April 2019 - The Diary

The 1st of April saw the release of feature film 90 MINUTES and some favourable reviews for our wee low budget football film and is doing well on all platforms and hopefully will have a bright future! Lots of auditions and self-tapes this month and my agent IAM are keeping me busy.

Delighted to report that I shall be popping up in ITV's long running show EMMERDALE and my debut will be on the 21st of May! Absolutely loved every second of working on this show and driving up and down to Leeds a few times this month. Brilliant cast and crew to work with and a lovely role to play. Hopefully I will return to The Dales at some point in the future!

Back to Scotland and we recorded a new show for STV entitled WHAT'S ON SCOTLAND with Laura Boyd interviewing our cast for the upcoming THE BENNY LYNCH STORY which I am Producing with my company Cathkin Park Limited. Thanks to The Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock for hosting us this month as we gear up for a Scottish tour this summer having completed casting.

Up and down to London for more auditions and a photo shoot for ACSOM and FITBA GREATS at my beloved Cathkin Park in preparation for another Legends match next month and thanks to Stephen Cameron at INTO CREATIVE for the photograph below! Great fun again with the ex-pros Rudi Vata and Bobby Petta and James English, Paul John Dykes and Tommy Sheridan and really looking forward to our next match.

Back to Birmingham again for another COLOPLAST live gig and then back to Glasgow to book  rehearsal rooms and gear up for our debut tour! Lots of tickets already sold so if you want to catch it at one of the 9 venues then please go to thebennylynchstory.co.uk for all tickets details. More press coverage this month for the show and we are delighted the way this is all coming together at last!

A cracking 4 weeks and really looking forward to another busy month to come and hope to see some of you at one of our shows! And huge thanks to the brilliant people at EMMERDALE and to my agent Luc Chaudhary who has kept me busier than ever this year already.

March 2019 - The Diary

Kicked off this month with a voice-over for a beautifully shot & written spoken word film for the VIEW FROM THE TERRACE football programme on the new BBC Scotland channel entitled 'No Ball Games' which aired on the 15th of March 2019 as part of Episode 3. Then back on the road with

another CAPTAIN MORGAN live bar & club tour in Leeds which went down a storm with the student population. A brilliant end to the current contract and will hopefully be back later in the year! Time then for another round of auditions and self-tapes back in Scotland for some cracking screen

projects and booked another Short Film for Summer 2019. More regional press again this month for THE BENNY LYNCH STORY and tickets are selling fast. Check out thebennylynchstory.co.uk for dates. We had another tough football match for the Scotland Writers FC v Cambuslang Royals at Toryglen

on the 10th of March for the Davy Black Testimonial and lost 5-2 in a bruising encounter but a great game and thanks to CRFC for the photo of the two teams above. Back to Glasgow and 3 days of R&D work on Kevin Brannigan's brilliant new television project at The Tron Theatre, followed by

a rehearsed reading in front of an invited audience and had a ball with this talented cast and creatives pictured above. hanks to KB Brannigan for the photo above and for a laughter-filled week and a great script, directed by the brilliant Sarah McCardie. Then another 90 minutes playing for the Geltic XI v Rangers XI in another brilliant Fitba Greats match at Kilwinning Rangers. A tough tough match and

we went down to a youthful Rangers side 7-3! But absolutely loved it and great to team up with newcomers Massimo Donati and Paul Slane along with the ex-pros on both teams and an honour to be a part of this once again, despite the result. Thanks to Kelly Neilson for these photos of another

brilliant day and thanks to everyone who came along to watch and to Craig Beattie, our star striker who claimed another hat-trick. Roll on the next one! Back in the car and straight to London's East End for the Premiere of the feature film 90 MINUTES in which I play Ronnie. Great fun seeing

the Cast & Crew again and the film went down a storm at The Genesis Cinema, Bethnal Green. Here's a selection of photos from the night, which included our Producer Rio Ferdinand, who has a cameo in the film. In London cinemas now and released on download and DVD from the 1st of

April 2019. A great night was had by all, but had to leave after the Q&A to drive to Manchester and another excellent COLOPLAST Live event at the Holiday Inn the following day. Another Herculanean drive north and just in time to catch the screening of Maz Edmond's CONNECT at the CCA in Glasgow as part of Tartan Features 'Beyond Year Zero.' This was my first chance to see the

film and was blown away by it. Beautifully written, shot & edited and stunning performances from the amazing ensemble cast with Kevin Guthrie in a superb performance. The film is doing the Festival circuit and am very proud to have been a part of it. Was still thinking about it days after.

Some more exciting auditions and a blizzard of self-tapes in March and booked some more work for next month. Finally another appearance on the CELTIC AM show with Andrew Milne at Malone's in Glasgow discussing all things Cathkin Park & Celtic in advance of the Old Firm match at Parkhead

and great fun once again, alongside George McCluskey, Jim and John Buckley from The Jimmy Johnstone Academy, Agnes Johnstone, Sean Fallon Jr, Charlie Tully Jr and Joe Brooks. Photos here are courtesy of Jim Simmonette.

February 2019 - The Diary

Another frenetic month of travel for auditions and work and another 2000 miles in the car already in 2019! The LABOUR PARTY commercial aired on the 13th February and here's a wee still below courtesy of Simon Baker. To watch the ad check here NHS Labour Party political broadcast 2019

More meetings for the upcoming BENNY LYNCH tour and more self-tapes for some excellent screen projects and some more voice work booked in as well this month. We shot a series of Trailers for THE BENNY LYNCH STORY in which I am playing Tash Conlin, with David Hayman, Stephen Purdon and Holly Jack and thanks to Davie Carswell for the photo below.

Maz Edmond's excellent debut feature CONNECT in which I play 'entertainer' Stevie Sparkles, opened in the Glasgow Film Festival and received more local press in the East Lothian Courier (below). Hoping for a cinema release with this lovely film and is currently doing the rounds of

of the film festival circuit. Thanks to George Mair we received more national press for our BENNY LYNCH tour in May & June 2019 and tickets are already on sale and you can get all the details on our website here thebennylynchstory.co.uk and delighted to report that this is already selling well!

Then it was back into the familiar 'pirate mode' for a brilliant CAPTAIN MORGAN live gig at The Garage, Glasgow with a brilliant crowd and thanks to the staff for again making it one of our favourite venues to play. Photos here courtesy of Hannah from The Garage Niteclub. Then on to

another CAPTAIN MORGAN Tour of Vodka Wodka, Bacchus and The Cathouse Niteclub in Glasgow with the RPM team which went down a storm and a 5th year of playing the mercurial Sir Henry Morgan for me! Great fun as usual and huge thanks to the whole team of Pirate Crew.

Next up was an appearance on BBC Radio Scotland's brilliant OFF THE BALL show with my Stephen Purdon to talk about our upcoming tour of THE BENNY LYNCH STORY and very grateful to Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove for having us on the show. Photo here courtesy of BBC Scotland. You can listen back to the broadcast here: OFF THE BALL BBC Radio Scotland

Rounded off a busy month with another brilliant charity football match at Camelon FC ground in Falkirk and a fine 5-3 Celtic victory over Rangers in the Fitba Greats match. Huge thanks to all who came along to support and to the ex-pro's and players and Officials who made it such a successful

and fun event and great to get my hands on some silverware at long last. Thanks to Alan Watt for the photos on this page. Already looking forward to the next match in March at Kilwinning!Also this month we received nationwide press coverage for our upcoming tour of thebennylynchstory.co.uk

in the Sunday Mail, Sunday Post, Scottish Mail On Sunday and Scottish Sun and thank you to George Mair for his sterling work on our behalf which has already seen a jump in ticket sales for the Scottish Tour 2019 in May and June. Also managed to notch up another victory this month with the Scotland

Writers FC against Glasgow United in a 4-2 win and thanks to Karen Buckland for the team photo below! Great catching up with my old pal Joe Miller of Celtic Fc this month in the West End and

delighted with my new Celtic Former Players Association official jersey! An interesting wee month that was and a few projects coming up in the next couple of months to look forward to...Onwards!

January 2019 - The Diary

January 2019 and back to restoration work on Cathkin Park and lots of press interviews on the first year's work. Check out our progress on Twitter @CathkinPark. More venues booked and meetings for our first theatre production The Benny Lynch Story for May & June 2019.

More self-tapes, followed by another excellent Coloplast Uk live event in Islington, London, followed by another day's research & development work on STROZZI at the Selladoor rehearsal rooms where I last rehearsed KIDNAPPED for our 2014 Uk tour.

Then back up to Scotland for some recce and location preparation work at Cathkin and Morrisons Gym and a fun chat with owner Alex Morrison seen below. An intensely busy week saw me up and down to London twice and great to work with Simon Baker again shooting the latest LABOUR PARTY political broadcast which will air next month.

Yet more auditions and already this year's diary is filling up with some really interesting projects.

December 2018 - The Diary

Final days of rehearsal at Knightswood before we began our run of SLEEPING BEAUTY at Barmulloch Community Centre with two wonderfully noisy and excited audiences! It's a cracking show with all the classic panto favourites and John Binnie's script is brilliant as is Aileen Ritchie's direction. Great to be back at Barmulloch again for the 3rd year in a row kicking off Christmas touring shows & a huge thank you to the Staff and audiences there for a brilliant start!

Next up was The Lodging House Mission for a matinee and lovely to be back in my old manor! Great fun and brilliant audience again and lovely to have John Binnie and Bill Wright in the crowd for this very special show. Am revelling in the role of The Dame and appeared on Christina Littleson's radio show on Pulse 98.4FM for a chat and an unexpected appearance from 'Dame Nellie!' Then off to the

Drumchapel Community Centre for a wild gig with a fab vocal audience and then to Pennilee and Knightswood Community Centres for 4 wonderful shows with superb audiences and the show went down an absolute storm with kids and parents alike. Delighted to catch up with my niece & nephew after the matinee in Knightswood and they were very proud of 'Auntie Sie' as they wrote on a card!

Also this month we announced the upcoming tour of our THE BENNY LYNCH STORY tour of Scotland for May & June 2019 with nationwide coverage in the Press. Huge thanks to George Mair and Simon Houston for helping ensure blanket coverage and delighted with the response so far. All ticket details are now available on our new website https://www.thebennylynchstory.co.uk/ And huge thanks to Writer Davie Carswell for the photo here and handling the entire production whilst I am on tour, and for Stephen Purdon to take time out from his own busy panto run to appear in the shoot.

More self-tapes and press interviews squeezed in to this week before donning 'Nellie' again and heading to our next raft of shows, kicking off again at Ruchill, followed by Barrowfield Community Centres and again the audiences were simply brilliant & thoroughly enjoyed every second of them.

Time to squeeze in some more press appearances, this time in character as 'Nellie Nae Dosh' for Glasgow Lives with Elaine Livingstone, who took this wonderful photo below! Read it here: https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-lives-nellie-nae-dosh-15544284

Then to the Geoff Shaw Centre in Toryglen, followed by another great crowd at the Bellcraig Community Centre before heading back to Barmulloch for another two sold-out shows. Garnered more press for our The Benny Lynch Story tour and appeared on Rocksport Radio to chat about the ongoing Cathkin Park restoration work. Recorded a great, fun interview with TheFootyBlog lads

at Cathkin before heading to Media Co-op for an enjoyable voice-over for The Scottish Recovery Network. More self-tapes for some great screen projects this month, before heading back to 'pantoland' and two more shows at Barlanark Community Centre. Again brilliant audiences here

and at the four shows at Pollock Community Centre, followed by a welcome return to Castlemilk for our final two-show day. Utterly exhausting but great fun and the shows went down really well in our last week of this fun tour. Managed to squeeze in another hysterically funny and entertaining night with our very own 'Hellfire Club' annual gathering in Glasgow with these bad boys below!

Then back to panto duties and we had our final show at 1pm on the 22nd of December at the lovely Shettleston Community Centre once again and it was sadly time to say goodbye to 'Nellie Nae-Dosh' and to all of our wonderful cast and crew. I have absolutely loved playing my first ever 'Dame' role 

and it has been a superb tour and been a joy to have been a part of it all. However within two hours of walking off the stage for the last time I was hit with an awful Flu that lasted throughout Christmas! It has been another rollercoaster of a year work-wise but thoroughly enjoyed it all and hoping lots of hard graft this year pays dividends in 2019 with the release of more of my work on screen. So a huge

thanks to everyone I worked with in 2018 and to my agent Luc Chaudhary at IAM. Lots more to look forward to already in 2019, which promises to be another year of Film, Fitba & much laughter ahead.

November 2018 - The Diary

Kicked off November with an appearance on CELTIC AM, presented by Andrew Milne at Malones Bar in Glasgow alongside Celtic's Bobby Petta and Wembley legend Jim McCallion chatting about my career and the ongoing Cathkin Park restoration. Photo below courtesy of Andy Milne.

Then back to COLOPLAST UK roleplay work in Manchester and a welcome return to the fabulous Malmaison Hotel with the usual crew. Back to Glasgow for more auditions and a screening of Paul Darroch's WW1 trailer ONE NIGHT IN FLANDERS with the Cast and Crew.

Thanks to Ray Crofter for the photo below.  The film was released on the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1 on the 11th November 2018. You can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlkfGin13PM&t=6s&fbclid=IwAR1_-ESUvi9UKf0y4xp_MPuV6NBEFEbYCwp2VBQ1UWpuQ7KnpH9snv52Cn4

Delighted to see ARMCHAIR DETECTIVES pick up a Scottish Bafta for 'Best Entertainment Show' this month. I really enjoyed playing the nasty, murderous Rev Reese on the only episode that remained unsolved by the panel nor the audience, so a huge well done to everyone at Tiger Aspect.

Back down to London for more meetings in another mad month of travel but hopefully it will all pay off! Yet more castings and finally into rehearsals for Glasgow Arts new pantomime, written by John Binnie and directed by Aileen Ritchie with a brilliant cast and my first tentative steps as The Dame!

I am playing Nurse Nellie Nae Dosh in our touring production of SLEEPING BEAUTY and coming to lots of community venues in December. I will post the dates at the beginning of next month and hope to catch some of you lot at the gigs!

Photos here are courtesy of Glasgow Arts of our lovely cast & creative team at our rehearsal rooms at Knightswood Community Centre and great to be back working in my old stomping ground once again!

Am constantly amazed by how much can be done in just two weeks to get a full pantomime up and running and impressed by my cast-mates talent & energy in bashing it into shape under our Aileen Ritchie's fab direction. Hard, hard work but beginning to pay of...Hopefully!

Also this month we got round the table to have a read of a new play I am producing later in 2019 with a stellar cast and Director. More details on that to come in the New Year. Then it was off to Pulse FM in Barrhead to record Radio Series MADE IN THE YOOKAY directed by Julie Dunn with a great

cast and more episodes to record later in 2019. Then it was back to pirate duties for the final CAPTAIN MORGAN live gigs in Kirkintilloch at Bar Bliss and Club Bliss followed by a mini tour of Glasgow City Centre! Huge thanks to the team and all at RPM for a 4th year of playing the

famous old Captain Morgan and to all the venues we played in Scotland & England once again in 2018. Hopefully we will be back in early 2019 for more high seas jinks! Thanks to Bar Bliss for

the photographs above. Great fun and a great crowd and a suitably wild end to an incredibly busy month. Now...it's panto time!