April 2026 - The Diary

More roleplay work with Wheatley and The Medical School between filming days which kept me busy this month before a call from my agent with the news that my character has been cut from the Apple series, despite having shot my first episode. It's not the first time this has happened over the years but is still a bitter pill to swallow. It took all my experience in this industry to just keep going this month and a cruel reminder of just how cut-throat the television business can be. The loss of the credit and the fun experience of doing such a high-profile job is what affects me the most and quite devastated by this news. But here's a wee taste of what could have been, pictured below. What a blow...

Back to more positive news and another excellent short film by Michael Cooke, UP/Down was released this month, pictured below, featuring a great cast and performances and always great fun working with

Michael, our 3rd film together and looking forward to the next one from this talented young filmmaker.

More auditions this month for great projects and trying hard to retain my enthusiasm for the whole process after this recent huge setback. We had some high profile visitors to Zico Fashion Boutique

including Scotland's First Minister John Swinney, who was shooting a promo video at The Barras, followed by my old pal, actor Peter Mullan in the same weekend and great fun catching up with them.

Also this month, the latest episode of our Victorian crime drama, A TRUE MISMATCH was released on Amazon Prime (below) and well worth a watch. We are shooting the final episode later this year in which I play Officer Muir in some great scenes and a gripping storyline as the series reaches it's finale.

Rounded off a tough month with another raft of roleplay work and audition tapes for television and 2 Bollywood films and once again am trying hard to get back to filming having lost time this year and of course getting over a huge disappointment, one of the worst of my long acting career thus far. Tough gig this acting game sometimes...! Also this month I was honoured to get on the guest list for The Happy Mondays at The Barrowlands and great to see them again after so many years and to catch up with Carl James Hunter from support act The Farm after the gig, alongside actor Glen Dickson, pictured below.

Then back to Barras Art And Design the following night for our Zico Presents Irvine Welsh night. It was a huge success, with the great man in brilliant form during the Q&A ably hosted by our pal Paul John Dykes with a sell-out crowd hanging on to his every word. We hosted a mini Zico shop selling merch

especially designed for the night and we had a great night and our first Zico Presents...night for many years went off without a hitch and hopefully this will be the first of many to come! Following the

brilliant Q&A session Irvine performed a live DJ set which had BAaD rocking until it closed and a huge thanks to Paul John, the staff and management of BAaD and all our guests who came along and of 

course to the man himself, our friend Irvine Welsh. An unforgettable night for all who were there and a lovely way to finish off this most testing month for me! Andy thanks to the brilliant Simon Murphy and

Brian Anderson for capturing the night so perfectly on film. And thanks to East End Radio for covering this special night at The Barras. So, an eventful month this one, but ultimately quite successful and now the hunt goes on for my next role...

March 2026 - The Diary

 We celebrated the third anniversary of re-opening our fashion business this month at the world famous Glasgow Barras Market and had a bumper month welcoming old friends to the shop. Thanks to all at McIvors Markets and all our loyal customers and friends who have helped Zico into into our 20th year!

Back to more roleplay work with Glasgow University and The Wheatley Group, more castings followed by costume fittings for the Apple TV series and commenced filming on the 25th of March, shooting my first scenes at a fantastic location in the Scottish Borders with an amazing cast and just a fantastic experience all round. Thanks again to my agent NHA and Kahleen Crawford Casting for this role! 

February 2026 - The Diary

 First look this month at LELEK Short film, a supernatural thriller by Joseph Iyore and yet another mysterious and malevolent character from me! The film will be out later this year but looks fantastic.

And on a similar track, the first poster has been released for another feature film I shot at the tail end of last year, WUTHERING HEIGHTS - HOUSE OF THE DAMNED is also in the edit and will be released in cinemas later this year, courtesy of EMRJ Entertainment. Also released this month was

another of the Irvine Welsh documentaries I appeared in, BEYOND TRAINSPOTTING, which is now available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime, below. Featuring a raft of stars and interviews and archive

footage it is a great companion piece to Paul Sng's REALITY IS NOT ENOUGH which will also be out this year. Next up, a trip to the GFT to attend my pal Bryan Larkin's film JAILBROKEN along with my

pal Scott Kyle. A great night and excellent performances from Bryan, Doug Russell & David Hayman

and a fab party afterwards in great company. Good luck to Team Jailbroken as the film hits festivals around the country this year so keep an eye out for it. Great to catch up with Bryan and Stephen Duffy

who directed our production of THE BENNY LYNCH STORY a few years ago and was on great form.

To top off another fun month of auditions I booked a great role in a huge Apple TV series and am looking forward to spending the next 3 months in a brilliant period show on a major network!

January 2026 - The Diary

 Kicked off 2026 with more roleplay work at Glasgow University Medical School.Then a trip to The Stand in Glasgow to see Stephen K Amos, a fellow EdFringe veteran and a great night in his company after the show., pictured below! Lots of auditions this month and booked more film work for the next

couple of months, but more of that to come! Lots of my projects from last year are coming out soon and 2026 already looks busy, including FIGURE IN THE FOG pictured below amongst many others! And delighted to report that our Zico Presents An Evening With Irvine Welsh sold out in just 48 hours!!!

We are already planning more events for 2026 & 2027 on the back of this so stay tuned and check out our events page on https://zicofashionboutique.myshopify.com/blogs/news A cracking start to the

New Year and delighted to see HERE COMES THE NUN reach the Australian leg of it's world tour with an outdoor screening and thanks to Director Jack Willison for this stunning shot from this week!

One of my favourite shots ever this one! An excellent and exciting month of auditions and huge thanks to my agent Nancy Hudson Associates for providing me with such excellent opportunities. And now... we wait!

December 2025 - The Diary

Kicked off December with another long drive to Staffordshire for my favourite roleplay gig of the year with the Football Association at St George's Park, working with executives from the Premiership and 

SPFL on the Talent ID Executive Course. Always a great gig and a wonderful location to work in and huge thanks to all involved for booking me once again. Landed some more work for 2026 this month too, but more of that to come in future updates! Then back to Glasgow for more Medical School roleplays.

We finally managed to launch our own website for Zico's this month, and are adding more and more stock on the website every week. Delighted with the success it has brought so far and please go and check it out here: https://zicofashionboutique.myshopify.com/ if you can't make it along to The Barras Market shop!

And speaking of Zico's we welcomed our old pal Paul Riley back to the Barras store this month, pictured above and great to catch up with him. Then another fab night of The Hellfire Club with Tam Dean Burn, Gavin Mitchell and Irvine Welsh once again at Sarti's for a fab meal and much laughter!

In December I eventually also launched a TikTok page for my acting work and been lots of fun looking back on my career this month! You can find me @simonweiractor and my page is pictured below.

I will be updating content on here daily from the archives as well as behind-the-scenes stuff from my current and upcoming projects. Also this month our mad wee short film HERE COMES THE NUN continues on it's world tour, this time popping up as part of the Flickerfest Film Festival, pictured

here as it garners award upon award yet again! Can't tell you how much we all enjoyed being a part of this so catch it wherever you can. And finally this month we are delighted to announce that our fashion business is once again producing events in 2026, kicking off with a night with Irvine Welsh at BAaD.

Tickets selling fast so get them before they're gone. The Q&A will be hosted by Paul John Dykes of ACSOM fame and features a live DJ set from Irvine as well as a one-off pop-up Zico shop on the night selling Ione-off Irvine Welsh merchandise. so that's it for 2025. A quite brilliant and busy year...

November 2025 - The Diary

 Back into a raft of roleplay work at The GU Medical School to kick off a really productive month and booked in 3 more film jobs this first week. Re-united with pals from previous shoots on the latest 48 Hour Film Challenge Edinburgh for a brilliant shoot at an amazing, authentic WW2 location, Cultybraggan

Camp for FIGURE IN THE FOG, which won the Audience Award for Best Film. A fab shoot with great people and produced by KD Films, directed by Dominique Mabille. Here are a few stills from this shoot

and another RP/Military role for me to get to grips with. Really impressed with the finished film which

looks great and will now tour the short film festival circuit and no doubt garner more awards.So yet

another 48 Hour Film success to add to the list and always tough but exhilarating shoots trying to

write, shoot and edit a full short film in one weekend! Really enjoyable experience and a great team!

More film work the following week with the first of my travels up North to shoot the long-awaited EMINENT feature film, which has been booked for months and another brilliant script and premise

by the talented Kelvin Richards. Another excellent day's work, following a stunning drive to the 

island of Skye and an atmospheric location to shoot this low budget, but brilliant feature film.I play another dodgy character in this one, pictured above, and great to team up with more old pals on this.

There's another block of filming to do early 2026 and hopefully EMINENT will be out later in the

year. Good news also as HERE COMES THE NUN, directed by Jack Willison, continues it's successful festival run, winning Best Scottish Film at the Edinburgh Short Film Festival, pictured above. Drove to

Glasgow the following day to shoot an interview with BBC Alba's news show An La to discuss the 

history and current developments with Third Lanark Football & Athletic Club which I am the CEO of and great to be back at our spiritual home of Cathkin Park for this shoot. This is the 10th production we have

brought to our former ground and hope it brings more attention and community focus on the history of

this magnificent amphitheatre of Scottish football. Back up to Arbroath immediately after to shoot yet another feature film, WITHERING HEIGHTS - HOUSE OF THE DAMNED and another horror film set in this wonderful location pictured above. Great cast and crew and a brilliant retelling of the original.

Produced by EMRJ Productions and directed by the brilliant Rebecca Matthews, it was another accent for me, this time Yorkshire and a fab and moody scene, shot in only 2 takes and delighted with this one!

Great to meet up with Gordon J Miller again, with whom I've worked on several shows with previously

and pictured above. Back to Zico at The Barras Market and we were joined by my pal Tony Curran from BLOOD OF MY BLOOD as he shopped at our wee store the next weekend. Just time for one rehearsal for an exciting roleplay gig next month and a few more audition tapes for indie work later in 2026 to round off an excellent month's graft.

October 2025 - The Diary

Another busy month! Kicked off October with a fun interview regarding Outlander : Blood Of My Blood with Judy at The Electric Crush Podcast in America. Lovely interview and nice to be able to chat about my experience on this epic show at long last! the interview went down really well and delighted to be

asked to appear on the podcast which is devoted to the Outlander universe. We also discussed my career and the latest film shoot on OLD HABITS, which marked my 100th film role last month. Then straight back into more roleplay work with Glasgow University Medical School, before another feature film

with Director David Wilde, again playing the raucous Damien Self in THE DOLLS, the sequel to our feature film PSYCHO SEX DOLLS which we shot last year in Edinburgh. Great fun with the usual gang from the first movie and great to shoot my scenes in Glasgow's Diamond Dolls this month. And lovely

working with the brilliant Stella Paris once again, who plays the lead character Mia. Back to the roleplay work the following day and then out for a brilliant evening in great company to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Drumchapel Amateurs FC. A great night and thanks to Simon Farrelly for inviting me

along as his guest. Great to also reunite with goalkeeper Alan Rough, to whom our wee fashion store is indebted to for letting in Zico's free kick at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, which was the inspiration for my naming it the Zico Fashion Boutique! Here we are below with host Peter Martin and below that is the 

infamous goal which made me fall in love with all things Brazilian football as a 9 year old boy! Alan was in great form and nice to see him again and to celebrate this wonderful football club. More football fun this month with my actor pals Tony Curran and Cal Macaninch as they invited me along to Celtic Park

again for the Motherwell game after The Barras Market. As per usual much hilarity ensued and a great game to watch and a narrow victory as this season becomes closer and more exciting by the week! Then 

a lovely and rare trip to the theatre to watch the amazing War Horse in Edinburgh and absolutely blown

away by finally seeing the full stage version. A rainy night but great fun as always in the Capital and just loved this show, which I'd missed first time round at The National Theatre. Great stuff. Back to the Celtic and managed along for a weekday game with my Dad, as we celebrated the 42nd anniversary of him

taking me along to Paradise for the first time, against Aberdeen in 1983! A fine 2-1 win on a freezing cold night but great fun. Then back to Rutherglen the following day to be interviewed by Matt Bendoris for our upcoming run of SINGIN IM NO A BILLY, HES A TIM - The Legends Show at The Pavilion, Glasgow.

Nice to chat with Matt and the interviews went well with Charlie Miller and Simon Donnelly, myself and Scott Kyle at the Rutherglen Town Hall and really nice coverage of the show in the national press again this month. Here we are below, photo courtesy of Matt Bendoris. Then more roleplay work and into the

the next run of the show, which I am honoured to still be very much a part of after all these years. The show just gets better and bigger as we returned to it's spiritual home of The Pavilion Theatre Glasgow. We had three sell-out shows at this wonderful venue and had a ball. The commentary team included David 

Tanner who was joined by David Robertson of Rangers and Jackie McNamara of Celtic at the end of the show, both of whom are joining the show for the runs in 2026. Thanks to everyone who came along to 

support the show and to the wonderful and helpful staff at The Pavilion for making this another huge

success. Then it was back on set for a night shoot on a brilliant short film, entitled LELEK, which we shot in my old stomping ground of Scotstoun. It's a supernatural horror film directed by the brilliant Joseph Iyore and a great cast and crew and yet another devious and devilish character for me to get my teeth

into! A great fun shoot with a lovely crew and a fine end to a mental busy month. Also had a few auditions this month and landed some more film work for later in the year. Been quite a year thus far...