The Flying Pigs are a musical

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

team based in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in the North-East of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

that has received some UK-wide coverage due to their

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

radio sho
''Desperate Fishwives''

History

After the success of the Aberdeen Student Show during the 1990s, several members of the script team, during the 1993 last night party, toyed with the idea of creating a new group to serve as a forum for sketch based comedy ideas which did not fit within the confines of Student Show. Writers Greg Gordon, Andrew Brebner, Charles Sandison, Ewan MacGillivray and Grant Campbell started meeting on a regular basis, creating new characters and ideas. After a while, due to other commitments and relocations, only Gordon and Brebner remained; but by the end of 1995 they had enough material to put on a show. The then director of Student Show, John Hardie, was asked to direct the show, and the original cast, all Student Show alumni, were assembled. The first show, ''Last Tango in Powis'' was debuted at the Lemon Tree Theatre on 19 February 1996.

Language

The shows themselves use a large lexicon of words from the 'Doric' dialect which is particular to the North East of Scotland. Indeed it was this use of the Lowland Scots dialect that seemed to be one of the attractions to the BBC. The use of Doric allows for humour to be built on the language as well as the situations and characters in the sketches.

Influences

One of the major influences on the group is the group Scotland the What? who, like The Flying Pigs, also formed after meeting each other at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

. John Hardie of the Flying Pigs is the son of Scotland the What? star, William "Buff” Hardie. The group cemented their reputation in the City and connection to STW? by performing at the 'Freedom of the City of Aberdeen' reception for Scotland the What?

Productions

*''Last Tango in Powis'' (1998, Lemon Tree Studio Theatre) *''Where Seagulls Dare'' (1999, Lemon Tree Studio Theatre) *''Stanley Cooslick's Clockwork Sporran'' (2000, Lemon Tree Studio Theatre) *''All Quiet on the Westburn Front'' (2001, Lemon Tree Studio Theatre) *''Prime Cuts - The Best of Flying Pig'' (2001,

Aberdeen Arts Centre Aberdeen Arts Centre is a theatre and arts centre on King Street, Aberdeen, King Street in Aberdeen, Scotland with a 350-seater auditorium. It is a Category A listed building. The building was originally the North Parish Church. The church wa ...

) *''The Madness of Kingwells'' (2002,

) *''The Hunchback of Walker Dam'' (2004, Lemon Tree Studio Theatre) *''Best Back - The Best of Flying Pig'' (2004, HMT at Hilton) *''The Seagull has Landed'' (2005, His Majesty's Theatre) *''Desperate Fishwives- Stage Show'' (2007, His Majesty's Theatre) *''Desperate Fishwives- Radio Show'' (2007, 2009, 2010,

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

) *''How to Look Good Glaikit'' (2009, His Majesty's Theatre) *''Desperate Fishwives'' - TV Pilot (2010,

) *''The Silence of the Bams'' (2011, His Majesty's Theatre) *''Finzean in the Rain'' (2013, His Majesty's Theatre) *''A Bit of Crackling'' (2015, His Majesty's Theatre) *''The Seagull has Landed'' (2015,

King's Theatre, Edinburgh The King's Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. History of the theatre The King's became famous for being a venue belonging to the theatre empire Howard & Wyndham. The theatre was originally commissioned by the Edinburgh Building Comp ...

) *
Dreich Encounter
' (2016, His Majesty's Theatre) *
Now That's What I Call Methlick
' (2018, His Majesty's Theatre) * ''The Rothienorman Picture Show'' 2022, His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen

BBC Scotland

In 2007

approached the Group, following their His Majesty's Theatre stage show, ''Desperate Fishwives'', to make a show for radio. Later on that year it was broadcast. Following the success of the first series, a second radio series was broadcast in 2008. A third series was broadcast in December 2010 throughout Christmas week, culminating in a special Christmas Day episode. In 2009, it was confirmed that the BBC were interested in creating a TV pilot, and in April 2010

filmed this TV pilot on location in the North East using the "Desperate Fishwives" title. The pilot aired on BBC2 Scotland on 14 December 2010.

References

External links

Flying Pig Productions Official WebsiteAbout Aberdeen: Flying PigsLaughing stock of the North-East, in Leopard: The Magazine for North-East Scotland, February 2006, by Judy Mackie. (Profile of John Hardie) 20 years of The Flying Pigs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flying Pigs Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Culture in Aberdeen Theatre companies in Scotland