A homecoming for Perth actor Colin McCredie

Nov 20 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

IT’S provided his livelihood for more than a decade and Perth actor Colin McCredie is hopeful network politics won't kill off the country's long-running cop show.

Ten episodes were filmed last year and the STV hit drama “Taggart” has already toasted its 25th anniversary.

It makes “The Bill” look like a wet-behind-the-ears constable.

“All good things have to come to an end but we are hopeful this isn't the end of the road for Taggart. Normally ratings sound the death knell in television but that certainly isn't the case here,” said the 37-year-old family man, who learned his trade at Perth Theatre alongside Ewan McGregor.

The enforced break from the Glasgow-based detective series has allowed Colin to return to his first love, with a December 3-19 run looming at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, in an all-star Scottish cast pulled together for “The Corstorphine Road Nativity.”

The sparkling family comedy is penned by Calendar Girls’ Tim Firth.

“Basically, everything that can go wrong with a children's nativity play does go wrong. The role involves playing the kids and the parents, so the beard I've grown recently will have to go,” he said, during a rehearsals break.

“It's good to get back on stage after filming for anything between six and eight months of any given year. I did manage a play, which included a run at Perth Theatre in 2005, so I've kept my hand in. I made a conscious effort to get back on stage.”

While Ewan McGregor had his uncle Denis Lawson, with his own “Star Wars” credentials, to act as role model, Colin joked that he had Fair City comic actor and brother-in-law Andy Gray to emulate. That, Colin chuckled, was why he ended up in Glasgow while Ewan beat a track for Hollywood!

“My sister Ann was an usherette and eventually a stage manager at Perth Theatre so from the age of 11 I was going to shows. I joined the Scottish Youth Theatre at 12 and was working in the ticket office at 16. I just fell in love with the theatre.

“Ewan and myself were the only boys turning up on Saturday mornings for the studio theatre. He was a year older and working back stage every night so I was really jealous.

“I remember he blacked-up for a ‘Passage to India.’ He wouldn't get away with that now! But Ewan was always very clear about what he wanted from acting. He had his sights set on London back then while I'd have been happy to perform on the Perth stage, where I'd seen everything Martyn James had done!

“Mind you, back then I don't recall thinking Ewan was likely to become a movie superstar.”

After graduating from drama school in Glasgow, box office manager Liz Dewar would set-up shift work over Christmas for Colin back in Perth. But it wasn't until four years ago, in “Sabina,” he finally fulfilled an ambition to act in a professional show at the High Street venue.

“It was like a kid wanting to play football for his home town club, I suppose,” said Colin, whose close ties to his beloved St Johnstone have famously seen a Perth club mug adorning the Taggart set. “It felt really strange being in the number one dressing room.”

Uncertainty “between jobs” is an integral part of the actor's lot and Colin admits his first flirtation with “Taggart” provided a timely reminder.

“It's shown throughout the world, it has been going for more than 25 years and nearly every Scottish actor you can name has passed through one of the 100-plus episodes. I've been lucky enough to work alongside many fine actors.

“But Mark McManus died while we were filming my first full role. I'd been a car thief in one previous episode. Of course I was sad at his passing but part of me was cursing my luck. Work-wise it looked bleak again.

“But the show survived and the indications are that it will continue. Hopefully you'll see the Saints mug again. In television you get writers naming characters after the Man United European Cup team - that happened in ‘Cracker’ – there were Celtic players in ‘The Bill’ and in ‘Taggart’ some were named after a Dunfermline team, including one Roberta Paton! The mug is my own tribute to Saints!”

*Colin stars in “The Corstorphine Road Nativity” at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh from December 3-19.