Your Cheatin' Heart

After the success of Tutti Frutti, John Byrne returned with another musical based dark comedy thriller. This time the results were less successful probably because of the imprenetable dialogue.

The genre here is Country & Western, Scottish style. Frank McClusky (John Gordon Sinclair) is a local journalist who has been asked by Cissie Crouch (Tilda Swinton) to clear her husband's name for armed robbery. She thinks her husband was framed by a bad guy Fraser Boyle (Ken Stott) who was involved in the music scene. Frank is smitten by Cissie who might just be using him.

There were a wide range of quirky characters in this serial a lot of them as bad guys. It is a modern day western set in Glasgow with a nod to Chinatown. John Gordon Sinclair appears in the early episodes with his nose bandaged up.

The story did not gel, it was hard to sympathise with some of the characters who felt distant. It lacked the warmth and the genuine quirkiness of Tutti Frutti. I rewatched this recently and I still found it incomprehensible.

This was the last serial written for television by John Byrne.

It is still a pleasure to see Guy Mitchell and Eddi Reader perform 'Let Your Love Flow' with a line dance by a motorcycle gang in the final episode.

Watched this John Byrne gem when it was broadcast on the BBC,enjoyed it but,like many others,was a bit mystified. I got a DVD of the series this Christmas (not saying where from,cough cough) watched it again and I'm still mystified!Seriously though,the script is excellent as is the acting,but I'm not sure how much of the dialogue will be understood by non-Scots.Their loss though.

Many of the cast,Ken Stott especially.have gone on to bigger things.

Although I am not really a fan of C&W,the music is generally very listen-able,Eddi Reader's singing stands out. About time the BEEB released this officially.

I came across an old DVD of Your Cheatin' Heart (1990) at the back of my collection and really enjoyed the rewatch (after who know how long) written by Paisley's own John Byrne and IMO not far short of Tutti Frutti in quality - it's in the same territory of West Coast eccentrics and losers set to a musical backdrop.

Of the five main actors (featured in all 6 episodes) Tilda Swinton & Ken Stott went to have substantial careers while the other three kinda fell by the wayside - Top Billed John Gordon Sinclair, while Katy Murphy and Keviin McMonagle don't even have photos on their IMDB pages.

Well worth a watch if like Byrne's work and, I suppose, if you can find it out there on the interweb!

Sooo frustrated!! When will BBC release this brilliant series as a DVD??

Originally missed the first episode but caught the rest although only videoed the excellent 'Last Round Up'.

Have the soundtrack and the screen play just need the DVD!!

Tilda Swinton, Ken Stott, Eddie Reader, the wonderful man now sadly 'late' who played Cherokee George (and several others characters) really need to have this brought to the attention of a wider world.

Polis to driver of broken down van 'Have you got a handle son?' Fraser Boyle 'Aye, Fraser'

It certainly isn't a "comedy thriller." I was neither chuckling nor intrigued. It was almost like watching somebody's home movies. Stilted characters and uninspired direction and photography. Maybe it was cool in 1990, but watching it on DVD in 2022 was less interesting than TV channel changing.