April 2018 - The Diary

Kicked off Q2 with a freezing cold but great fun shoot with Production Attic in Glasgow for Seymour Powell. Great product and lovely bunch of people to work with and directed by Justin Adams.

Then more really positive meetings for my new production company, Cathkin Park Limited and have a raft of projects now in development for 2019. Delighted to finally get the chance to play for Celtic in a pro-celebrity charity Old Firm Greats match at Kilbirnie in a fine 6-5 win!

And despite playing terribly, knackering my ankle and giving away 2 goals, I absolutely loved it! Huge thanks to Paul John Dykes and Bernie for getting me involved and really looking forward to the next one in June at Irvine.

Then back to Glasgow for a lovely screening of AJ Sykes REGRETS short film with the cast and crew at Film City, Govan and great to see the film on the big screen before it goes on the Festival circuit this summer.

The following week was yet another screening, this time for Douglas King's Feature Film SUPER NOVEMBER at The Empire, Clydebank. Really enjoyed it as did the audience and nice to catch up with everyone again and pleased with my wee cameo! Again, this film will be hitting the Festivals

this year and was screening at the East End Film Festival this month too. Really enjoyed the 5 screenings of my work this year already and well worth the wait to finally see them properly on the cinema screen. More auditions for television this month before heading through to Leith and a fun and interesting voice-over for Tanami and The Bank Of Scotland. 

March 2018 - The Diary

End of the first quarter of 2018 and another good month of interesting and varied acting work, starting off with more RPM live gigs with CAPTAIN MORGAN at Campus in Sauchiehall Street, and then up to Dundee's Fat Sam's and great crowds and fun gigs with the Morganettes!

Then off to London for another scenario for COLOPLAST UK at The Melia White House with a lovely bunch of actors and guests before racing back to Ayr for a wild and raucous pirate gig to complete another 3 month contract with RPM. Had an absolute scream this run and enjoyed every single second of it, so many thanks to all of the venues & staff we performed in from Stoke to Dundee! Some production work squeezed in this month with the launch of my new production company, Cathkin Park Ltd and we have some really interesting projects in development.

Back to London again to watch the first screening of Simon Baker's feature 90 MINUTES with the cast and crew and stunned by just how good this film is. Well worth our 2 year shoot and wait! The movie should be out this summer and we are all very very proud of the final result. Thanks to

the Curzon cinema in Soho and to everyone who packed in to see the film! Managed to fit in another Short Film job the following day in my old manor of Brixton, playing the mysterious David in Mark Hammill's DILLON. A superb month's work and a lovely end to the First Quarter of 2018.

And great fun meeting up with Irvine Welsh again on his Dead Men's Trousers Tour in Glasgow for an hysterical meal and day's entertainment! This is the final instalment of the Trainspotting series of books and read chapters at The Tramway as part of the Aye Write Festival, hosted by the lovely Alan Bissett, followed by a night of laughter and bevvy across the City Centre..! A great month indeed!

Photo above courtesy of Raquele Fernandez, with the lovely John White at The Tramway. What a night that was...!

February 2018 - The Diary

Some fantastic pirate gigs this month with RPM London and a wee trip to Stoke on Trent to appear at the Student Union with the Manchester Team and then straight back to Glasgow for a brilliant night at The Garage Glasgow with my usual team of Morganettes. Great to be back playing Sir Henry Morgan for a 4th year in a row and delighted to have so many gigs so early on in the year! Photos

here are courtesy of www.clarkjamesdigital.com and The Garage, Glasgow. Superb gigs and the staff and crowds were right up for our show and we went down a storm! Great start to another Campaign and getting back into the spirit! Added more IMDB credits to my CV this month and finally beginning to creep towards my target of 50 credits this year. Great to see BLACK HEART released so quickly this month and it has gone down well on it's release. Booked in another few gigs this next few months

as well as having a few exciting film screenings to come & really looking forward to seeing my work from the last couple of years finally on screen. Then back to COLOPLAST UK duties and a short hop over to lovely Belfast for another live gig and an evening out in the famous The Crown Bar, pictured here with the lovely Henry Bauckham in this wonderful old bar! A delightful gig and stay

at the Hilton Templepatrick and then back to a cold and wintry Glasgow for another round of excellent CAPTAIN MORGAN live gigs at The Cathouse, Glasgow and TBC...Also good to see that our wee feature film CLEEK has been hitting the Festival circuit in the USA and made it through to the Hollywood Screenings Film Festival semi-finals! Then on to an excellent read-through of a new

play we are hoping to produce for Edinburgh Fringe this year with my old pals Paul Cunningham and Mark Barrett at The Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, before heading back into pirate mode and a live gig at The Polo Lounge in Glasgow which was great fun with a wildly appreciative crowd and a joy to

perform in. Huge thanks to the usual Morganettes and the RPM team for yet another fab month of weekly gigs in great venues and to all the staff in the clubs who have made us so welcome and made our events smooth and popular this burst. Really enjoying my fourth year in this brilliant role and I think you can tell from all of these photos just how much I am enjoying myself as Captain Morgan!

(Photos here are courtesy of The Polo Lounge) I starteded my new production company this month with a view to producing my own stage and screen projects and named it after my favourite football ground Cathkin Park Limited and already working on our first documentary and our first theatre project, so it's been a bit of a crazy month trying to fit everything in, but a remarkable start to the year thus far. Then on to a brilliantly funny podcast in Stirling's Tolbooth Studios with A CELTIC STATE OF MIND hosted by Paul John Dykes, chatting about the Club,my memorabilia collection and

all things Celtic with a great bunch of guys, signing some T2 giveaways and always a pleasure talking about The Beautiful Game and my general love of football. Quite timely with more Scotland Writers FC fixtures just around the corner! Also got to have my picture taken with a boyhood hero of mine, the one and only Frank McAvennie! Photos courtesy of @anorthernprose on Twitter. The show

will be broadcast next month. Great fun indeed! Then back into pirate mode and two fantastic nights at The St Andrews University Union and The Warehouse, Galashiels to top off a very busy month.

January 2018 - The Diary

Happy New Year folks! Laid low with the Australian Flu post-panto and took a few weeks to recover but a hectic month once again. Lots of film and theatre production meetings for upcoming projects and then to the premiere of Purple TV's brilliant and poignant documentary THIRD LANARK at the GFT, followed by a trip to STV to appear on LIVE AT 5 for an interview with Margot McCuag about the film. Here's a couple of screen grabs courtesy of Mark Barrett. Great fun and nice to be invited.

Then off to Manchester for a new COLOPLAST UK live gig and three fun-filled days in this wonderful city with a great bunch of actors (pictured below in Mackie's Meatmarket), followed by yet more live events in London at the end of the month. Also just received news that our web-series

CRIMELORD is also now being shown on Amazon Prime and we have more episodes to shoot in the next few months. Here's a sneak preview of some of the naughty action from my character Ewan Ford's latest exploits...not a man you want to go to a party with methinks! Great fun and am really

pleased that so much of my previous work is finding a home on this platform. It's a game-changer for low budget film and brings a whole new audience which simply would not have existed in previous years. So, well done David Wilde, who has worked tirelessly on this throughout the last year. Also

very pleased to announce that Douglas King's Feature Film SUPER NOVEMBER has been selected to screen at the Glasgow Film Festival, showing on the 3rd March 2018 at the wonderful GFT. Back to Scotland again and another fun shoot with Director David Wilde on his short film BLACK HEART in which I play another rather unsavoury character. The film will be out next month. Photographs below are all courtesy of David Wilde at Showreel Shorts. Another really enjoyable

and fast shoot and turnaround with David and the third film we have done together in the last couple of years and always really good fun shoots with this gang. Check out @ShowreelShorts on Twitter

for their showreel services. Then onto another wonderful project, JAMES 1 - KING OF SCOTLAND, directed by my old pal Carter Ferguson who assembled a brilliant cast for these 4 short films, in which I play King Henry V. Fantastic cast and crew, superb costumes and sets and brilliantly directed by Carter, with whom I have worked on countless productions over the years and always delighted to get a call to work on one of his pictures. Photos below are all courtesy of Carter Ferguson and really looking forward to seeing the finished films!

Huge thanks to Producer Paul Wilson and the James The First team for giving me another belter of a role and to my lovely cast mates, Ryan Fletcher, Jimmy Chisholm, Hannah Donaldson and Tony Greengrass for so many laughs on set on both days, as reflected in the shot below!! It's going to

be a fantastic ongoing project as the tragic story of James The First is once again hitting the headlines due to some recent fascinating archaeological discoveries and there is great excitement in Perth for the possible location of his final resting place. And so a lovely ending to a surprisingly busy January,

usually an actor's quiet month! A couple of interesting self-tape auditions away at the tail end of the month as well, so we shall see what comes of them? Been a great month, full of ttravel, good work and really satisfying characters to play and am booking more work in every week, so this is shaping up to be a really decent first quarter of the new year. #Onwards and #Upwards! The THIRD LANARK documentary I shot at the end of 2017 was also screened this month and went down really well with audiences and a fantastic reaction on social media and am very proud to have been a wee part of it and huge congratulations to all at Purple Tv & BBC Alba for making such a poignant film.

and a special thank you to the talented Penny Sharp who drew the cartoons for this doc, including mine above! Loved it. Right, roll on February and back into pirate mode for even more live gigs!

December 2017 - The Diary

Delighted to see Feature Film COLD-BLOODED KILLERS is also now being screened on Amazon Prime UK, in which I play another villainous character, Fraser McCabe (pictured below) and there is already talk of a sequel going ahead later in 2018, so a great start to December's Diary..!

Back to touring duties with LITTLE ULLA and just lovely gigs in Paisley's Foxlea and Glasgow Kelvin Early years Centres and I am sooo enjoying this tour! Great to be back in the van and on the road again and the sheer joy this little show brings the children is a delight to behold (photo below)

and lovely working alongside Clare McGarry again this year. There were a few film screenings to squeeze in this month, first up was the final Cast & Crew showing of Feature Film CLEEK at the rather swanky 200 St Vincent Street venue in Glasgow City Centre. Well done to all involved in finally completing the picture and looking forward to it's next life at film festivals in 2018. Photo below courtesy of the lovely Jemima Spence, who also makes a cameo in the film. Then back on the

road with LITTLE ULLA and more funny and very lively gigs in Eaglesham Primary School, followed by Netherlee Nursery in Clakston. Then off to Whiteinch Primary and Campsie View, followed by Tinto Nursery in Symington and then North again to the Geoff Shaw Centre in

Toryglen for more loud and wonderfully received shows. Really enjoyed this my 11th Scottish Tour of my career and performing in this lovely show.Photos courtesy of Kirsty O'Neil at 3D-Drumchapel. 

Then nipped back into Glasgow for a CCA screening of WIGILIA with my cast-mates and our lovely Director Graham Drysdale as part of the 2017 GRAMNet Film Festival with an excellent Q&A after the screening and the first time I have seen this beautiful indie film on the big screen.

Photo above courtesy of Malone, taken post screenings at the CCA in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Back into the van the following morning and off to the first of two trips this month to Edinburgh with LITTLE ULLA. First up was Castleview Primary in Craigmillar, yet another really fun gig and the

children and staff were fabulous and fully joined in with the show throughout. Then raced back to Glasgow for an hysterically funny dinner with Irvine Welsh, John White and Gavin Mitchell at Sarti's in Renfield Street and am still rocking with laughter as I write. Brilliant fun and all the chaps were on fine form indeed! Here we all are below, getting into the Christmas Spirit!! The #1DavidMoyesAppreciationSociety is now official. What...a...laugh this night was!

Also this month was my appearance in Tiger Aspect's excellent new daytime game show, ARMCHAIR DETECTIVES on BBC One and a huge thanks to my cast mates and friends in the crew from the old days. Loved this job and delighted to be the first 'killer' to elude the entire studio audience of the whole series! Special thanks to Producer Miles Goodwin, photo below courtesy of the lovely & very funny Sean Higgs, of me in character as the dastardly and devious Rev. Reese..!

On the road again to Clydebank Town Hall and another couple of lovely audiences for LITTLE ULLA in a venue I previously filmed HIGH ROAD many moons ago, being tried and jailed in the cells underneath this building, so familiar and pleasant memories at this gig! Again the staff were brilliant here and been a common theme on this tour. Much appreciated indeed.

Then back for another trip to Edinburgh's Storytelling Centre for two lovely shows in this excellent venue, followed by Meiklewood Nursery and a wonderful gig at Kelburne Park School in Glasgow. Off to Acredyke Nursery next followed by trips to Twechar and Casa Dei Bambini in Hamilton.

and finally we reached our final destination at an old favourite of mine, Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline for 3 days and 6 fun-filled great wee shows. I have performed many times here and have loved it since I first played Abanazer in ALADDIN in 2000 with Take Two Productions. Delighted to end

our fantastic tour with 2 sold-out performances in Dunfermline and been a great 35 shows to end the year on a real feel-good high. Adored working with Clare McGarry & Bill Wright again this year and to bring a bit of Christmas magic to so many children this festive period. twas good food for the soul this gig and loved every second of working with Grinagog Theatre Company. And so ends another

busy and varied year's work! Delighted to have worked with so many talented actors, directors and crews this year and a huge thank you to my agent Carolyn Cutler & Patrick Hambleton Management for all of the opportunities they found me in 2017. And 2018 is already looking like another busy and interesting year for me! Thank you to all of you who have liked and messaged this blog over the last 12 months and via my Official Website https://simonweir.weebly.com Much appreciated! Happy New Year to all of you!

November 2017 - The Diary

Kicked-off November with a fun costume fitting in Glasgow for an exciting new Sky Atlantic series MELROSE in which I am playing Angus. Here I am below with our wonderful costume designer Keith Madden at MacGregor & McDuff in Bath Street with our lovely assistant. Then on to the set

for make-up checks and delighted to be a part of this huge production and superb cast and got a particular thrill from being surrounded by so many American 1980s cars used to turn the city into New York for a week. From what I have seen this is going to look brilliant and a huge thanks to my agent Carolyn Cutler and to Casting Director Michael at Nina Gold for this opportunity. Am loving

every second of it! I had a break for a couple of weeks, so it was back to playing dodgy MSP Ewan Ford in David Wilde's CRIMELORD series in Glasgow city centre and more fun scenes to get my teeth into. Great to hear that both this series and David's other feature film COLD-BLOODED KILLERS have also been snapped-up by Amazon Prime, as has FAST ROMANCE, directed by Carter Ferguson, so I now have 4 different projects airing on Amazon Prime by the end of the year.

Shot above is taken from the CRIMELORD shoot this month. This episode will air in January 2018 on Amazon Prime. Then back into pirate guise and more excellent live gigs at Greenock, Glasgow Garage and finally Edinburgh Three Sisters.  Photo below courtesy of The Garage, Glasgow.

Happy to have reached the milestone of 50 live events as the mercurial Sir Henry Morgan and have enjoyed each one of them immensely and a huge thanks to Karen Cunningham & all of our team at RPM over the last 3 years. Photograph below courtesy of IAMVIP at the Three Sisters, Edinburgh.

Then off to the amazing West Wycombe House in High Wycombe for night shoots on Sky Atlantic series PATRICK MELROSE with a stellar cast and our wonderful Director Edward Berger and Crew. Utterly thrilled to be working with the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessica Raine, Gary Beadle, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Tim McMullan, Margo Stilley, Georgia Maguire, Julian Firth, Bruce Panday

 and Morfydd Clark in a rather sumptuous location and of course, in fabulous Highland costume, (Hunting MacGregor tartan, in honour of my Highland Ancestry!) Huge thanks to all the cast and crew for making me feel so welcome and thrilled to be a part of this wonderful production.

And after an unforgettable night shoot at this stunning location(photo below courtesy of Gary Beadle) it was back into the car and a long return drive to Scotland for an extra CAPTAIN MORGAN

live gig at Edinburgh's THREE SISTERS followed by another at ATIK in Edinburgh and the end of another successful run this year! Delighted to have booked more of these gigs in January 2018 and nice to already have more work in the diary for next year. Then straight into a week's rehearsal of

our Christmas Show LITTLE ULLA and lovely working with Clare McGarry and Bill Wright again. We worked together last year on ALADDIN and got to rehearse on our fantastic set on day 1!! A few furious days work and into our first preview show at Barmulloch Community Centre in front 

of an invited audience of local children, who all really enjoyed it and a great start to our busy 20 venue tour in December. So a big thanks to all of the wonderful, helpful and friendly staff once again at Barmulloch Community Centre for a second year running, for looking after us all so well. 

Been a tough week and a really busy month but very satisfying having worked with some great people again and to still have a full diary of work for the remainder of the year. And I am always learning , picking up new skills, pushing myself and working hard on my stage-craft in all of these different mediums in order to become a more well-rounded performer. Also very pleased to see my 'back catalogue' of feature film work finding a new audience this month on Amazon Prime!