Doors 11:30am
Starts 12noon
Finishes (approx.) 1:30pm
Blether with Blythe
Blythe Duff in conversation with Fiona Kennedy
Please note this event will take place at Braemar Village Hall.
Blythe Duff recently celebrated 40 years in the industry. Her career has spanned award-winning theatre, television, radio and film. Her many different roles have been rich and diverse in a variety of notable productions including: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Ciara; Iron and The James Plays. She is, however, best known for her role as ‘Jackie Reid’ in the long-running television crime drama Taggart.
Blythe began her acting career in The Company, a youth theatre group based at the Glasgow Arts Centre. She later joined the Scottish Youth Theatre and debuted as a professional in 1983 in The Young Playwrights Festival with SYT/The Traverse. For seven years, Blythe honed her craft touring Scotland in theatre productions with Wildcat, TAG, The Lyceum, Cumbernauld, Communicado and The Traverse. In 1989 she played Shirley Kaplan in Scottish National Opera /ENO’s production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. Touring Scotland and culminating at London’s Coliseum.
Between 1990 and 2010 she became the longest running cast member playing Jackie Reid in the detective drama Taggart (STV/ITV) which brought Blythe to the attention of a national and international audience. Success on television did not, however, interfere with her long-standing love of the theatre. There were numerous concurrent stage appearances including roles in Swing Hammer Swing (Citizen’s Theatre), Be Near Me (NTS/Donmar) and King of the Fields (The Traverse). In recent years, the opportunity to tour internationally has proved fruitful with Beautiful Burnout (NY/Australia/NZ ) Good With People (NY) and The James Plays touring to festivals in Australia, NZ and Toronto.
She has always enjoyed opportunities to work with orchestras most recently with Tommy Smith’s renowned SNJO in a production of Tales of the Tribe. Narrations with the RSNO and the orchestra of Scottish Opera.
Her recent radio/podcast work includes readings for the complete work of Robert Burns and Atlantic- a Scottish Story where she pushed her singing skills. In recent years she has recorded the songs Fairytale of New York and Glasgow Town and filmed with the award winning director Michael J Ferns.
Her short films Maureen, Hula and Sarajevo have been shown at various film festivals at home.
Blythe has twice received the CATS (The Critics’ Award Theatre Scotland) for best actress, firstly for her role in Iron (2013) and again the following year for Ciara. In 2011, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) where she a Cultural Fellow, delivering scriptwriting advice, support, and workshop opportunities to MA students at GCU and working closely with the archive team to deliver ‘Taggart - the People’s Archive’.
Fiona Kennedy OBE DL is one of Scotland’s best known singer-songwriters and broadcasters. She has produced a variety of shows for stage and television over the years and is a tireless volunteer and ambassador for a number of charities, not least as a Trustee of St Margaret’s Braemar.
Her musical accomplishments are incredibly varied and include singing for Her late Majesty The Queen on several occasions, performing at Edinburgh Castle during the G8 Summit, shows at Celtic Connections and the BBC’s Transatlantic Sessions and touring with Runrig.
She has hosted television programmes for PBS in America, narrated Peter and the Wolf and The Snowman alongside the RSNO and acted in a number of roles including Alfie in the West End and in the 1973 cult classic film The Wicker Man.