Synopsis

Produced by Hopscotch Films for BBC Scotland. Hollywood actor Brian Cox is a son of Dundee. It's the big constant in his life. He grew up amid the clatter of the Jute mills, where both his parents began their working lives. The Jute trade, making hessian from India’s ‘golden’ fibre, dominated Dundee for over a century, linking it with Calcutta. Now it is fast becoming a memory. This documentary is a journey into Brian Cox’s own past, and on to Calcutta in the footsteps of the Dundee Jute workers who left to seek their fortunes in India. Director: Brian Ross. Producer: John Archer. A Hopscotch Films Production.

"Dundee" (1939, b/w), The city of Dundee, its people and industries: jute, jam, and journalism. Premiered at a meeting of the British Association in Dundee, September 1939, the screening was abandoned midway owing to the declaration of war. Director: Donald Alexander. Produced for the Films of Scotland Committee. Courtesy National Library of Scotland.

"Brian Cox visits McGregor Balfour Textiles". Sandra Thomson discusses her selection of innovative jute products from handbags to coffins, produced by this Dundee company.