‘Make Do and Mend’: Crafting a Scottish Underdog in The Flying Scotsman (2006). Open

The Flying Scotsman (2006) charts the exploits of Graeme Obree, who won the World Cycling Championship in 1993 on his homemade ‘Old Faithful’ bicycle. It was the first biopic to focus exclusively on Scottish sporting achievement and this article asks how does that Scottishness interact with the tropes of the sports biopic and how can The Flying Scotsman be located in the discourses surrounding the sport of cycling? It contends that The Flying Scotsman remodels the sports film’s underdog theme to present Obree as a Scottish underdog hero, untouched by contemporary doping scandals within cycling and who, following Michael de Certeau’s explanation of ‘tactics’ in The Practice of Everyday Life (1984), adopts an improvisational ‘tactical’ approach which enables him to overcome cycling’s dominant forces embodied in English cyclist Chris Boardman and the World Cycling Federation’s bureaucracy. Within the film, Obree (played by Jonny Lee Miller) appropriates different junk materials to craft Old Faithful and describes this approach to cycling as ‘make do and mend’. These ‘tactical’ appropriations are coupled with the film’s ‘textual’ appropriations: The Flying Scotsman draws on generic characteristics familiar from the biopic and sports film which are then blended with visual and narrative references to Bill Forsyth’s films and the depictions of Scottish life presented in British cinema. The film, a bricolage of different traditions, is thus a textual expression of the ‘make do and mend’ philosophy.

Abrahams and the other English members of the team. Tommy 's Honour (2016), a film about golfers Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris, is a more recent attempt to remember Scottish sporting achievement. In contrast, there have been several films about sportsmen from other parts of the UK released since the 1980s, including jockey Bob Champion (Champions, 1984), race car driver Barry Sheene (Space Riders, 1984), football manager Brian Clough (The Damned United, 2009), ski jumper Eddie Edwards (Eddie the Eagle, 2016), Welsh boxer Howard Winstone (Risen, 2010) and Northern Irish footballer George Best (Best, 2000). The Flying Scotsman is significant for being the first biopic to focus solely on Scottish sporting achievement.
Obree's nationality was important to the director Douglas Mackinnon: 'I just knew what everyone else knew about Graeme Obree … I was starting from scratch and it instantly leapt out as a piece of Scottish cinema' (quoted in Anon. 2006a).
Biopics are frequently discussed by those making them as projects which contribute to national culture by promoting a shared national history because, as George F. Custen remarks, biopics construct a broad 'public history' and are frequently 'the only source of information many people will have on a given historical subject ' (1992: 7).
In light of the 'English' sports biopic's prominence, Mackinnon highlights the need to foreground an unknown history while stressing the film's potential to contribute to a distinctly 'Scottish' cinema. This was also reflected in the £450,000 contributed by Scottish Screen to the film's reported £4million budget (Obree 2003: 288;Miller 2006: 7). Established in 1997, Scottish Screen was formed with the remit to cultivate and prioritise a distinct Scottish national cinema (Murray 2007: 79). Following devolution in 1998, a biopic about Scottish sporting success on the world stage, and specifically Obree's victory over the Englishman Chris Boardman, could potentially tap into themes of national distinctiveness and separateness from England.

A Scottish underdog
The Flying Scotsman's potential as a 'piece of Scottish cinema' was enhanced by the perceived continuities between Obree's story, the traditions of Scottish filmmaking and earlier filmic representations of Scotland: '[i]t had the elements of films that have often worked in Scotland in the past -it is set in a small town, it has a guy There were also similarities between Obree's story and the sports film's classic narrative template, namely, the underdog overcoming obstacles to achieve sporting greatness. Such narratives typically show how 'the sporting figure has challenged the system, or overcome great adversity to become the legends they are' (Cheshire 2015: 73). For example in Chariots of Fire Liddell, a devout Christian, refuses to race on a Sunday despite the protests of the Prince of Wales (see Richards 1997: 210). The Scotsman as ' outsider' is present in Obree's account of his problematic relationship with the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), which enforced a rule change before he competed in the 1994 world pursuit championship. Obree identified himself as the victim of a corrupt bureaucracy: 'it was downright sneaky to change rules in the dark of night and conspire to keep them secret until the last moment from the only intended victim ' (2003: 202).
The film's treatment of these issues was debated by the filmmakers and Obree's family. His wife, Anne, described the conflicting agendas: '[t]he illness was something the financial backers wanted in the film. We tried to argue against it for the children's sake … Douglas Mackinnon handled the depression scenes very tastefully ' (quoted in Brown 2007: 5). The film omits many of these instances, indicating the family's privacy was considered in the production. Instead the film focuses on Obree's relationship with the UCI. For screenwriter Simon Rose the image of the Scotsmanas-underdog rallying against the cycling establishment formed the basis of Obree's appeal: I had been itching to write a screenplay, but a subject eluded me. Then I heard about Graeme Obree. This down-at-heel Scot built a revolutionary bicycle from scrap metal and washing machine parts and became world champion, only to be banned by the cycling authorities. Instead of giving up, the amazingly determined Obree redesigned his bike and had another go. (2006) This resonates with the Hollywood sports film which typically ' coalesces around underdog-to-champion, hard-work-leads-to-victory narratives' which also 'help to forge a masculine ideal closely intertwined with an "Athletic American Dream"' (Miller 2010(Miller : 1222(Miller -1223. Rooted in the notion of equality of opportunity, this ideal is embedded in narratives which suggest 'if individuals can gain control over their own bodies they can gain control over their own economic and social destiny' (Miller 2010(Miller : 1223 Hollywood film production. In the Scottish-American co-production Rob Roy, for instance, the thematic concern with cattle rustling and landowner rivalries resonates with the 'revenge western' (Petrie 2000: 211). However, the underdog narrative The biopic's forging of a public history of sporting success offers the possibility to enshrine such morale-boosting moments in popular memory. It helps that Obree is the Scottish underdog par excellence: a sportsmen who overcame doubters to become a world champion, beating the Englishman Chris Boardman in the process.
Obree's opposition to drugs also made him a key figure in British sports, as Rose remarked: 'Britain has so few sporting heroes that this eccentric, whose training fuel was marmalade sandwiches, should be lionised ' (2006). Cycling has always been the sport most closely associated with doping ( An earlier scene depicts Obree working as a Glasgow cycle courier. Entering an office building and approaching the reception desk, he announces proudly that the journey from depot to office took only six minutes, but the receptionist notes that he has delivered the wrong parcel. The sequence conveys a 'tactical' appropriation of work time. In The Practice of Everyday Life (1984) de Certeau uses 'strategies' and 'tactics' to explain how moments of resistance can arise within modern society.
Strategies form the rules and power structures established by institutions which govern the actions of individuals, whose resistance is manifested through the tactics they employ in response: I call a strategy the calculation (or manipulation) of power relationships that becomes possible as soon as a subject with will and power (a business, an army, a city, a scientific institution) can be isolated. It postulates a place that can be delimited as its own and serve as the base from which relations with an exteriority composed of targets or threats (customers or competitors, enemies, the country surrounding the city, objectives and objects of research, etc.) can be managed. (1984: 35-6 original emphasis).
Strategies thus refer to the systems generated by institutions to manage individuals' actions. The notion of 'tactics' was devised to explain how individuals can negotiate these systems, operating within institutions' strategies but running counter to their ideals: A tactic insinuates itself into the other's place, fragmentarily, without taking it over in its entirety … because it does not have a place, a tactic depends on time -it is always on the watch for opportunities that must be seized ' on the wing ' (1984: xix).
The tactic's potential as ' an art of the weak' (de Certeau 1984: 37) lends meaning to Obree's underdog status and propensity for opportunism, and when he describes to Further tactical behaviour is evident in Obree's creative use of space during an impromptu race. Before the hour record attempt, Obree is shown selling stock from his failing shop and challenging the buyer to a race back to his scrap yard; should Obree win, the price will be higher. The buyer, who arrived in a van, accepts the challenge but the subsequent race conveys how Obree's capacity for improvisation permits him to compete on equal terms. Both competitors set off from the shop as equals before the van pulls away in front. As it slows at a red light Obree accelerates through the junction, weaving between cars. Instead of bearing right and continuing along the road he accelerates down a narrow path over the words 'keep clear' painted on the tarmac and between bollards erected to prohibit larger vehicles. The scene cuts between the competitors on their respective routes and the race concludes with the van knocking Obree off his bicycle just as he turns into the yard.

Obree the 'bricoleur'
The Flying Scotsman constructs Obree's tactical approach to work as allowing him to gain advantages and the film suggests Obree's Old Faithful was born out of the same mentality. The sequences which trace Old Faithful's evolution from abstract idea to functional bicycle resonate with bricolage: the way consumers make creative use of the mass-produced goods available to them through re-appropriation. Such 'making' forms a 'hidden' form of production which ' does not manifest itself through its own products, but rather through its ways of using the products imposed by a dominant economic order' (de Certeau 1984: xii-xiii original emphasis). Obree uses washing machine bearings, BMX tubing and scrap metal as components of Old Faithful, of which some are taken from objects he owns whereas others are stolen from a junk yard, but each is re-appropriated.
A scene set within Obree's flat above the shop dramatises his realisation that washing machine bearings can benefit his design. The opening image displays him sitting at the kitchen table with the rattling sound of the washing machine offscreen. The machine is then shown in its entirety surrounded by typical domestic objects, a washing basket and an ironing board. The camera slowly moves into a close-up of Obree staring at the washing machine. The next shot reveals Obree's focus is not the machine in its entirety: the camera zooms towards the circular door vibrating with each revolution. This exchange of shots continues until the door of the washing machine fills the frame. The sequence ends with Anne (Laura Fraser) finding her husband sitting cross-legged surrounded by the appliance's drum and hollowed-out casing.
The sequence dramatises the ' eureka' moment familiar from other biopics -'[t]he moment of insight typically marks a revelation after which everything is perceived differently' (Radcliff 2008: 66) -but it also reflects Obree's creative use of consumer objects: The weak must continually turn to their own ends forces alien to them. This is achieved in propitious moments when they are able to combine heterogeneous elements … the intellectual synthesis of these given elements takes the form, however, not of a discourse, but of the decision itself, the act and manner in which the opportunity is 'seized.' (de Certeau 1984: xix) In Obree's case, such ' opportunities' include his epiphany watching the washing machine, his first, chance, encounter with Baxter and a risky robbery at night. The latter episode involves Malky and Obree himself, reflecting the emphasis placed in the film on teamwork. The Flying Scotsman could be read as a straight-forward underdog narrative in which Obree's individual determination permits him to achieve his goals; but Mackinnon wanted to represent Obree's achievements as characterised by teamwork, making one of the film's core themes that 'though you are a world record holder you cannot get anywhere without people helping you' (quoted in Anon. 2006a) -and thereby illustrating that making biopics 'involves a process of selection and (re)arrangement, based on interpretation, on the makers' take on the subject' (Minier and Pennacchia 2014: 11).

This theme of teamwork accounts for the inclusion of the fictional Malky and
Baxter. The film foregrounds both at the expense of Anne, who works as a hospital nurse to support the Obree family, and Katie (Morven Christie), who helps Malky locate sponsorship for Obree's record attempt and serves as a romantic interest for Malky. This marginalisation might reflect the real Anne's desire to ensure the family's privacy was respected. The inclusion of reaction shots detailing her horrified face The biopic conveys the importance of a bricolage approach while also emphasising that crafting Old Faithful is a collaborative effort: a different representation from the typical underdog narrative and its emphasis on the efforts of the individual.

Derailing 'the gravy train'
The Flying Scotsman portrays Obree's underdog journey as guided by an integrity which is lacking in official cycling bodies. Obree's ability to use the tuck position, he saws off part of Old Faithful's saddle to ensure the space between saddle and handlebars complies; when Hagemann then insists '[i]t must be possible to purchase all parts in the commercial market' Obree uses the saddle from a child's bicycle.
On one level, this dynamic conforms to the classical biopic's generic structure, whereby the subject challenges the values of a community who are resistant to change (Custen 1992: 188), but Obree's creative attempts to circumvent the WCF's 'red tape' also recall the depiction of wily Scots against hostile bureaucrats in Ealing's Whisky Galore (1946). That film, set on an island in the Outer Hebrides, details the efforts of custom officers to retrieve a cargo of whisky which the islanders have acquired following a shipwreck. The film's target is the officialdom against which the villagers seek to retain their find (Richards 1997: 191  Championships that The Flying Scotsman most forcefully stresses Obree's underdog status by emphasising the financial disparity between cyclists.

David versus Goliath
The Flying Scotsman's racing sequences utilise strategies of representation familiar from numerous sports films. For instance, to represent Obree's hour record in 1993, the camera is located in the middle of the velodrome and Steadicam footage follows

'A Scottish story about a real Scottish champion'
The Flying Scotsman was plagued by production problems which delayed its release, and it eventually premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2006 (see Dawtrey 2006). Jack McConnell stressed its significance as a national project which could contribute to shifting the national outlook -'it is particularly pleasing that it is a Scottish story about a real Scottish champion' -and promote a shared history of Scottish sporting achievement with contemporary resonance: 'part of the reason we have some of the world's best cyclists now, like Chris Hoy, is down to the inspiration provided by Graeme Obree' (quoted in Anon. 2006b). Indeed, the film was released two years after Hoy was awarded his first Olympic gold medal in 2004 and in his foreword to Obree's autobiography he described the latter as an 'inspiration' (Obree Internet Movie Database user reviews offered contrasting perspectives, praising the film's conventional style -a 'good old fashioned sports flick' (TheEmulator23 2007) -and the focus on Obree's ' clean' approach: 'very seldom is Graeme Obree acknowledged as the superb (drug-free) athlete that he was' (j_m_scott 2007). Others saw a lineage in the representation of Scottish outsiders who drew criticism before achieving success: 'this film reminded me of the last Scottish athlete to be given the nickname "The Flying Scotsman", the great Eric Liddle [sic]. Both were criticised for their unorthodox styles, even though it gained them great success and honour' (Graham Muir 2007).
The Flying Scotsman's reception highlights how the subject's willingness to vouch for the depiction remains a potent authenticating strategy for those making biopics and that filmmakers will compromise to satisfy the subject and their family (see Custen 1992: 41). Although the film's importance as a national project was identified, reviewers and IMDb viewers were frequently at odds over the representation. Though IMDb viewers perceived Obree's significance as a ' drug-free' athlete and identified that The Flying Scotsman continued a tradition of the Scotsman-as-underdog, reviewers labelled the film as ' conventional' and ' dumbed-down' rather than picking up on the distinctive ways The Flying Scotsman remodels the sports film's narrative arc to foreground Obree as a Scottish underdog. Indeed, reviewers highlighted how the film's feel-good tone evoked Forsyth's films and posited that this was one of its limitations, indicating the mixture of biopic, sports film and Scottish filmmaking traditions contributed to an unbalanced depiction.

Conclusion
The Flying Scotsman representation of Graeme Obree as a Scottish underdog is evidenced in the various sequences which display him in acts of everyday creativity in ordinary spaces which through their radical novelty challenge the values of the WCF cycling body. In a period in which public perception of the UCI and cycling was shaped by the Festina affair the film portrays WCF officials as unwilling to combat doping, placing commercial considerations above sporting integrity. The Flying Scotsman celebrates Obree's 'make do and mend' ethos and suggests his integrity lies in how he resists commodification, a hero who bypasses the corrupted values of the cycling Establishment.
Though The Flying Scotsman depicts Obree's sourcing and using bike parts which have been adapted and re-appropriated, the film is itself a textual Robinson: 'Make Do and Mend' Art. 6, page 21 of 26 appropriation of the underdog narrative structure. This underdog narrative is re-modeled in The Flying Scotsman to fashion Obree as a distinctly Scottish underdog: guided by a wily, 'tactical' approach which allows him, and his friends, to overcome both English cyclists and the forces of officialdom.

The Flying Scotsman signals Scottish filmmaking traditions by evoking Bill
Forsyth and also the Kailyard tradition, while blending this with themes and character types familiar from the classical biopic and the sports film. The Flying Scotsman is, much like its subject, engaged in acts of bricolage, adapting a conventional American narrative template and fusing this with values and tropes recognisable from earlier periods of Scottish cinema and representations of Scotland.