Tuesday, 5 August 2025

July 2025 - The Diary

 More roleplay work with Glasgow Uni to kick off July, with the OSCE4 and OSCE3 exams in Glasgow. Then to the Glasgow Film Theatre to watch the RCS BA Filmmaking Showcase, in which our short film SUPER SPLIT went down really well. Great to catch up with Director Sam Loiza and my former HIGH


ROAD co-star Snonagh Price, pictured above. Really impressed with all of the films shown this evening and lovely to see our film on the big screen at my favourite cinema in Scotland. Great fun and lots of real talent on show. Back to the university and more medical roleplay work. 


The 12th of July was the 20th anniversary of the debut of Des Dillon's SINGIN IM NO A BILLY, HES A TIM at The Pearce Insitute, Govan and this was celebrated by the Sun On Sunday's Matt Bendoris as ex-players Simon Donnelly and Charlie Miller join the cast again for The Edinburgh Fringe and was


delighted to be asked along to the press launch by Producer Scott Kyle for a great feature article on the show, pictured above. We were joined by Broadcaster Rob McLean at Rutherglen Town Hall for the interview and photo shoot and lovely catching up with the team again. You can watch the full interview


here: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/15126318/rangers-celtic-rivals-careers-actors/ Huge thanks to Matt and to Scott for inviting me along.  Next up this month was a reunion with Dropshack Films for the Inverness 48Hour Film Challenge and a shoot in beautiful Oban. A brilliant cast and crew again


for this one as we were joined by Goldie Luck Productions. This was one of the funniest experiences I have ever had on a film shoot and the script & storyline were hysterical. definitely our best film yet and again, I played the recurring character of 'Tammy Ness' for the 10th year in succession, this time as 


King Tammy, King Of Dal Riata in an historical spoof about the invention of sliced bread! Love working with Olivia Caw, Ryan J Mackay and Catriona Faint once again, and Director Jack Willison to come up with PIECE IN DAL RIATA. An amazing shoot and great achievement and the film was then shown at


Eden Court Theatre and went down a storm! We won 11 separate awards that night, including Best Film, despite really stiff competition and some really outstanding shorts screened that night. Delighted to see this brilliant wee film once again on the move to various festivals before we head to Lisbon next year


for the Filmapalooza film Festival. Got back from Argyll in time to squeeze in another fun voice-over job on Operation Followthrough video game before more roleplay work and auditions and zoom rehearsals this month for shoots in November and again, all exciting stuff and great roles ahead! Nice to be back


doing more voice work as well this year. Delighted to be invited along to the record and book launch of Irvine Welsh's sequel to Trainspotting, MEN IN LOVE this month at Assai Records and then at the fab Mackintosh Queens Cross Church, followed by a brilliant club night at SWG3, hosted by Ricky


MacGowan's Streetrave. Great fun meeting Carl Loben and Steve Mac and catching up with Irvine again at these amazing events as the Men In Love tour rolled into town. And great to catch up with writer Marc Pye and Chris Brookmyre once again! We are pictured below in advance of the brilliant, sold-out  Q&A.


A fantastic night and great to see so many old pals at all 3 events and huge thanks to all of the staff at each venue for looking after us. Oh, and the book and album are superb!! Following this night of disco and laughter we had a week-long screening of PIECE IN DAL RIATA which was really popular and received more press coverage in the Inverness Courier, read it here: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/highlands-and-islands-48-hour-film-project-winner-is-best-t-388360/?fbclid=IwY2xjawL-nilleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHiKo-LvWBysSi3d8HYVjil1tDlMVjvXAa2bn2g_pJ5xHEco9ZyotYBIvNhEo_aem_kRmwzd2uB2sqzmzGS5KpkQ Again, huge thanks to Goldie Luck for the continued promotion and support for this film.


And on a separate note, huge thanks to the Glasgow Herald for 3 days of features on the revamping of The Barras Market and lovely to have our wee shop Zico Fashion Boutique included. We had a great month with sales and footfall all up and again, our Granton Star FC t-shirt as our No1 Best Seller. This is my


first piece of 'Official Merch' and will soon be available to buy online, but is in store now at our Moncur Street shop, open from 10am - 4pm every weekend. And again, thank you to Irvine Welsh for granting us permission to produce this design, based on the football jerseys we wore in the film all those years ago!


You can find our fashion store on all socials under @ZicoGlasgow. Thank you for reading and catch up again next month as things hopefully continue to get busy!


Monday, 7 July 2025

June 2025 - The Diary

 Back to Birmingham in early june for another COLOPLAST UK workshop and great fun again with the usual team and a great bunch of nurses to work with as a 'simulated patient' and a really enjoyable stay at the lovely Hyatt Regency Hotel once again. Than back to Glasgow for CITY BUILDING roleplay gigs


and Zoom meetings regarding a project we recorded during the Covid lockdown, which is set to be released this year on TikTok, which promises to be good! Lots of my previous work is now getting an airing on Amazon Prime, Netflix and at various film festivals at the moment and the sequel to anotherof my feature films is now funded and set to go ahead later in the year. Then another long drive, this time


for another film shoot for EPIC Global Solutions. A lovely project, directed by the brilliant Rob Barker and shot at Slough Town FC in London. A brilliant few days in amazing weather and a really enjoyable and fun team to work with, see pic above! Huge thanks to all at Slough Town for a great shoot and was


another fun football shoot for me, and another excellent role as the Manager. Loved working with Henry Davis, pictured above and a great cast and extras. Authentic, realistic and brilliantly written script and a cracking gig to get. Looking forward to working with Rob and the team again in the future. Then back


up to promote the  Beyond Trainspotting documentary I worked on and which is finally released on the 14th of July. Then into more Glasgow University Medical School roleplay work, more indie film auditions and rounded off June with the release of another of my previous work, the short film UP/DOWN


which was directed by Michael Cooke that we shot at the end of last year. Delighted with the look and feel of this excellent short film and it will now travel to film festivals as well. An excellent month full of travel


and really fun jobs. Managed to book another voice-over job for July as well as another feature film and back in the mix for a couple of Bollywood movies shooting here in the summer. Am really enjoying my work this year despite the endless hours in the car and have plenty of exciting projects to come in 2025.


And that includes this one! Delighted to announce I shall be joining the cast of EMINENT as Brehon, another dark character in this feature film, shooting late 2025 in the Highlands. Great script, great people involved and a fab role. An excellent end to June!






Friday, 27 June 2025

May 2025 - The Diary

 Drove down to a sunny Corby for the next leg of our BILLY & TIM tour and two nights at The Core Theatre. Another brilliant venue and another great audience on both nights. Again both shows were great and went down a storm with the largely ex-pat audience! Back to Scotland for another job with the Medical School at Glasgow University and then back to the tour and drive to Cairnryan and the ferry


to Belfast for the next leg of the Billy & Tim tour. Our accommodation was in a lovely farmhouse in Portadown and we travelled to Derry for the first gig I've done in Northern Ireland for years. Great to be back and another full house and a standing ovation, which was lovely. I then took the opportunity to


visit my Boylan ancestors village of Mullabrack in County Armagh, where my g-g-grandparents were married in 1865, before migrating to Greenock a few years later. Their son, Patrick went on to play football for Arsenal and Morton FC and guested for Blackburn Rovers in a fine career. 


The following day we moved to Armagh itself and again a lovely venue, and a great audience at The Market Place Theatre. Delighted to report that the show was a huge success here and been a brilliant experience being a part of this fab show after all of these years.


The audience feedback was great and the show much improved with the addition of lighting and sound effects we have added of late. Scott and I collaborated well on this project and there are more changes to come! It is amazing that this show continues to fill theatres across the United Kingdom and delighted


to be involved and proud of the fact it was the first show I ever produced back in 2005. We first performed SINGIN I'M NO A BILLY, HE'S A TIM at the Pearce Institute in Govan on the 12th of July 2005 and then toured Scotland and Northern Ireland, The Edinburgh Fringe and took it to The Glasgow comedy Festival,


The Merchant City Festival and The Cathedral Quarter Festival, Belfast and toured schools up and down the country and provided anti-sectarianism workshops, funded by The Scottish Executive and Sense Over Sectarianism. The original cast were Gordon Brown, Andy Cameron & myself. And it is still touring!


On arrival back in Glasgow we headed to Firhill Stadium to record new dialogue for the show with football presenters Rob McLean and David Tanner, alongside former players Charlie Miller & Simon Donnelly and this went in to the show this month. Back into rehearsals for the next show and another


opportunity to play Ronnie this time at the famous Glasgow Pavilion Theatre, as a part of SINGIN SHE'S NO A BILLIE, SHE'S A TIM, with an all-female cast, joined by the commentary team and Hawaii 50, and we are all pictured above in rehearsals at Vivace Theatre School. Lovely working with my former HIGH


ROAD co-star Rachel Ogilvy once again too! Having never actaully performed at The Pavilion, this was another wee box ticked for me as I opened the show in a quick wee scene we added this month and another full house who loved the show. Huge congratulations to the cast who learned the changes and

were all brilliant. It was the first show to unite all 3 versions of Billy & Tim, with The Legends cast joining the ladies cast and The Young Offenders cast as well. A great night and a big success. Below is the new show poster featuring all three different casts. Then back to another series of roleplays with both


Glasgow Dental School and City Building in Glasgow, another couple of successful castings and more film work now booked in to the diary for November. I also turned 52 this month and had a great time with the family at Ronzo in Broomhill, below pic! Also this month our wee short film HERE COMES THE


NUN was screened at Cannes 2025 and was well received. Congratulations to the cast and crew who headed to France for a fun time. Richly deserved. And thus my time in BILLY & TIM has come to an end but really pleased to have been back involved. The show will head to Edinburgh for the Fringe 2025


and will no doubt be still touring for the next 20 years! An excellent month of good work, great fun and lots of opportunities opening up for the remainder of 2025. Thank you to Scott Kyle, James Miller and Colin Little for making me feel so welcome back into the show. Much appreciated.














Thursday, 26 June 2025

April 2025 - The Diary

 Back into lots of roleplay work in April, kicking off with two days at Glasgow University, followed by The Wheatley Group, then back into rehearsals for the play I have been asked to step into for the next 2 months. Delighted to reveal that I am again playing Tim in Des Dillon's brilliant SINGIN I'M NO A BILLY, HE'S A TIM for the English and Irish dates and joined their year long tour in Yarm for my first 


show in this revamped version of the show, now in it's 20th year! Honoured to be asked back to the show that launched my producing career, in which we toured with my company Dapper Productions from 2005 - 2007. The show was a great success in this fab intimate little venue, with a fantastic audience and great


audience feedback. Then back to The Barras and lovely to welcome my old pal Stephen McCole to Zico and reunite the cast of THE GRANTON STAR CAUSE from 1996! Here he is pictured above with his new Granton T-shirt! Then in another surprise gig, I stepped in to play Ronnie The Turnkey in BILLY & TIM : THE LEGENDS show at Ingliston Country Club in a wee scene I had written and featuring former Old Firm legends Simon Donnelly & Charlie Miller. Again, another great, fun show and the start of a 

much larger version of the play which will tour in the future. The players then had a Q&A and an auction after the show which went down well with the packed audience in this beautiful venue. Here we all are pictured below after the show! Back to rehearsals and a couple of Scottish indie film auditions, both of which I was offered. More of those later in the year! 


Thanks to my fellow trader Cheryl at The Barras I got tickets to watch The Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun Stadium and was joined by my Billy & Tim co-star Scott Kyle for a great night's rugby. We are pictured below at full-time. Great fun! Then back to more roleplay work and auditions and more re-writes


and rehearsals for the next round of shows in England next month. Back in the van and now off on tour once again! An excellent month and delighted to be back on stage again and to be working with Scott again, the first time since we did Irvine Welsh's PORNO 2 years ago in Edinburgh! And finally our


multi award-winning short film HERE COMES THE NUN will be screened in May at The Cannes Film Festival! Sadly I will be on tour and unable to attend but delighted for the team and director Jack Willison.


We are already planning our next collaboration in late summer and looking forward to it already! Some great performances in this film and am so happy it has garnered so many awards and been screened in America and now travelling to the South of France. 







Friday, 13 June 2025

March 2025 - The Diary

 Thankfully another busy month, despite another raft of unsuccessful audition! Really happy with the opportunities that are coming my way of late and booked lots of corporate work again this month. Back to Glasgow University again for the next round of roleplays and OSCE exams which were great fun before going into rehearsals for a Feature Film. Then a long drive to London and back to shoot the vertical


crime drama BLUE SEASON at these fab film studios pictured above in Whitechapel, East London. Another lovely wee part in this and a great bunch of talented people working on this one, in which I have                                                   

a lovely cameo scene. Directed by Zen Nguyen and produced by Featherstone Pictures, this will be released later this year and was a joy to work on. The feature PSYCHO SEX DOLLS was released this month on VOD and will be rolled out across other pltforms in the months ahead, including Amazon


Prime. We are in pre-production at the moment for the sequel, set and shooting in London this year. Back to Glasgow to record LIFE WITH BRIAN podcast with former Celtic & Man Utd star Brian McClair and a great, fun chat about my career and football, of course! You can listen back to our interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUuyfIEyMdo Huge thanks to Brian and the guys for having

me on, twas great fun indeed. More good news this month, with HERE COMES THE NUN screening at Filmapalooza and winning the Grand Champion Award for Best Film 2025! Delighted for all involved and the film now travels to the Cannes  Film Festival. 


Back on set to shoot another indie feature film, THE CARD MECHANIC, written and directed by Paul Di Stefano and produced by Le Frank Films. We shot my scenes in a fab location, the old Ropeworks building in Gourock. A great shoot with a talented cast and crew and lovely to team up with Michael


Cooke again on this film. The feature will be out next year. Another good month and booked in more film work and more corporate gigs for next month. Here are a couple of photographs below from THE CARD


MECHANIC, courtesy of Le Frank Films. A joy to play another nasty character and some fab actors to work with on this one! Rounded off March with more roleplay work with Coloplast UK in Glasgow 


followed by more at Glasgow University. Also commenced rehearsals for a play which is touring at the moment and great to be back in the rehearsal room again. More will be revealed in the coming weeks


so please check back for the latest updates. Photo above with Steve North who also worked on THE FOOTBALL FACTORY and co-wrote SW9, who I last met in Brixton many years ago at the WRAP Party for that film. Great actor and fun to work with.