Brond (1987– ) User Reviews

I Remember This Haunting Political Thriller

[Theo Robertson · 8/10 · 6 February 2003]

****** SPOILERS TO PLOT ******

I remember this being shown on Channel 4 in 1987 . It starts off with a young student played by a then unknown John Hannah jogging through the streets of Glasgow to the accompaniment of a wonderful pseudo operatic sound track . Stopping at a bridge the student witnesses the murder of a child by the mysterious Brond . As the story progresses the student finds himself used as a pawn by Brond to trap a Scottish nationalist terrorist cell and a top IRA terrorist

***** END SPOILERS ******

BROND is a political thriller you'll either love or hate . It was similar to several serials at the time like THE ONE GAME or WIPEOUT where you could easily find yourself confused as to what's happening as the plot unravels . You could also find Michael Caton Jones directorial style very pretentious and irritating but I loved it . I especially loved the haunting operatic sound track and feel slightly sad that no one has updated this page as to who composed the music for the show . And watch out for the appearance of a Special Branch officer who is played by Christopher Ellison . It's very easy to see why he was cast as Frank Burnside on THE BILL

I can't wait to see this again . Any chance of a repeat Channel 4 ?

Update Oct 2005: Thank you very much for the info about the title music

Music

[bobsakamento · 8/10 · 16 July 2005]

The music for Brond was called "Secret Ceremony(Theme from Brond)"

By Scala featuring Bill Nelson and Daryl Runswick. The additional track was

"Wiping a Tear from the All seeing Eye". The disc was issued on Cocteau Records Ltd .Vocals were by a Mary King and the Electronic Pheonix. The final episodes closing track was replaced by Andy Stewart singing "a Scottish Soldier" and the closing scene during the credits was centred on a monument to fallen Scots soldiers in the grounds of Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow .

I don't believe Brond has ever been issued on Video or DVD which is rather unfortunate.

Music from Brond

[MarcCireno · 19 October 2005]

I have the 12 inch single from a group named Scala - which is titled as the music from Brond. The two songs are Secret Ceremony and Wiping A Tear From The All Seeing Eye. One member was Bill Nelson. I was digging through my record collection and played this for a friend who loved it. So once and for all, I decided to find out what Brond was in the first place and came here. Thought I would pass along the info for the previous commentator. I "inherited" this record from a friend who bought in an obscure record store in Shreveport, LA in 1987. We were obsessed with is song since with its haunting and beautiful operatic sound.

A cult classic in 1987, incomprehensible in 2014

[garsonfarm · 3/10 · 27 February 2014]

I watched this eagerly when broadcast in 1987 and remember being hooked by it, so have wanted to see it again for a long time. Finally found a source this year, but revisiting was a huge disappointment. The plot does not make any sense - something about Irish terrorism in Glasgow being linked with a Scottish independence army and overseen by Brond (a ruthless shadowy spook played by Stratford Johns) with John Hannah as the innocent university student who accidentally becomes involved after seeing Brond push a child off a bridge (recognisable as the Gibson St road bridge over the River Kelvin in Glasgow's West End).

But the way the story unfolds is ludicrous - Brond must be clinically mad to do some of the things he does so there is no plot progression or rational explanation for the various incidents - nasty things happen without making any sense. Primo (played by James Cosmo) as Brond's side-kick and protective man-mountain keeps cropping up in John Hannah's life for no reason or purpose, and both Brond and Cosmo keep involving him in processes which would have been much simpler to resolve by themselves. Various minor characters surface within the main plot for no obvious reason, do something confusing, and then disappear. And the major scene near the end when Brond takes Hannah to a posh brothel is supposedly pivotal but crams too many plot threads together into a contrived resolution which becomes a nonsensical mess.

Filmed In Glasgow's West End (in and around the University campus) and South Side, plus a brief sequence in episode 3 at Harthill services on the M8 between Glagow and Edinburgh. The Bill Nelson/La Scala theme music is excellent (main theme easily found now on youtube).

So my recommendation is that it's not worth the effort of trying to find a copy now - it deserves its current forgotten obscurity.

A Total Mystery

[loza-1 · 4/10 · 18 January 2015]

This is difficult to follow. There is a strange scene to begin with. A boy is leaning on the railings of a bridge over the Kelvin River in Glasgow. Nearby is a Glasgow University student played by John Hannah. Along comes Stratford Johns, heaves the boy over the bridge and winks at John Hannah as he walks by.

Stratford Johns plays Frederic Lindsay's enigmatic "Universal Spider" Anders Brond.

From then on, Hannah, via an ex soldier named Primo (James Cosmo), who is Brond's sideman, is drawn into Brond's web. There are IRA characters, Primo is a Scottish nationalist, who thinks that Brond is on his side. Indeed Brond is sympathetic to the plight of the Scottish soldier, but is ruthless. In the end, he kills Primo.

As others have said, the plot is difficult to follow, and some characters do appear purposeless. But there are some memorable scenes. There is of course the scene where the boy is thrown over the bridge. There are brutal police interviews, where John Hannah is fitted up for the murder of a laird from the area of Scotland he comes from, even though the police know he is innocent. He only escapes when he asks to see Brond, and is released into his custody. Later, with Richard Tauber singing "Waltz of My Heart", there is the scene of Stratford Johns lying on the floor of a brothel in his underpants, as a prostitute shocks him with a cattle prod. As John Hannah watches him through a two-way mirror, Johns raises himself on his elbow and winks at him.

Brond has a purpose for Hannah. He is to kill someone with a swordstick. But because of his ruthlessness we ask ourselves: why can't Brond do it himself, or leave it to Primo?

I think the plot could have been done better.