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There are some theatrical experiences you find yourself rooting for, because they're all too rare.

And last night at Tramway in the southside of Glasgow, was one of them.

Heer and Ranjha are the Punjabi version of Romeo and Juliet and every bit as prevalent in South Asian culture as their Shakespearean cousins are in western culture.

This version merges the two, setting Heer and Ranjha in contemporary Glasgow, from two rival Sikh and Muslim families.

Heer is a spoiled society girl, whose father owns a chain of restaurants while Ranjha is struggling to deal with the problems which beset his traditionalist brothers in liberal Scotland.

The sharply written script is by Shan Khan; the production by Glasgow based Ankur Productions.

The River Clyde dominates the staging - sparkling beneath a despondent Ranjha as he plans to jump from George IV Bridge, glittering alongside Heer's father's yacht as she prepares to take a different leap and marry someone else.

It's also a huge leap for Ankur onto Tramway's stage - although their numbers are swelled by students from local colleges who give the big Bollywood numbers an extra oomph.

And the community - while not exactly out in force - is definitely spreading the word.

At just over two hours, the show is slightly long and loses some of its pace in the second half.

But it's refreshingly lively, and entertaining, offering fresh words and voices for a whole new range of actors - Nalini Chetty and Taqui Nazeer in particular stand out as the star crossed lovers.

With a cast of 27 - including 18 dancers and impressive choreography and original music - it's one of the most original productions you'll see at the moment.

It runs till Saturday at Tramway. It deserves a wider audience too, and hopefully will get the chance to tour at a later date.

Their bear-skin hats are soaked through - "nothing that a spell under a hair-drier won't sort" - but the band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards play on for the photographers in the pouring rain.

It's in marked contrast to the weather in which they recorded the album they're launching - Spirit of the Glen: Journey.

They were half way through the recording of the album in Edinburgh earlier in the year when they were called on a six-month tour of duty in Iraq.

As soldiers first and musicians second, they had no option but to abandon recording.

But they didn't bank on record producers Tom Lewis and Jon Cohen following them to Basra.

When the producers first approached record company Universal, they were refused permission. Insurance, they were told, would be impossible to arrange.

But the duo were persistent and in August this year, persuaded all involved to allow them to set up a mobile recording studio in the camp at Basra.

The biggest problem once there was the heat - for both equipment and personnel, particularly the pipers.

Then there was the constant threat of rocket attack - "It's the only time I've gone into a recording studio wearing a flak jacket" says Tom Lewis.

But they found solutions in unlikely places. Flowers of the Forest - a lone piper's lament with a poetry recital - was impossible to record amidst the hum of the camp's generators.

Eventually, they found the quiet they needed at the end of the runway.

The CD is out in December in time for Christmas. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards hope to be back from Iraq by then too, having set a new record as well as made one.

It's believed to be the first album recorded in a war zone.

BTW - I am told actress Ashley Jensen isn't applying for American citizenship as reported in an earlier blog but a green Card to continue working in the USA.

It was that application which prevented her from returning to Scotland for the Bafta Scotland awards last week.

She was however able to make her own transatlantic contribution to Children in Need's celebrity rendition of "I Have A Dream".

The red carpet was soggy to say the least, but not even a hail storm could keep hardy Scottish celebrity types away from the Bafta Scotland awards.

The event - at Glasgow's City Hall - has certainly grown in stature over the past few years with 800 guests on Sunday night, including Robbie Coltrane, Robert Carlyle, Michelle Gomez, Kate Dickie, James Cosmo and David Hayman.

But the old suspicion remains, is the industry big enough to justify an awards ceremony of its own?

Many of the categories tell their own stories - with only a handful of nominations.

Last year, the Best Actress category had just one lonely nominee - Sophia Myles - no tension when that award was announced.

So this year, to save their blushes Bafta have abandoned Best Actress and Best Actor for a free for all Best Performance award - one for TV and one for film.

They've also expanded the criteria to take in actors working in any part of the globe - hence the inclusion of Ashley Jensen for the American comedy Ugly Betty.

She wasn't there - she's apparently applying for American citizenship and can't leave America until it's done - which was just as well because she didn't win.

Instead the TV award went to Ken Stott, who was less than glowing about the state of the homegrown industry.

Like Robert Carlyle - whose film Summer won two awards - he feels many people are too blasé about the state of the industry.

He's particularly angry about the failure of UK broadcasters to meet their drama quota (as revealed in evidence to the recent Broadcast Commission).

Brian Cox, meanwhile, was on his own soap box, this time about the importance of distribution.

The Escapist - which won him Best Film Performance - may have Hollywood backing but it struggled to get much of a showing.

He says Scotland has to fight back, perhaps even developing its own quota system in line with French cinema.

It was a low key Bafta ceremony for the Still Game team this time, their Christmas special losing out to Gary's War.

Tension too on the red carpet for Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, on their first public appearance since their apparent fallout over their production company Effingee.

Asked to pose together on the red carpet, Greg Hemphill's response was a curt "nah, no way".

Asked later about the split, Ford Kiernan said "I'm just Eff now. It's just Effing me now."

One man for whom the whole event went swimmingly was Mikey Hughes, ex Big Brother star, now back in his day job at Insight Radio.

Mikey has an admirable way of nabbing his interviewees - which predates his TV fame.

Particularly impressive was the way he pounced on Robert Carlyle in the backstage bar and demanded an interview before the normally reticent actor had a chance to say no.

Mikey also has a celebrity occasion of his own to look forward to.

After leaving the Big Brother house, he was apparently inundated with requests to switch on various Christmas lights around the country.

In the end, he narrowed it down to one - his local event in Kilwinning which will take place on 27 November.

First Minister Alex Samond has invited Barack Obama to come to Scotland during the Year of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖcoming.

Admittedly, it was on Tuesday before the result and he hedged his bets and invited both presidential hopefuls on the grounds that they both have Scottish ancestry.

But how much Scottish ancestry does the new American president have?

Bruce Blacklaw at the National Library of Scotland was keen to find out and asked the organisation's genealogy unit to run a few checks.

Early research suggests Barack Obama has 3.1% Scottish ancestry - the detail relating to a relation on his mother's side of the family.

They also said there was substantially more English ancestry in his background than Scots, but I'm guessing the Year of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖcoming organisers don't want to hear that particular detail.

The first event of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖcoming 2009 officially gets under way at the national library this week with a new exhibition which draws together artefacts from the National Burns Collection.

The exhibition called Zig Zag, examines some of the myths surrounding Robert Burns, many of them perpetuated by the poet himself.

It's the first major collaboration between the museums and institutions which keep the various parts of the collection - they'll be officially recognised for their efforts next week - and the exhibition will stay intact for a few more months as it tours onto Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dumfries.

It's also a good chance to see material from the Burns Museum Collection, whose state-of-the-art £21m museum is pending - but unfortunately not due to open for another two years.

Speculation was rife at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh over the identity of the anonymous donor of a new £3m arts grant.

The one-off grant is available to any project based in Edinburgh which impresses both culturally and architecturally.

Plenty of organisations were around to stake their claim - from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, who have long harboured dreams of a suitable new festival venue, to the Scottish Photography Museum, who still have their sights set on Calton Hill.

But who is the mystery donor? JK Rowling and Sir Sean Connery have apparently been ruled out but other names were circulating the room.

Some conspiracy theorists also questioned the timing with a review of Edinburgh's arts venues due to be published soon.

Do Edinburgh City Council already have a project in mind?

Council leader Jenny Dawe was quick to dismiss the suggestion.

"It really is wide open to projects and ideas, that's what makes it exciting. It's also really important in this kind of economic climate that culture doesn't fall off the agenda," she says.

And Giles Ruck, chief executive of The Scottish Community Foundation says they're well used to protecting the anonymity of their donors.

"We deal with a lot of anonymous donations. The only difference with this one is the scale of the award."

Interested organisations have until April next year to submit their ideas. The winning project will be chosen in 2010 and must be finished by 2013.

Mystery Owner

One lucky art lover got more than he bargained for at auction last week.

The anonymous fan snapped up a much admired Joan Eardley charcoal drawing - one of the many she made of the Sampson children who lived near her studio in Glasgow in the 1950s.

It cost the buyer £22,000 but he realised he'd got a real bargain when he sent it to be checked over and discovered there was a second work underneath.

The oil painting of the same boy - Andrew Sampson - is signed, leading to speculation that it wasn't being discarded by the artist, but hidden away for future discovery.

The owner, whose Eardley collection has doubled overnight, is keen to find out.