Jack Docherty brings together a jam-packed cast of comedians, actors and famous faces for a riotous celebration of Scotland's most valuable export – its sense of humour. Scotland is a small nation with a big funny bone. It's known the world over for self-deprecation, quick-witted patter and deadpan asides. But what makes it so funny? To find out the answer, this programme delves deep into the BBC Scotland archives to find a century’s worth of classic characters, catchphrases and comedy clips.

Simon is taking girlfriend Donna back home to the Isle of Wight for the very first time. Can he survive a long birthday weekend with his biological and extended family without losing his cool, or his girlfriend?

1933. Hercule Poirot, older and greyer, receives letters threatening murder. The sender signs themselves only as “A.B.C.” When he takes the letters to the police looking for help, Hercule finds all his old friends have moved on. But soon there is a murder and the once-great detective must take matters into his own hands.

The story of the inhabitants of the isolated Scottish island of Todday, in the Outer Hebrides, where gloom sets in as their wartime rationing of whisky runs out. When cargo ship the SS Cabinet Minister runs aground the shrewd islanders run rings around the buffoonish English Home Guard commander Captain Waggett and conspire to hide away cases of the precious amber nectar.

The life and times of Tommy Cooper

A story set in a blue collar world, about love, romance, family, and babies. When a man returns from his travels abroad he is shocked to discover that his ex-girlfriend and love of his life is carrying another man's baby.

Victor Maynard is a middle-aged, solitary assassin who lives to please his formidable mother, despite his own peerless reputation for lethal efficiency. His professional routine is interrupted when he finds himself drawn to one of his intended victims. After sparing her life, he unexpectedly acquires a young apprentice. Believing Victor to be a private detective, his two new companions tag along, while he attempts to thwart the murderous attentions of his unhappy client.

Sitcom about a pair of Glasgow house clearers, discovering the hidden lives people lead behind closed doors.

Oliver is born into poverty and misfortune - the son of an unmarried mother, who dies shortly after his birth. He is soon delivered to the workhouse, where the cruel Mr. Bumble oversees children tormented by starvation and suffering. When Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, he finds himself cast out and forced to make his own way in the world...

A tense two-part psychological thriller about a troubled, homeless girl who gets caught up in the hunt for a violent killer.

A young homeless girl is suspected of being a gruesome serial killer.

A family in financial crisis is forced to sell Lassie, their beloved dog. Hundreds of miles away from her true family, Lassie escapes and sets out on a journey home.

15-year-old Davie Balfour is poised to receive a vast inheritance when he's lured onto a cargo ship, knocked unconscious, and kidnapped by his malevolent uncle Ebenezer, who devises a scheme to sell him into slavery. But Davie's unforeseen rescue at the hands of a Scottish rogue, Alan Breck, leaves them racing across the Scottish moors, with English bounty hunters in hot pursuit.

15-year-old Davie Balfour is poised to receive a vast inheritance when he's lured onto a cargo ship, knocked unconscious, and kidnapped by his malevolent uncle Ebenezer, who devises a scheme to sell him into slavery. But Davie's unforeseen rescue at the hands of a Scottish rogue, Alan Breck, with them racing across the Scottish moors, with English bounty hunters in hot pursuit.

Venice, 1596. Bassanio begs his friend Antonio, a prosperous merchant, to lend him a large sum of money so that he can woo Portia, a very wealthy heiress; but Antonio has invested his fortune abroad, so they turn to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, and ask him for a loan.

Eight London couples try to deal with their relationships in different ways. Their tryst with love makes them discover how complicated relationships can be.

Snoddy was a Scottish television sitcom that aired for only six episodes in 2002. It starred Gregor Fisher from the recently finished Rab C Nesbitt. It was not particularly successful and was never aired outside of Scotland.

Adaptation of the Dickens novel.

Brotherly Love is a 1999 sitcom starring Gregor Fisher and James Fleet. The show was made in Scotland and similar to Last of the Summer Wine. Recently, it has been aired in the United States on various PBS stations as part of 'One Season Wonders.'

Set at the turn of the 20th century, The Railway Children tells the story of three Edwardian children and their mother who move to a country house in Yorkshire after their father is mysteriously taken away by the police.

At the Castle of Gormenghast, the Groan family has ruled with dusty ceremony for more than seventy generations. A clever and ambitious new kitchen boy, Steerpike, begins to insinuate himself into the affections of Lady Fuchsia Groan and to murder his way to power.

At the Castle of Gormenghast, the Groan family has ruled with dusty ceremony for more than seventy generations. A clever and ambitious new kitchen boy, Steerpike, begins to insinuate himself into the affections of Lady Fuchsia Groan and to murder his way to power.

The Baldy Man is a television series starring Gregor Fisher, a Scottish comedian. It was broadcast in two series comprising thirteen episodes on ITV, screening in 1995 and 1997, was made by The Comedy Unit/. The character's chief attributes were his comb over hairstyle as well as his bumbling nature and plump figure. The series was produced and directed by Colin Gilbert who worked with Fisher in Scotland's well known situation comedy Rab C. Nesbitt among many others. The show was written by Philip Differ who was the script editor on Naked Video. The Baldy Man character first appeared in a series of sketches in the BBC Scotland show Naked Video.

The Tales of Para Handy is a Scottish television series set in the western isles of Scotland in the 1930s, based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. It starred Gregor Fisher as Captain Peter "Para Handy" MacFarlane, Sean Scanlan as first mate Dougie Cameron, Rikki Fulton as engineer Dan Macphail and Andrew Fairlie as Sunny Jim. These four made up the crew of the puffer 'Vital Spark' which was employed by the Campbell Shipping Company, headquartered in Glasgow and run by Andrew Campbell

The cast of BBC2's hit comedy series have taken to the stage of Aberdeen's Capitol Theatre on the final night of their triumphant nationwide tour. Now the scene is set for the usual Rab blend of vitriolic comedy. String-vested superslob Rab C. Nesbitt faces a frosty reception from his family when he finally staggers home from the World Cup, several months later spurned by delinquent sons and driven out of the house by his exasperated spouse, he finds himself reluctantly sharing a squalid bedsit with his wholesome and equally estranged pal, Jamesie. ‘I Married the wrong woman’ laments the rueful Rob rekindling memories of his first true love. A sweet schoolgirl called Isobel Niddrie.

BBC comedy series about Rab C. Nesbitt, a drunken, string vested layabout who lives with his long suffering wife Mary and his two sons in the working class area of Govan in Glasgow. When he's not getting drunk with his pals that include the devious, womanizing Jamesie Cotter. He's offering his philosophical outlook on life to whoever will listen.

More comedy sketches from Scottish comedian Rikki Fulton. Characters include: Michael Jackson - from Jordanhill; Shirley Bassey - from Bearsden; Jonathan Partington; Bonnie Prince Charlie; and the Last Call team.

On Christmas Eve, 1818, in Austria the Oberndorf organ broke down. The assistant priest writes a carol to be accompanied by guitar. The carol was "Silent Night". (Taken from the IMDB page)

A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.

Sherlock Holmes is as dashing as ever, but with a little secret: Dr. Watson is the brains behind the operation. When Reginald Kincaid, the actor he has hired to play Holmes becomes insufferable, Watson fires him and tries to go out on his own, but finds that he has done too good a job building Holmes up in the public's mind.

Rikki Fulton and friends return with another selection of sketches and comedy characters, including the Reverend I.M. Jolly, Supercop, dirty barber Alky Broon and Big Chief Swift Half.

A millionaire past his prime and his young wife arrive in Kenya circa 1940 to find that the other affluent British expatriates are living large as the homefront gears up for war. They are busy swapping partners, doing drugs, and attending lavish parties and horse races. She begins a torrid affair with one of the bon vivants, and her husband finds out and confronts them. The husband and wife decide to break up peacefully, but the bon vivant is murdered and all the evidence points to the husband.

A woman looks back on her life as a political activist in Scotland from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Video Compilation of the Scottish TV Comedy Sketch Show. Stand out characters include Supercop, an idiot motorcycle policeman whose catchphrase was 'Alright Stirling, oot the car' and whose goggles would spring off his helmet; Dirty Dickie Dandruff; Gallowgate Gourmet, the unbelievably unhygienic TV chef; and McGlinchey, a colourful wide-boy.

Hapless bank clerk Willie Melvin dreams of being a successful writer but is held back by his own incompetence, the dodgy dealings of his best friend Chancer, and lack of support from his mother, the bank's manager Adam McLelland and his obsequious fellow teller, Brian.

Naked Video was a BBC Scotland comedy series, broadcast between 1986 and 1991 on BBC2, the series was created by Colin Gilbert who also created A Kick Up the Eighties and Naked Radio.

Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of a modern-day Lone Ranger and ex-firefighter, Ken Boon.

Alan and Mary are pretty miserable together and split up. As a very presentable Glaswegian photographer, Alan soon has chances to find consolation elsewhere, but more and more thinks of Mary. She, however, seems a lot less keen to try again.

George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

Life in a Scottish New Town

Set in 1943 in Scotland during World War II. Janie is a young housewife married to a man named Dougal, 15 years her senior. As part of a war rehabilitation program, Janie and Dougal welcome three Italian POWs to work on their farm. Soon, Janie falls in love with one of them...

Foxy Lady was a television comedy series made between October 1982 and February 1984 by Granada Television. It was set in the 1960s and revolved around a young female reporter, Daisy Jackson, who worked for a newspaper and encountered sexism from her colleagues.

A week in the life of Redditch investigative reporter Kevin Turvey. As you would expect, not a lot happens!

Jake lives in the shadow of his dying grandfather, who was once the town's toughest hard man. Despite their hatred of each other, Jake's sole aim is to be as tough as the old man was. One day in Jake's life, as he drifts, drinks and fights, leads to a bleak realisation.

Adolescent love can be difficult at the best of times, but Donal and Sally have special problems – problems which alarm their families and the instructors at Strathvale Centre.

Scotch and Wry was a Scottish comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC One Scotland and starred Rikki Fulton. After two series, in 1978 and 1979, the programme continued as a regular part of the channel's Hogmanay celebrations between 1980 and 1992, pulling in millions of viewers. The show gave early exposure to actors like Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper, Gerard Kelly and Miriam Margolyes.