Daft Jamie was portrayed to be superb effect by Aubrey Woods in The Greed of William Hart (1948, though it feels much older!) featuring the master of the grand guignol himself, Tod Slaughter as the eponymous anti-hero and Henry Oscar as his vile sidekick, Mr Moore. Hart and Moore are, of course, Burke and Hare, their names being changed on the insistence of the censors whereupon the enraged production team set about the sacrilege of dubbing their precious movie with the names of Hart and Moore (and Dr. Cox for the equally notorious Dr. Knox). Needless to say they made this as obvious and incongruous as possible resulting in some of the most inspired and often hilarious dialogue in the history of British cinema. It's also rumoured that this dubbing took up the budget set aside for the musical soundtrack, which is, as a consequence, conspicuous by its absence. Daft Jamie remains unscathed however in this classic period piece which is one of the three films I invariably watch in preparation whenever I have cause to visit Auld Reekie - the others being Greyfriar's Bobby (1961) and Trainspotting (1996).

I wonder, are there any clips on YouTube? Alas not! But there are some choice clips of Tod Slaughter, including this Pathe Newsreel feature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUuCGQbUORY

What a fine start to October!