''The Steamie'' is a

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

stage play, written by Tony Roper. It is set on

Hogmanay Hogmanay ( , ) is the Scots word for the last day of the old year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day (1 January) or i ...

1950 and provides a window on the lives and aspirations of a group of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

washing their clothes in a public washhouse (steamie). It was commissioned by Borderline Theatre in the early 1980s and first staged by

Wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while th ...

at the Crawfurd Theatre,

in 1987. A television version was made by

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is th ...

for Hogmanay 1988. It gained immediate popularity, and has been repeated many times over the years. It starred Dorothy Paul,

Eileen McCallum Eileen McCallum, MBE (born 2 December 1936) is a Scottish actress who is best known for playing the part of shopkeeper Isabel Blair through the complete run of soap opera '' Take the High Road'' from 1980 to 2003, and as Liz Hamilton from 2005 ...

Katy Murphy Katy Murphy (born 8 December 1962) is a Scottish actress and teacher who has appeared in many television programs, most of them for the BBC and ITV. While most associated with television drama, she has worked across a variety of genres, includin ...

, Sheila Donald, Faye Milligan and

Peter Mullan Peter Mullan (; born 2 November 1959) is a Scottish actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his role in Ken Loach's ''My Name Is Joe'' (1998), for which he won Best Actor Award at 1998 Cannes Film Festival, 2000's '' The Claim'' and all th ...

. Future ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'' cast member Caroline Paterson also made an appearance.

Haldane Duncan Haldane Duncan (25 July 1940 – 26 December 2018) was a Scottish television producer and director, best known for his contributions to soap operas. Career Early years In 1958, Duncan left George Heriot's School in Edinburgh to take up a care ...

co-produced and directed it. A

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the adve ...

, also by Roper, was published in 2005. ''The Steamie'' came second in an online poll for the television 'list' show ''STV's Top 30 Best Loved Shows'', shown on Saturday 3 January 2009. The following day, a short documentary - ''The Steamie Story'' was broadcast on STV, marking the 21st anniversary of its first TV transmission. This was followed by the show itself. ''The Steamie'' is available to view in full on the STV Player in Scotland. A 30th anniversary touring production with a cast comprising Libby McArthur, Mary McCusker,

Steven McNicoll Steven McNicoll is a Scottish actor, director, playwright and television presenter. He co-wrote and starred in seven series of the BBC sketch show '' Velvet Soup'' on radio and later television, which earned him a BAFTA nomination. He is also ...

Carmen Pieraccini Carmen Pieraccini (born 1979) is a Scottish actress and clown doctor, who has appeared in the BBC Scotland soap opera ''River City'' since 2003, until her departure in 2007. She returned full-time to the Soap in 2010 and again in 2019 for a shor ...

and Fiona Wood was first performed at the Adam Smith Theatre,

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011 ...

on 6 September 2017.

Critical reception

Of the stage version, ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'' opined, "The play has a kind of hilarious perfection"; while in the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', Jack Tinker wrote, "The four Glaswegian biddies who rub, scrub and gossip their way...one Hogmanay eve back in the fifties create a clubbable camaraderie from their labours in a way entirely lacking today...Hearts are worn on rolled-up sleeves. It is impossible not to adore every rose-tinted minute."

References

External links

''The Steamie''
on STV Player 1987 plays British television films British television plays Culture in Glasgow Hogmanay Plays set in Scotland Scottish plays Scottish television films Television shows produced by Scottish Television Television shows set in Glasgow {{1980s-play-stub