Scottish film 'Till the Bells Ring' could steal The Jazz Singer's crown as the world's first ever talkie

From the Newshound archive · first published 7 October 2026 · last updated 8 October 2026.

A Glasgow playwright's 1926 comedy may have beaten Al Jolson's 'The Jazz Singer' to cinematic history by a full year, after historian Marc David Jacobs uncovered evidence that 'Till the Bells Ring' premiered in Edinburgh as the world's first feature-length talking picture. The 46-minute film, written, directed and starred in by Graham Moffat alongside his wife Margaret, featured synchronised sound and spoken Scots dialogue throughout. Jacobs is now campaigning for Edinburgh — not New York — to be recognised as the true birthplace of the talkie.

Moffat approached London firm De Forest Phonofilm, which had patented synchronised audio recorded directly onto film.

An incomplete print of the film survives in the British Film Institute's national archive and appears to date from its original 1926 screening.

Margaret Moffat, who co-starred, was also one of the first suffragettes to be arrested in Scotland and later appeared in a Hitchcock film.