User Reviews

Whilst not the most exciting film in the world, this made-for-TV film is still worth a look. It's one to keep for a rainy Sunday afternoon when you haven't got much to do. Not a lot happens but it does give an interesting historical insight into the lives of fisher women 100 years ago.

The film starts with a young girl attending her grandmother's funeral in the western isles in Scotland. She finds a photo album in her house with photos of her grandmother as a young girl working as a fish gutter. Film then jumps back several decades and tells granny's story. A photographer travelling in the NE of Scotland is taking a series of photos of the fisher girls who follow the herring fleet and gut and salt the fish. He falls in love with Cait (Emer Gillespie)- the granny at the start of the film, and they have a brief affair.

It's nicely filmed and well-researched. One of the lead actresses, Stella Gonet, later went on to play the lead in the BBC series 'House of Elliot'.

A bit of background trivia...

I was an extra in this film and had great fun watching how it was all made. It was filmed in the town of Portsoy in the NE of Scotland (I'm from a town nearby) and they transformed the lovely old harbour area into what it would have looked like in the late 19th Century.

We had to learn how to gut the fish the old fashioned way (yuk!)and in the 2 weeks of filming the harbour scenes, we used the same fish, day after day (even more yuk!). At one point the make up dept decided it would be a good idea if we all picked up some of the fish guts and rubbed it into our arms and face for a more authentic look - most of us said noooo way!!! I noticed she wasn't keen to pick them up and demonstrate.

It was filmed in March and we were freezing - although it stopped the 2 week old fish from smelling too badly! You can imagine how we felt when they decided we should all run into the sea in an apron-washing scene (which was used in the film). I'm one of the wimps holding back at the edge of the water!