9 Scottish comedy dramas to make you laugh and cry

Fraser Martin -

The Scots are renowned for their dry, biting sense of humour. A nation whose pragmatic conscience makes it natural for them to blend humour with some of life's darker moments with ease. Mixing the two is sometimes referred to as black comedy — taboo in some cultures, but for the Scots a perfectly normal way of understanding and coping with some of life's problems, by laughing at them in turn.

These 9 comedy drama films, TV plays, and TV series make for an interesting insight into the Scottish psyche. Fun at all times. Sometimes confronting. Sometimes riveting. Bust most often of all, joyous.

Sunshine on Leith
Davy and Ally have to re-learn how to live life in Edinburgh after coming home from serving in Afghanistan. Both struggle to learn to live a life outside the army and to deal with the everyday struggles of family, jobs and relationships. Sunshine on Leith is based on the sensational stage hit of the…
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One Last Chance
A group of slackers think they have found gold in the Highlands.
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Orphans
A group of four siblings reunite in Glasgow on the eve of their mother’s funeral, and the children mourn their mother’s passing in a variety of ways—sometimes heartfelt, sometimes bizarre. As a potential thunderstorm threatens to damage the city, the situation compounds itself.
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Comfort and Joy
Radio host Alan ‘Dickie’ Bird witnesses how an icecream van is attacked and destroyed by angry competitors. This leads him into the struggle between two Italian families over the icecream market of Glasgow.
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The Elephants’ Graveyard
Bunny has told his wife he is working as a postman, but in fact is wandering the hills all day, wondering why he doesn’t want to work. He meets Jody, an older man who has told his wife he’s working in a factory, but is in fact doing the same thing. The two men spend a day of friendship together, but…
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Just Another Saturday
It’s the day of the Orange Parade in Glasgow, but for Jon, the thrill of leading the parade and swinging the mace soon turns to horror as he learns the truth behind the costumes and songs.
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Local Hero
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don’t go as expected.
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Hamish Macbeth
Hamish Macbeth is a comedy-drama series made by BBC Scotland and first aired in 1995. It is loosely based on a series of mystery novels by M. C. Beaton. The series concerns a local police officer, Constable Hamish Macbeth in the fictitious town of Lochdubh on the west coast of Scotland. The titular …
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Gregory’s Girl
In his Scottish New Town home, gangling Gregory and his schoolfriends are starting to find out about girls. He fancies Dorothy, not least because she has got into the football team - and is a better player than him. He finally asks her out, but it is obviously the females in control of matters here,…
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