East Kilbride Town Centre - The Plaza, 1981. BBC Scotland's "The Mad Death"

This time in a higher res and with the correct aspect ratio!

Filmed in 1981 but not transmitted until July 1983, this section is from episode two of the three-part BBC Scotland drama series which fictionalised a rabies outbreak in Scotland, thanks to a quarantine-dodging posh French bird taking her cat into the country, which had been previously bitten by a rabid fox. (the cat, not the posh French bird.) Le meow!

This is the only section of the entire miniseries to feature East Kilbride, and shows some sections of the Centre that are still (barely) recognisable, and others that are now gone completely, thanks to the renovation work started in 1987 and completed in 1989.

The series - surprisingly - has stood up well to time. The cars are chunkier and the phones are infinitely less mobile, but the drama has lost little punch in almost thirty years since it was filmed, and the special effects are still shocking, if you ignore the (thankfully sparse) use of dodgy fox puppets. The series was repeated once in 1985 and has never been issued on DVD, but it was edited to film length and released on a now impossible-to-find VHS in the mid-80s. (although... and I didn't tell you this... if you look around, there's an American website selling a DVD dump of the edited VHS on-line for less than twenty bucks. Shhh....)

This particular recording is from the 1993/4 UK Gold screening, hence the ropey quality and the ghastly gold dog in the corner. ....no pun intended.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• the mad death
• east kilbride
• town centre
• shopping
• 1981
• 1983
• rabies
• dogs
• bbc scotland
• scottish
• EK

[zzzzizzzz1]

A dog was in the mall?!!!!! That's impossible, how did the dog was going through in the mall? Oh, sir why?

[zzzzizzzz1]

This dog is in the mall when the old lady let him in.

[eleven38]

@zzzzizzzz1 wasnt the mall its where hs samules is now, was clarkes shoes at the time

[DaveWBedford]

Is this the same rabies drama from the 80s that started with a man picking up a fox from the side of the road?

[DaveWBedford]

Thanks for uploading this! I was sure there was a drama about rabies in the early 80s and you've confirmed it! I'll now have to see if I can find it anywhere. Great piece of action there though.

[BananaBoutRepublican]

It's just a dog....

[SuperVarulven]

I have not known how it ended until now aaaaaaaa

[ManMountain08]

someone did post the film on you tube and it was great to watch

[Professor6871]

@Kaosapts You can see the whole drama of this in a film version at: veehd com./video/4570981_The Mad Death-1983-R. Some scenes have been taken out. For example where Ted Bishop has his first rabies hallucination, where the farmer of the combine harvester that Bishop's car has crashed into tries to strangle him. Later on you have a nasty scene where you have a soldier being attacked by pack of rabid dogs.

[pierstheoneandonly]

I expect this has got Percy Edwards' animal impersonations all over the soundtrack. The 'bark' at 3.28 suggests as much.