There's Always a Nutter!

Wednesday 9th September

Getting through to Glasgow from Edinburgh on the M8 motorway is not one of life’s most pleasurable experiences even if there are some interesting art works to see on the way.

It is even worse when the traffic is particularly busy making a journey of around an hour in to a two and a half hour trek. Not to mention the fairly certain knowledge that it will be a wasted trip any way.

I was subjected to the journey in order to record the reaction of Scotland football fans in a pub Glasgow as Scotland played yet another do or die world cup qualifier game against Holland.

The pub in Byers road was full to bursting when I arrived as the time for kick off approached.

The Crowd in the Pub. Nick's pic's

I was pleased to see an ideal spot for me to film from where I could get shots of the crowd as they watched a big screen, see another screen and not be in the way.

Me in my shooting position.  Nick's pic's

I was also pleased that there did not appear to be any nutters in the throng that would give me any kind of stick or trouble.

The game kicked off and Scotland did quite well I captured the reaction of the folk watching as the post was hit, the ball thudded off the bar, the Dutch keeper made a fantastic save and yellow cards were handed out. 

At half time I had said to Nick Dixon, who was there with me, that the game had all the hallmarks of yet another heroic Scotland defeat.

There was about ten minutes left of the game when my prophecy came true.

There was hardly any reaction as the ball was deftly steered into the Scottish goal by Elia.

What surprised me was that on adjoining screens we could see England trouncing Croatia yet it elicited little reaction.

There was a bit of a cheer from an English couple when the England goals went in and a good natured tiny reaction from the Scots but other than that it was very quiet.

When the game was finished Nick was told that we did not need to file a piece.

I started to put the kit away when the obligatory nutter did surface.

I had not noticed him at all in the crowd as I had filmed during the game.

“Who are you doing this for?” he asked in a mildly aggressive tone.

“GMTV.” I replied.

“I just want you to know that you have no permission to use my image and I am not giving you any!” he announced with great waving of his arms.

“That’s no problem we won’t use it.” Nick gently replied.

“Who do I need to speak to about this?”, he said thrusting his face towards Nick.

“You’ve just spoken to me and I’ll make sure that it is not used.” replied Nick.

“I am telling you! You have no permission to use my image!” his voice now slightly louder and higher pitched.

“Sure. No Problem.” Nick nodded as he spoke

“I want to speak to someone about this.” The guy’s already red face was becoming redder

“I’ve told you that I will make sure that it is no used.”

“Why are you getting so aggressive?” he almost yelled as he trembled slightly.

“Don’t worry your image won’t get used.”

Nick then offered him a card and said if there was a problem to call him.

Huffing and puffing he started to leave pointing his finger at us saying, “You don’t have any permission to use my image!”

Once he was gone we left.

It was nice that the motorway on the way home was free flowing despite the night time roadworks