January - 2024 The Diary

 Happy New Year folks! Bit of a mad Christmas and New Year with the fashion store open late throughout and really busy, then one day off and back into it again! Kicked off the year with a trip through to 

Edinburgh and the Cast & Crew screening of Feature Film THE DRAW, which we shot last year. Fab fun was had watching the feature and huge congratulations to all at View 35 Films and lovely catching up with SanjeevKholi and Emma Ross Hamilton and the fantastic 

Director of the film, Tom Ruddick (pictured above). Really enjoyed the film which has a great cast and will be going out to Distributors this year. Great to be back in The Everyman Cinema again too, a fantastic venue. Back to Glasgow for a fun podcast chat with Director Chris Boyd about all things X-Files and my

acting career highlights and available soon on the BELIEVE ME Podcast Channel. Always great fun working with Chris, who directed me in the brilliant short film REMNANTS back in 2022. Great to

also book my first film role of 2024 with a direct offer from the Producer of Bollywood movie EMPURAAM to play the Senior Agent in this brilliant sequel to LUCIFER, one of the most successful films of all time in the genre. Unfortunately however my scenes were cut! Such is the nature of the

film business. Very disappointing indeed. Back to Glasgow for more auditions and booked my a few corporate jobs for Feb/March and rounded off January with another interview with the football magazine NINE, with Issue One launching in late February 2024. A solid start to another year and lots still to 

look forward to in Q1 with the restart of the roleplay work and the release of lots of films I have worked in over the last two years. Great to catch up with old pals this month and reminded of some great times!

December 2024 - The Diary

 December started with a raft of new scripts to read for projects next year and all really promising stuff! A final roleplay with Glasgow University and then to the National Theatte Of Scotland for a rehearsal and costume fitting in advance of my next shoot. Delighted to finally work with the NTS and Director Jack

Willison again on his new film CHRISTMAS AT CUNNINGHAMS. No panto for me this year and this was just as much fun to be involved in! A fab cast that includes Catriona Faint and Anne Lacey and lots of friends in the Crew from previous jobs made this a memorable gig. We shot the film in a day down in 

Greenock and had a ball doing this madcap Christmas heist caper. I play Murphy, a career criminal taking his young apprentice on their first robbery. Lets just say we chose the wrong house to rob! A great script and fab performances from all and a total gas. Love working with Jack, this one being our 11th film

together, having worked on DON ALFONSO CHADWICK, LAUNDERETTE, POCKET, EVERY LOVE STORY, SNOOKERED, A FRIENDLY MAN, THE LEAF BLOWER, TUG, WAKEY WAKEY, and the multi-award winning BAD BEANS over the years! Always great fun working with Jack and Sean Campbell from Dropshack Films and an utter privilege to finally work with the National Theatre Of 

Scotland at long last! The film was then released on the 24th of December and you can watch it online here https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/christmas-at-cunninghams?fbclid=IwAR1TuDxK4an9c64Ovx7cKH7sNOqwr5R16czJyrrIc608CSWltu0l4TtPMOk

and went down really well! Thanks to everyone at NTS and to Jack for another great job. Then back 

on set with PSYCHO SEX DOLLS for a pick-up day of shots we missed on the first shoot and this time Randall's Antiques at The Barras doubled for Damien Self's apartment and film studio. A brilliant location

that really aided the look of the film and thanks to Andy and to Smokey Trotters restaurant nearby for providing a fab location and hospitality on a freezing cold mid-December day! Great to finally get the film wrapped and all of my outstanding scenes in the can and great too work with David & Stevie again!

Irvine Welsh popped through to Glasgow to reunite THE HELLFIRE CLUB with the brilliant Gavin Mitchell and another lovely dinner at our 'clubhouse' Sarti's. Thanks to all of the staff for another

great evening and was a real laugh catching up with both chaps once again (pictured above). End of the acting year for me and a return to Zico Fashion Boutique for the Christmas rush and delighted to be joined by one of my favourite footballers of all time, Man Utd and Celtic striker Brian McClair once again!

Great fun catching up and more good news as we opened up a Zico concession in The Leith Collective at The Glasgow Fort Shopping Centre this month too. Thanks to everyone I worked with this year. Been mad busy opening the clothing business, starting a new clothing brand and managing to complete filming on 

9 screen projects this year. Huge thanks to my agent IAM for presenting me with lots of opportunities yet again and really looking forward to what 2024 has in store. Have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

November 2023 - The Diary

 Straight into another slew of roleplay work in early November in Glasgow & Edinburgh with various clients including Glasgow University, The Wheatley Group and NHS Lanarkshire in week one alone.

Then back to Edinburgh and a fab week-long shoot on David Wilde's new Feature Film, entitled PSYCHO SEX DOLLS. I play a failing porn film director who orders AI Dolls to utilise in his movies and to try and

save his studio and career, but with disastrous results! This was a brilliant experience with a great cast and old pals in the crew, shot on a micro budget in only 7 days! Having worked with David on RUN, CRIMELORD, BLACK HEART and COLD BLOODED KILLERS over the years it was great to be

given another leading role in film with the part of Damien Self in the fab Studio 128 in Leith and an absolute joy to work with Stella Paris (pictured above) and Emma Cole and Jamie Jones as 'The Dolls' as well as the rest of the Cast & Crew. A tough, non-stop shoot and a brilliant script and story, a real

vintage Exploitation Film with a twist and one of a trilogy of features to come. The film will be out in the Spring of 2024 and you can follow it's progress on PSD FILM Just time to squeeze in another GU Medical School roleplay to round off a very interesting and diverse month of acting work! Also received an offer for another excellent Short Film which shoots next month & a for another Feature Film in February 2024.

October 2023 - The Diary

A really busy month and managed to pack a lot in! Back to the Woolfson for more excellent GU MED SCHOOL roleplay work with a great group of actor pals before heading back down to North London to shoot another excellent Bollywood Feature Film. The film, entitled BHAI BHAI stars Maniesh Paul

and is Directed by Dhwani Gautam and was a brilliant experience, shot in an excellent former police station and with a great script. Had a blast on this feature and met up with the cast back in Glasgow

as they had further scenes to shoot in Scotland. Huge thanks to Anushree and all the team for casting me in my 5th big Bollywood film and this was a great character to get my teeth into. Then it was into the car for the long drive home and another excellent roleplay with The Wheatley Group followed by a return to 

Glasgow University for further roleplay work. Our fashion store at The Barras is doing really well too and we had a fab Fashion Show at a private event in the West End which was great fun to host and thank you

to our models and to everyone who came along and helped turn it into a real success, pictured below.

Booked another film role for December, more of which to come and then it was back into costume as another police character this month, the return of Officer Muir in Episode 3 of the Amazon Prime series

A TRUE MISMATCH. Brilliant to be back with this team and a really good few days shooting this in fab locations such as Stirling Old Town Jail and a return to New Lanark. Shot some epic scenes in this one and can't wait to see the results when it is screened later in 2024. Great to be reunited with Matthew

Crawford, pictured with me above, who was our Costume Designer on ONE NIGHT IN FLANDERS a few years ago. More auditions, more corporate work and the shop, Zico Fashion Boutique made it a manic end to October, but delighted to announce that I have signed on to play a lead role in this beauty below!

Next month is looking busy once again and very much looking forward to playing another mad, bad and dangerous to know character and to working with old friends once again. Stay tuned...

September 2023 - The Diary

In September it was back to London for another excellent roleplay with COLOPLAST UK in Islington and great fun working with the usual team and joined by Glen Dickson for these sessions, pictured below

before heading back to Glasgow and meeting up with former Celtic & Partick Thistle FC goalkeeper Andy Murdoch for lunch and drinks and a great catch up, having previously worked together with Police Scotland, in which I did the roleplay work. A great evening ensued and met fellow ex-pro's Paul Paton and Paul Ross at The Horseshoe Bar, also all pictured below! Back to the screen work and this month saw a

repeat broadcast of the brilliant CASE HISTORIES series starring Jason Isaacs on the UKTV Play channel. I played a hit man, Paul Bradley and loved working on this show alongside a stellar cast

in a great role, taken from the novels by Kate Atkinson, a still from which is above, alongside Adam Godley of Breaking Bad fame. Back to Glasgow Caledonian University for the first time since I quit

Photo above with Blythe Duff and Clare Waugh at the TAGGART Exhibition in Sept 23 in Caley Uni.

my Degree course in Social Sciences to pursue my acting career and the fab exhibition and celebration of all things TAGGART. Organized by Blythe Duff, this was an honour to be a part of and I freely gave my own 'witness statement' of my involvement in this flagship show from STV to the retired Detectives present and it brought back some brilliant memories. Great to bump into Laura Harvey, who had photos

of the WRAP Night party from 1999/2000 when we shot the episode entitled FALLING IN LOVE in which I played Billy 'Skud" Mackay. This photo is above! Great catching up with lots of old friends at this event and doing the interview for the documentary film that will accompany the exhibition in future.

Then time for another grand meeting of The Hellfire Club and anothe fun-filled night at Sarti's Glasgow, followed by a raucous night watching the Scotland game in the Horseshoe Bar once again. Great fun indeed. The following Monday it was back to Parkhead and a really fun interview with Paul Dykes

for A Celtic State Of Mind's A WANDER ROUND PARADISE series, which you can watch here:

A WANDER ROUND PARADISE and great fun chatting about Celtic FC and our new fashion store

Zico Fashion Boutique and huge thanks for having me back on the platform. Always great fun!

Also this month I helped organize a shoot in Glasgow for a funding reel short film by Jason Allday entitled RUN. The majority of the shoot was in New York and features cast members from The Sopranos and Goodfellas and is Directed by Danny Provenzano. Thanks to David Wilde for shooting these scenes

above and below and to our cast of Scott Peden, Douglas Sannachan and Peter McPherson and to Tom Joyce at The Barrowland Ballroom for permission to shoot another scene there. Great fun again and

another nice project for the future. Here's the cast and crew below under the iconic Barras Market sign!

Time to squeeze in a couple of medical roleplays with Glasgow University before the end of the month at the Woolfson Building and another slew of exciting auditions from my agent. Booked another feature film role but more of that in the weeks to come!

August 2023 - The Diary

 As with last month, we kicked off August with more roleplay gigs with the Medical School at Glasgow University and with NHS Lanarkshire and again throughout the month and really enjoyed the various different scenarios and the research one has to do beforehand to give convincing case studies for students.

This month saw the repeat on Sky Arts of the brilliant PATRICK MELROSE, featuring an amazing performance from Benedict Cumberbatch and again, a delight to work with on this epic series, directed by the fab Edward Berger of All Quiet On The Western Front fame. I played Angus Broglie in this fab series

which was a real career highlight to work on. Again August was full of more auditions for more superb shows and another two Bollywood film offers for later in the year from Producers I have previously worked for, which is always a good sign that you did a decent job previously! 

Next up was a great night out at the opening of Sam's Bar at The Barrowlands Ballroom, pictured above with my fellow traders and old pal Gavin Mitchell. A great night and delighted to be asked along. The following day it was back to Edinburgh for the EIFF screening of the brilliant CHOOSE IRVINE WELSH

documentary in which I was interviewed and which went down really well with the audience and much hilarity followed with a great after party at The Little White Pig and great fun catching up with friends

old and new and to celebrate the career of this generation's greatest writer. A brilliant night and huge congratulations to Jack Pepper Media for making a superb and fascinating documentary film, which

will be out later this year on Netflix. Thanks so much to Director Ian Jeffries and Producers Jason Allday and Brian Anderson for a fab night and to Lisa Moorish, Zoe Devlin Love, Kirsty Allison, Gavin Mitchell, Gail Porter and Emma Welsh for such fun company and to all who came along. Superb fun.

Finished off the month with more roleplay bookings and more auditions and lots to look forward to in the next few months, with jobs booked in all over the country and another pile of scripts on my desk to read!

July 2023 - The Diary

Into the second half of the year now and back to Glasgow University for more roleplay work with the GU Medical School, followed by another series of NHS Lanarkshire roleplay work. July also saw the release of series 1 of Irvine Welsh's CRIME, starring Dougray Scott in his Emmy-winning lead role. The show was finally aired on STV/ITV this month and I was featured in Episode 4 as Miles. Great to see the show

finally on terrestrial television and gaining a whole new audience. Delighted to have been a part of it and there is a second series now in the can. Back to more auditions and self-tapes this month for some excellent productions and thanks to IAM for presenting me with so many opportunities so far this year.

Back to Glasgow and more roleplay work and rehearsals for two separate films we are shooting this summer, before heading back to my old stomping ground of Luss, Loch Lomond to shoot an excellent arthouse film with the brilliant Robert Firth and my old pal Mark Barrett on THE ORIGINAL NIGHT.

This was a fun shoot on Inchconnachan Island, famous for it's population of Wallabies and I play an Animal Handler in this film, directed by Artist Alasdair Asmussen Doyle with a fab international crew and a great story. 

We shot on film, not having worked in the analogue form since the 90's it added an extra special dimension to the shoot and certainly the lack of huge amounts of film certainly concentrated the action!

Stunning locations and lots of laughs on this one and great fun working with these guys and for me to be back in Luss, where I spent 8 years shooting TAKE THE HIGH ROAD was a joy and brought back a lot

of very happy memories.  Really enjoyed working with Mark and Rob, and his tales of Hollywood and his long career was a delight. A brilliant gig this one and great to be back filming in Scotland again. Topped off a good month with another feature film offer, more of which to come next time!