Until recently, the terms 'Scottish climbing' and 'television' were hardly cosy bedfellows. In fact, you probably have go back to crackly black-and-white BBC footage of Tom Patey swinging on a rope suspended from the Old Man of Hoy in 1968 before you could think of a suitable synonymity.

The rot probably set in after a filming debacle on Ben Nevis in 1983 when the BBC is said to have lost £100,000 - a small fortune back then. Bad weather reduced climbing sequences to almost nothing, and at the end of the exercise all the filmmakers were left with was a de facto fly-on-the-wall docu-soap featuring the support team (a load of army squaddies) trying to stop their tents being ripped to shreds by gales.

>> Stevie Haston in Colorado for 'Wild Climbs' See larger pic

Following this chastening experience, the thought of using Scottish climbing as a subject for TV became regarded in telly circles with about as much enthusiasm as a bad dose of leprosy. But in 1994 everything changed. That autumn, a jaw-dropping televisual evocation of Scottish climbing was broadcast in six episodes.


Its name was The Edge, and it featured the most stunning action footage of Scottish climbing - and especially winter climbing - that has ever been captured. Since then there has been a regular stream of popular factual programmes in which Scottish climbing, climbers or hillwalking have featured prominently. The Face, Wild Climbs, Wilderness Walks have all been landmarks in the media rehabilitation of Scotland's great outdoors.

Much of the credit for this turnaround in fortunes can be put down to the creative energy of Richard Else and Margaret Wicks, co-founders of Triple Echo, the independent production company responsible for all these award-winning series, and many more besides.

"I had worked for twenty years for the BBC producing network series out of Newcastle," explains Richard Else on how he came to start making independent television films. "In addition to general news and features these included a series on hill walking with the cult guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright and a survey of mountaineering history called The Climbers presented by Chris Bonington. Coming from a hillwalking and skiing background myself, I was particularly interested in these, and decided that I wanted to do more of this type of programme."

>> One half of the enthusiastic Triple Echo team - Richard Else See larger pic

Even so, it must still have been a bold decision for Else to jack in a 'proper' job as a BBC North Producer and plunge straight into an ambitious 6-part documentary featuring lots of fickle Scottish winter climbing action. Fortune favoured the bold in this case; as it turned out, the filming season of 1993-4 was one of the snowiest in recent decades and resulted in some epic footage for what was to become The Edge.