The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo celebrates their 75th Anniversary Show, The Heroes Who Made Us takes place throughout the month of August.
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00:00I'm Jane Bradley, arts and culture correspondent, The Scotsman. I am here today at the launch of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
00:06It's the 75th anniversary year and here I've caught up with the new creative director, Alan Lane, the chief executive, Jason Barrett,
00:14and also the new storyteller, Terence Ray, who is a new character in the performance this year.
00:23I'm here with Jason Barrett, who is the chief executive of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Hi, Jason.
00:29It's the 75th anniversary of the tattoo this year, which is obviously a very exciting anniversary.
00:34So can you tell me a little bit about your plans?
00:36Well, it is 75 and that's a big deal for us. So we want to make it extra special.
00:41And so there's a number of things going into this, enhancing the customer experience throughout
00:46and really reminding people of the wonderful 75 years we've had at the tattoo, but also what we give to charities.
00:52And I think that's really an important point of what the tattoo is.
00:55Because we do what we do in order to give money to service charities and to the Scottish traditional arts.
01:01And so using the 75th as a platform is one of those things.
01:04The second thing I'd say is that we have a new creative director and we're really excited for Alan Lane
01:08to come in and showcase his experiences and his talents on the tattoo.
01:14The tattoo will always have its enduring elements and we won't change those,
01:18but it's fun to see what a creative director can do and do it in our 75th.
01:21And obviously 75 years is a long time. You must have to constantly evolve and try to appeal to modern audiences.
01:28Yes, yes. Yeah. And so it's with that that you have to strike the right balance.
01:32You know, and I think we the wonderful thing about the tattoo, we perform in front of nearly 230,000 people a year
01:39and on the BBC and people have very strong opinions about the tattoo.
01:43And that's a good thing. That means they're passionate about it. That means they care.
01:47But we listen. We listen to those at least sort of to get a sense of sort of the barometer of how people feel.
01:53Sometimes people feel we're too modern. Sometimes people feel we're too traditional.
01:57But for us, it's about striking the right balance.
02:00I'm here today with Alan Lane, creative director of The Tattoo. Hi, Alan.
02:04Hiya. How you doing?
02:05Good. Thank you. So we're here at the launch of The Tattoo.
02:08We've heard some fantastic piping already this morning.
02:10So can you just tell me a little bit about what we're likely to see this year?
02:13The Heroes Who Made Us is our 75th show.
02:16We've been making this show for 75 years now, each year different.
02:19And this year we celebrate heroes of two kinds.
02:21The first are the heroes that make our show.
02:23So the military musicians, the volunteer performers and tattoo performers, our audiences, the weather, Edinburgh, the castle itself.
02:30And the second type of hero is those who make an impact on our lives, those who touch our lives, who bind our society into communities.
02:37The people who volunteer, their dedication, the people who set the example for us by their behaviour.
02:42We're celebrating those as well.
02:44So it's a really meaningful and really exciting year for us.
02:47Fantastic. And you are a theatre director by background.
02:49Yes, I am.
02:50And I understand that has influenced how you have pitched this year's event.
02:53So can you tell me a little bit more about that?
02:54I mean, the most important thing is I'm the biggest fan of The Tattoo.
02:57I've loved this show forever.
02:59So I want to keep all the things that people really love about The Tattoo.
03:02But like anything, it has to move on.
03:03And there are people who have seen this genuinely every single year for 75 years.
03:07And I can't be the guy that gives them old hats.
03:09So this year we have a storyteller at the heart of our company, a live actor, the brilliant Terence Ray from Glasgow, who's going to be on the Espanade with the bands, talking to the audience and just adding a theatrical flair to it, which I'm really excited about.
03:22This is Terence Ray, who has taken on the new role of storyteller at this year's Edinburgh Tattoo.
03:27So tell me about that.
03:28How's that going to work?
03:29So previously there's been a narrator, which has been a kind of unseen voice, which kind of introduces the acts and is involved with the audience as well.
03:39This year they're having me in person, which is quite a different change.
03:43The audience will be able to follow me along the Espanade and be able, hopefully, to really feel the emotion of the show this year.
03:49Brilliant. And how did you get recruited into this role? What's your background?
03:53Well, I'm a stage actor.
03:55And I've done some telly recently, which has been amazing.
03:58And Alan and I have had a long career of working together over the past 12 years or so, doing anything and everything from epic, large-scale theatre shows to small, tiny performances.
04:09So it's been just an absolute honour to be asked.
04:12And this must feel quite different. It's a show that's on every night for quite a number of nights.
04:16Yeah, it's like every other show, I suppose.
04:20Well, in some ways, yeah.
04:21In some ways, but in a very different kind of capacity.
04:23The main focus of this one is the music and the different stories that we'll be telling about the different people involved this year.
04:29So, yeah, I'm very excited about it.
04:31Brilliant. Thanks so much.
04:31No, not at all. Thank you, Jamie.
04:33For more information on this year's tattoo, have a look online and follow all of my coverage on scotsman.com.