January 2017 - The Diary

The year kicked off with a trip to see pals in Peter Pan at Motherwell Civic Centre and lovely to catch up with Sarah and Storm from ALADDIN and meet up with Stewart McCheyne and Ian Sheepie Smith after a brilliant show! Did a wee interview with The Daily Record about the demise of my g-grandfather's old club Third Lanark and the resulting spread is pictured below!

First trip of the New Year to Radio Clyde for voice overs for The Borders Motor Group, followed by an offer to play the part of Davie in Anne Hogg's wonderful play BUTTERFLY, on for one night only at Motherwell Civic in February and directed by Sarah McCardie, with whom I have just finished panto! Lovely play, great role and cast and really looking forward to returning to Motherwell to perform, having toured KIDNAPPED there two years ago.  More work confirmed from April til June as well now, so feeling confident about the working year ahead! As mentioned previously, it was

now all about T2 Trainspotting and attended the cast & crew screening at Cineworld along with Tom Urie and Atta Yaqub, who were as thrilled as me to watch their scenes in this wonderful movie! It has already broken all box office records in Edinburgh and is a thrilling, magical movie and so proud to be a part of it. More auditions followed the release of the film on the 27th, before heading back down the motorway to London for yet another pick-up day on feature film 90 MINUTES in Hackney! 

Lovely seeing the old gang again and the film is now due to released in cinemas in July 2017. Flew back to Glasgow and straight into rehearsals for stage play BUTTERFLY, directed by Sarah McCardie and written by Anne Hogg and great to team up with actor James Rottger in this fab two-hander. We are playing Motherwell Civic Theatre for one night only on the 25th of February. Here 

we are pictured after our first rehearsal day in The Barras, another wonderful location! Then off to shoot a small scene in new BBC drama TRUST ME, playing a doctor alongside the wonderful Paul Copley and Jodie Whittaker and directed by John Alexander in Paisley.

 Lots of familiar faces in the crew and a really enjoyable day's work. Back to rehearsals for BUTTERFLY completed another busy month and a solid start to 2017.

Latest News - TRAINSPOTTING 2

Delighted to be finally able to report that I have completed filming on T2: TRAINSPOTTING 2 in a small but pivotal role! It was an honour to work with the superb cast and to be directed by the wonderful Danny Boyle and shot by Anthony Dod Mantle. This has truly been one of the highlights

of my 30 years in the industry and a joy to once again be a part of the wonderful world of Irvine Welsh. I did the Begbie fight scene as an extra in the original TRAINSPOTTING film and revelled in the role of Tambo in THE ACID HOUSE so it's rather nice to complete the hat-trick!

So my thanks go out to my former agent Daniel Tasker at Billboard PM, casting director Gail Stevens and to all the old friends on the crew and the cast for making me feel so welcome and at home on set. Danny is just brilliant to work with and I caught up with him at the Wrap Night at the end of July (above).

The film is due out for release on the 27th of January 2017, but here's a wee taste of what is to come in the first official trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RK7Cre-SS4 Enjoy!!

And as of November 2016 here's the next official trailer and poster (below). Roll on january!!!
T2 Trainspotting Official Trailer

December 2016 - The Diary

Back to touring duties on our panto with a trip to Townhead Village Hall and 2 more at Penilee Community Centre, which went down really well. Sarah McCardie joined the cast for these gigs which were all sold out! As was Barrowfield Community Centre the following day and a fine end to a busy but brilliant week of our ALADDIN tour, in which we performed for the Homeless as well as a group of 20 kids from the Calais refugee camp and the feedback from audiences has been great.

Next up was Barlanark Community Centre for two sold out shows, before moving to Netherton in Temple for another double-header. Every venue has been packed thus far and the audiences very vocal and supportive of our efforts! Had friends and family at this gig and again the following night

at the Geoff Shaw Centre In Toryglen who had a great time! Brilliant audience and nice to catch up with familiar faces from my previous 'SINGIN I'M NO A BILLY, HE'S A TIM' tour in 2006! On the move again and a really funny show and audience at Bellcraig Community Centre and some brilliant audience interaction and hard work from this fantastic and talented cast in which I have found myself! As a team we have bonded brilliantly and having the most fun ever on a touring theatre job! Some of which is reflected in the photos below!!

So it may not be glamorous but it is so rewarding doing this tour and bringing good quality, affordable popular theatre to communities who may be priced out of the larger venues in Glasgow City Centre. And with this brilliant cast it has been side-splittingly funny every single day so far, as seen here with Andrew Fraser and Dame George Docherty trying to keep out the cold between shows!

Also this week I was in Glasgow's Film City at Savalas Studios recording ADR work on an upcoming feature film, more of which next month! And so it was onwards to Drumchapel Community Centre and another sold out venue and vocal and engaged audience!

Managed to squeeze in another Student Film shoot at the wonderful Grand Ole Opry in Tradeston for Stephen Mott's FilmProjects4U.com with a lovely team of young filmmakers and a fun shoot in a brilliant location, before a return to touring duties and gigs at Darnley Community Centre, followed by Possilpoint and Pollock Community Centres. Here's a wee shot from set (below). Great fun!

Delighted also this month to appear in ITV/World Productions IN PLAIN SIGHT Episode 2, in which I play gangster Charlie Tallis in a gritty scene with the marvellous Martin Compston. (Below). The series has gone down very well indeed and was a thrill just to be a part of such a stellar cast.

Then back for our final ALADDIN gigs at Possilpoint, Castlemilk and Shettleston Community Centres and just the best laugh was had by all. We finished up our 22 show run on the 17th of December and wonderful to have the whole crew as well as friends and family in the audience.

Loved this job so much and honestly never laughed so much in any company before! Huge thanks to Bill Wright for casting me as 'Evil Abanazer' and to Producer John Pope from Glasgow Life and to my brilliant cast-mates Mo Carr, Sarah McCardie, Andrew Fraser & George Docherty.

Also managed to squeeze in another Feature Film appearance in David Wilde's COLD-BLOODED KILLERS, which we shot in the lovely island of Arran and nice to team up with the crew from our previous collaboration, the CRIMELORD webseries earlier in the year.

Hot-footed it off the island fast when these Wanted posters (below) started popping up all over Arran, back on the ferry to Ardrossan and back to Glasgow, finishing off a busy and hugely enjoyable month...And year!!

And so ends another great year in which I have managed to work in film, television, theatre, radio and corporates and added worked with some fantastic and talented people. I have lots still to come out in 2017 and looking forward to building on the success of the last three years of solid graft!