Douglas Stuart: Love, Hope and Grit
Alan Yentob meets Douglas Stuart at a critical point in his career as he emerges from the starlight of his triumphant debut novel, and winner of the Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain. imagine... walks the streets of Glasgow's East End and the East Village in New York as Douglas Stuart tries to unite two very different sides of his life through his writing.
Shuggie Bain centres around an alcoholic single mother and her queer son as they navigate life on a Glasgow sink estate. It is distilled through Stuart's own troubled upbringing in poverty and addiction in 1980s Glasgow. imagine…takes him back to the old haunts in the novel: Sighthill, the Barras Market and the Grand Ole Opry.
We meet the two art teachers who, according to Stuart, saved his life. Just like his character Shuggie, he had lost his own mother to alcohol addiction. Douglas Stuart was on the cusp of homelessness, struggling to stay on at school, but in just a few years he went from a Glasgow bedsit to the Royal College of Art, and then landed in the epicentre of New York fashion, working for Calvin Klein.
Alan Yentob retraces Stuart's remarkable journey in New York, where he was now able to be open about his sexuality, having faced isolation and homophobia growing up. However, despite his astonishing success in the fashion world, he had not processed the memories of his childhood. In 2009, he started writing the early drafts of Shuggie Bain as he travelled on the subway into work.
This year sees the publication of Young Mungo, his second, highly anticipated novel, a love story about two teenage boys coming to terms with their queer identity in the sectarian Glasgow of the author's youth.
Contributors include Alan Cumming, Val McDermid and Lulu, plus readings from local Glaswegians.
Trailer
Recently Updated Shows
Ancient Aliens
Ancient Aliens explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years. From the age of the dinosaurs to ancient Egypt, from early cave drawings to continued mass sightings in the US, each episode in this hit History series gives historic depth to the questions, speculations, provocative controversies, first-hand accounts and grounded theories surrounding this age old debate. Did intelligent beings from outer space visit Earth thousands of years ago?
Survivor
Eighteen to twenty castaways will compete against each other on Survivor. All castaways will compete to outwit, outplay, outlast and ultimately be crowned Sole Survivor.
Lioness
Lioness, inspired by an actual U.S. Military program, follows the life of Joe while she attempts to balance her personal and professional life as the tip of the CIA's spear in the war on terror. The Lioness Program, overseen by Kaitlyn Meade and Donald Westfield, enlists an aggressive Marine Raider named Cruz to operate undercover alongside Joe among the power brokers of State terrorism in the CIA's efforts to thwart the next 9/11.
Doc
Doc centers on the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Larsen, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she's treated, colleagues she's crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away. She can rely only on her estranged 17-year-old daughter, whom she remembers as a 9-year-old, and a handful of devoted friends, as she struggles to continue practicing medicine, despite having lost nearly a decade of knowledge and experience.
Dark Matter
Hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade, Dark Matter is a story about the road not taken. The series follows Jason Dessen, a physicist, professor, and family man who – one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago – is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the multiverse of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of mind-bending realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.