that have gone to [Glastonbury] and not a single one that has come here,” and later elaborated on his comments to The Scotsman newspaper by suggesting that “the BBC forgets it is representing four different countries”. Defending these accustations, the BBC later replied that “in Scotland later in the summer there will be comprehensive coverage of the Edinburgh International Festival and T in the Park”.
Regardless of any bias towards English events, the fact that not one single crew was sent to cover the festival is poor form indeed. The EIFF is the longest continually running film festival in the world and I would have liked to see some kind of dedicated programming for my licence fee, However, the event did prove successful in its own right and managed to attract big names such as Connery, Sam Mendes and wife Kate Winslet, Claire Danes, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Guy Pearce, Alan Cumming, Emily Blunt, Robin Wright-Penn, William H. Macy, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Alfonso Cuarón to the red carpet.
Meanwhile, the big winner at the festival was the British sci-fi thriller Moon, which picked up the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film. Directed by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie), the film stars Sam Rockwell as a lunar employee stranded on the Moon with only a Kevin Spacey-voiced robot for company. Moon is released in U.K. cinemas on July 17th.
Originally published June 29, 2009. Updated February 28, 2020.
