WHAT was once Scotland's largest documentary film production company was facing liquidation yesterday.
A petition has been presented to the Court of Session by the advocate general for Scotland on behalf of the Inland Revenue commissioners seeking an order winding up Lamancha Productions Ltd and the appointment of a liquidator.
Lamancha began life almost 20 years ago as a video publishing house producing work recognised as worthy of an Emmy nomination.
It went on to have a tilt at the big screen, its contributions, however, making less of an impression on the critics.
Its credits include a controversial remake of Macbeth starring Jason Connery, son of Sir Sean, and Helen Baxendale.
Lamancha's diversification into feature films also led to involvement with The Bruce, whose cast included the late Oliver Reed, and Chasing The Deer, the much-criticised story of the Jacobite rebellion starring Brian Blessed.
The firm's registered office is said to be Lamancha House at Lamancha, near West Linton, Peeblesshire, where its creator David McWhinnie lives.
Mr McWhinnie, a former record label graphic designer who worked with Bob Marley and Paul McCartney, put the telephone down on The Herald when contacted at the seventeenth-century mansion.
The three low-budget films were financed by money raised through public subscription. Chasing the Deer attracted 298 subscribers who each invested (pounds) 1000 in the venture.
The film attracted hostility from critics, one of whom described it as ''a clumsy, hand-knitted, attempt at movie-making''.
Macbeth - which was filmed at Dunfermline Abbey, Balvaird Castle at Auchtermuchty in Fife, and Blackness Castle on the Firth of Forth, and premiered in 1996 - was said to be the ''most Scottish version'' of the Scots play.
A tape of the film was specially flown to Aberdeen so that local councillors could give it a screening certificate.
The Bruce, the tale of Robert the Bruce and his fight to win Scotland independence from the English, was premiered in Paisley Town Hall in the mid- 90s.
Lamancha Productions was set up in Leith Walk in Edinburgh in 1985 by Mr McWhinnie, a Motherwell-born self-made businessman.
Lamancha concentrated on making factually-based programmes on twentieth-century history from archive material, its first video series Decades covering the 20s to the 50s.
Its Battlefield series featuring such conflicts as Stalingrad, Berlin, Normandy, and Midway, proved a worldwide success clinching large television sales deals at Cannes.
It was bought by America's Public Broadcast Service (PBS) for prime-time screening and was in line for an Emmy award.
Among the many documentaries Lamancha was responsible for were Blitzkrieg and an Early History of Aviation
One outcome of Mr McWhinnie's regular trips to the United States were one-hour features on gangsters such as Al Capone and Dillinger.
Another of the 53-year-old's projects was The Occult History of the Third Reich, investigating the link between the Nazis and the supernatural.
The four-hour series, which was released by Columbia Tri-Star, was said to show how what became the occult philosophy of National Socialism was a blend of mystic Eastern teaching, Germanic folklore, and twisted ''racial hygiene''.
Lamancha Productions sold material in 20 countries and its soundtracks were translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Finnish and Portuguese.
A spokeswoman for Edinburgh Film Focus said last night: ''We're sad to see this production company disappearing.''
The Inland Revenue in Scotland said it was unable to comment on the petition.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article