[Music] Hello I’m Marcus Railton and this is the Scotscare podcast. Scotscare is the only charity dedicated to helping disadvantaged Scots in London through a range of support including mental health therapy, financial grants, advocacy, sheltered housing for older Scots, job coaching, social events, befriending and support for Children and Families. The Charity’s been running for 400 years to help break the cycle of poverty experienced by some Scots.
In this series of the scotscare podcast I’ll be chatting to celebrities and supporters of the charity that have also forged a life in the capital away from home and about the ups and downs that can bring.
Scotscare: supporting Scots away from home in London.
On the scotscare Christmas podcast this week it felt right to celebrate with a guest who is a pantomime legend. Oh yes he is Alan Stewart and has been performing since he was 10 years old with a career that covers TV radio singing musical
theater and of course pantomime at this time of year it’s really lovely to have
him join me Scott’s care hi Alan Merry Christmas oh Merry
Christmas to you how are you I’m fine it’s all right for you you just said Merry Christmas and I’ve got two shows a
day to do at the moment every day I know I I see that as Snow White so that’s a
tough schedule you know what I want to come on to that but I want to ask you first are you are you still based in London yes I am yeah yeah I’ve been down
here for 35 years now really what was it what that made you
move to London um the police were after me no I
I always wanted to live in London and uh although all my work was in Scotland television and panto and theaters and
everything the first chance I got to come down was when everything started going in copycats running about the
early 80s so I was now working for LWT instead of Scottish television or BBC Scotland so I um I came down to London
and I had a house in Scotland I thought I’m going to buy a small studio flat and that’ll get me going down here and
within about eight months I’ve met my wife Jane uh who I’d known for a long time but we were starting an out and all
of a sudden I thought I think my lifestyle in London so sold the Scottish house moved down here but on a bigger
flight and uh stayed up been here ever since do you live in a leafy part of London now the reason I ask you that because
because I know you’re a big dog person because I’ve read your dog blog your doggy bloggy a doggy bloggy yeah and I
just wonder because my kids are always saying oh we really want a dog we really want a dog and I just know that I but
they end up I’d end up walking it and I’d be the one that ends up picking up the poop and I just don’t know if that’s me well listen I was I was not
particularly a doggy person before I always liked dogs and I had a dog when I was a kid with a little poodle but I
don’t really remember much about Toby that was the that was the dog’s name but uh it was my birthday coming up we were
in lockdown and the kids and Jane were all sitting right now she said we’ve decided to get your dog for your
birthday now at home oh I’m not sure anyway I am besotted with Harry and Jean
has been sorted with Harry her life is now completely and utterly organized by
Harry that’s the way the life is so if you want your life to be organized and to rotate round about the life of a dog
then get it because it is it’s the most wonderful thing it really is a few of my friends have said that to me my friend
who lives in the oak Scots of Glasgow he says it’s a kind of mental health Lifesaver as well for him he gets to
take it up the lock side or take it up the reservoir and just spend hours walking the dog and it kind of gets his
head back in order well I’m I’m not the big Walker Jane is the one that right from the start she’s loving she loves
getting up in the morning I hate mornings that’s why I went into show business so I wouldn’t have to get up in the morning so uh I don’t do that walk
and I do a walk in the afternoon we split the time he goes to the office well then I pick him up he comes back and take him on a walk and at night time
I do the last walk so I’m not a big big Walker with him but I understand what your friends are saying it really is uh
when I do do it it’s it’s very therapeutic very therapeutic that’s the word I’m looking for no I don’t want to
sound like a mad fan but we met years ago and you won’t remember it I’ll tell you when it was it was back in the 90s
and I was working as a researcher on BBC Radio 2 and Derek Jameson went on
holiday and yeah then and it and did and you know what Derek Jameson it was that
was a steep learning curve for me as a journalist and researcher but you students tonight do they know me so like
that yeah and you student I think you stood in for two weeks and it was just so different and I thoroughly enjoyed it
I was doing that I was doing Johnson at the time it was around about 97 97 but
yeah that’s when I was doing Jolson the West End in the Victoria Palace and uh my profile was up a bit and all of a
sudden I know the blue do you want to take over Wales on holiday I went oh yeah because I’ve done radio played stuff and uh this was something really
different because I the difference was working at the BBC and working on Commercial radio is you’ve got 10 people
working for me and now I find out you were one of them yeah it was great scripts written and it was very
professional and I loved it I really did enjoy it oh well do you know what it must you know like you said 25 years ago
and it still stuck with me as a great Fortnight or whatever it was you did I really enjoyed working with you
no well it was different I did it different obviously from Jamison I also had put made little sketches of the
things that were happening in the in the the topical things that were happening so it
was a little bit of Comedy that I did and I enjoyed it as I see but I’ve always loved radio I’ve always enjoyed
that Medium of being able to create a picture just with sounds and and uh it
was carts used in those days it wasn’t a computer so you’d make a cart with it me talking to myself or something so yeah
that was a lot of fun those days and we went to have this chat a while back but we we rescheduled it because you were
off working on a cruise ship is that is that a good solid booking for an Entertainer like yourself going on the
ships it is yeah I’ve done it from a way back early 1771 as you probably weren’t born and I
went on the QE2 and a couple of Q not ships and it was something I always enjoyed because it was it was a place to
solidly work because it you can either fill a theater if you don’t fill a theater then you go on a ship and you
know you’re going to fill a theater because you’ve got a captive audience so it was a place for me to to to to work
when I wasn’t on television and then and I had a few years off while television was really going strong and I was two in
the country but I’ve always gone back to it and I still do it I still do maybe 10
cruises a year and it’s I still work for getting out but uh I’ve been I’ve been doing that and enjoying it for many many
years yes I was off on a cruise that’s why I couldn’t do it come in it was a late booking cruise is it difficult to
get peace and quiet when you’re on the cruise because I presume you do the show in the evening but then you’ve got to
kind of hang around the ship during the day well I that’s that’s the worst part of it now I’ve gone from in the early days
gone on for a month to three weeks to two weeks and I’ve got it down to a fine art I’ve got four days I say I don’t
come on any longer than four days so I come in I do the show maybe the day after I’ve been on for for one day I do
it that night and then I got off the next day and fly home so that’s the only way I’ll do it now because number one I
wanted to run away from Harry and my wife yes and number two I get bored
stiff on the ship believe it or not as as much as life is luxury you’re actually on your own other than talking
to the odd passenger here and there so it does get boring and I suppose when covert came along
that kind of killed that dead for a while didn’t it totally yeah there was a whole two years there was absolutely nothing I mean there was no work at all
and I wasn’t the only one obviously millions of people were out of work and uh it was just getting back to kind of
normal semi-normal this year in the beginning of the year so everyone was still wearing masks and I hated it on
the ship it was horrible it was a strange strange atmosphere so I didn’t enjoy it but in the last four months
it’s got back to 100 normality and next year is back to normal again so yeah it
was um it was a strange time those two years because there’s never been a time
in my life that haven’t worked for two years I’ve worked since the age of 12. in the clubs doing three four nights a
week 13 14 year old and I’ve never touched wood I’m going to touch the desk here I have never ever stopped working
so there was a real strange feeling for me not to get up on stage and get that
buzz I think yeah I spoke to Greg Kane of Hugh and Cry and I was asking him
about it and he said it was terrible for him he got to the point where because
he’d been moving their kit around for so many years he considered getting his hgv license and becoming a driver really
yeah it was absolutely you know he wasn’t you know taking the mick he was absolutely serious because I think he
sat around for the better part of two years and for Creative people it can be a real killer that can’t it yes yeah
yeah it is I um I I funnily enough I was talking about this last night I enjoyed
uh the first lockdown because the kids my son and daughter who had been
traveling and all over the place came back to stay and we had a wonderful summer and we we just sat in the garden
and ate and laughed till 10 o’clock and it was a really good first lockdown but the second one was hail yeah okay number
one um where we’re going to do a panther which was canceled the night before we opened and then my dear friend Andy Gray
died um from covert and it was just a horrible time everything about it was
terrible so um it was it was just so good to go back to work when we we did
open up again I get a lot of great memories of watching Andy Gray on the Telly as I was growing up you know and
stuff like city lights and stuff like that he was such a brilliant actor wasn’t he he was he was fantastic we we
toured together in a couple of plays we did stones in his pockets which is a two-man play about uh Irish two irish
guys and you play about 12 Parks each and that was a real real well I was
working with Andy because you know I had to say to Mandy look I’ve never done this before and um he he helped me a lot
and and then we did another plea which I wrote with somebody else with Ed Curtis we wrote a play called canned laughter
and Grant and Andy and myself role in it so yes I worked a lot with Andy and he
was uh it was great fun we had our moments when we’d Scream and Shout out to each other but most of the time we
were saying it’s I love you I love you and I love you you know and like yourself he was such a great panto Star
as well I’ve seen him so many times in Pantone and right now this is what you’re right in the middle of Snow White
and that is a that is a tough schedule and I was thinking when I was reading about you doing it you’ve done so many
do you find it difficult to come back year after year and think okay where are we going to take it this year
it’s uh it’s definitely a challenge and the the more we’ve done this is actually about 24th uh Edinburgh panto
and uh we’re in a new theater we’re in the festival theater this year because the Kings just close now for
refurbishment for two maybe three years so it’s all been a steep learning curve
walking out onto uh a massive stage and a massive Auditorium compared to the
case although I’ve worked big theaters all over the country I’ve done Southampton which is a three thousand
seater um this just was so used to doing this in the kings that it feels so different
but it’s been great it’s been exciting and Grant and I are still here and we’ve got Jordan now he’s on his third year on
the team so we we have to find new ideas I’ve written uh a song which I’m very
proud of I’ve written a parody on there’s nothing like a dean and I’m not going to give this secret
away but it’s got a wonderful magical moment in it halfway through and uh
you’ve got to come along and see it because when I wrote it I went yes this is going to be great
so we’ve got lots of new ideas and it’s one of the biggest Planters we’ve ever done because it’s the Palladium set and
the Palladium costumes and because it’s such a big stage we needed to use uh a
set that was coming from a big stage as well in the Palladium was one of the biggest so um yeah we’ve got all the
bells and whistles all been thrown at this show it’s very exciting have you always played the game or did you kind
of did you play when you were a younger man did you play different parts and then graduate because onto the game
because the Dame is such it’s like the senior role isn’t it it’s such an art to play that correctly yeah well I I played
the the Jack and the beanstalks and I played the wishy washy and buttons I
played all the male parts that were to play until eventually I thought this is silly now me is a 50 year old saying to
Cinderella I do love you it’s just not right at that time I knew that once I put a
frog on that would be it I would not go back to being the the principle not
principle boy but being the comic anymore and I already had the character because I did I’ve been doing
anti-mations the early 70s I did her on television for years and years and I would do her in uh in different comedy
situations so I I knew exactly what I was going to do and as far as I was concerned it was different from a lot of
teams especially English teams because they tend to be a man and a frock I
always said Auntie me was a woman and I played a woman I fought like a woman laughed like a woman and when I’m in her
uh her outfit I’d think like a woman I think and I also think funnier when I’m in her outfit I can get comedy out of
things that Alan Stewart can’t get comedy out if I talk of her almost in the as another person and uh the first
time I did it was with Max Boyce in 97. and uh I absolutely loved it and I
thought that’s it I’m not compared to uh being a meal anymore I’ll be a woman
24 years later social isolation is a big problem for
some of the elderly in big cities like London Scott’s care has a social events
program for older Scots with Burns lunches and seaside days out to bring fellow Scots together
if you’re an older Scot in London who’d like to join our events give us a shout at info scotscare.com
[Music] there’s a beautiful picture of you on your website and you’re at the Barrow
lands that for anyone who doesn’t know it’s a really famous Glasgow venue and you’re you’re singing and playing a
guitar and you must be nine or 10 and I showed it to my son ref who’s nine and
he’s he’s been in Shrek the Musical recently and I think it’s such a beautiful age because like when he was
doing it I said Tim are you worried about it are you nervous and you go no Dad I’m not I’m not worried and then we went through the rehearsals went through
a tech rehearsal went through the the dress rehearsal and then on the night you know there’s three 400 people in the audience and I
said are you nervous now he goes no I’m not nervous dad and I I love that and when I looked at that picture of you
there’s this beautiful confidence because at that age you don’t think about the possibility of humiliation or
failure you just get on and do it that’s exactly the way it was because I could I
was a very very shy kid um my dad was was my manager and it was
for 25 years and he would be going to speak to I always remember when it was Lena Martell over and speak to him I’m
not talking to her I’m still in here I was so embarrassed but put me on the
stage thousand people 2 000 people not a problem straight out there not a fear in
the world and your son has probably got the same thing you you don’t you’ve got no fear of feeling at that time at that
age because you don’t know what failure is so it was only the older you get you start to get the dry mouth and the teeth
stick into your top lip and all these sort of things happen further on you go because you know I could go out here and
make a fool of myself so that’s it you start to overthink it do you still get nerves do you get I mean we’re talking
about a 60-year career here do you get nervous and does it feel like a 60-year
career Alan do you does that seem that long ago for you it doesn’t no it doesn’t I I’ve got a terrible memory
people say to me do you remember a bit like you were saying earlier on somebody mentioned to you that we work together and I don’t remember these things but I
can still vividly remember the important things that I did in my career you know
working with George Martin at Abbey Road and I’m now only two miles from Abbey Road here where I live
when I went into the studio with him and the Beatles uh uh publisher dick Martin
come out and said I want to sign that boy and all these things that happened feel like yesterday and I was only 15 at
the time yeah so I I can really go back to a lot of important parts of my life
it’s the silly things that I don’t remember and probably the this this 60s
70s yeah the 70s I started partying I made up for lost time because I was
always working I never got to a party I never was drinking and all of a sudden at 70 I’m now started on television I’m
a bit of a face I’ve now got a profile people are bugging me and all of a sudden I found drink and I thought oh I
like this you know so I partied for 10 or 15 years and um that that sort of time it’s a bit
of a blur to me so as there’s the before part and the after part but that middle part was a little bit hazy to me I I
liked what you said earlier bro you worked constantly you’ve all you’re you’ve got a great work ethic and I read
something that showed me that you were very pragmatic it says you did a lot of you said I did a lot of Television for
25 years and then I didn’t do television and I was thinking was that just was it
a case of the the offer stopped for television or did they want something different at that point that wasn’t quite what you were offering that’s
exactly what it was I had done my own series for 10 years in STV I had then
moved on to LWT with copycats and we did three or four series of that then I got
chin letters quiz show that then there was the royal varieties and all these things and I was doing everything
everything and then it was like overnight I had three Series in the book one was another series of
copycats one was a show called in company I think it was within J Harvey
and the third one was a quiz show on Scottish television and all of them in
three weeks were gone uh LWT changed the head management and they come in and
said no the old regimes out we’re coming in with a new Young alternative Comics uh another head of Thames television
left and I was out and the Scottish television one was canceled because they didn’t have the budget so it was a
really strange time and fortunately the two television series
that were canceled paid me so financially it wasn’t a problem but I just thought oh times are changing
and a friend of mine called it you’re a spat maker and nobody wants spats
anymore he said so you better find something else to do and it wasn’t long after that I went into musicals and I
just went back to being on the road and being on cruise ships and doing theater so I I knew I’d had my run and it wasn’t
a problem to me you know I just I just kept working never stopped but it’s television’s such a I don’t know what
the word is Whimsical or I was talking to an actor recently and he was in Star Wars and uh he was in the new thing and
or on Disney and he was in Rogue one one of the Star Wars movies and I said Duncan that must have set you up you
know and he said after I filmed Star Wars I got no work for a year wow and I
cannot believe and he says there are so many good actors that he’s surrounded by who don’t get the work that they are
they are deserving of and I suppose you must see this with all the people that you’re seeing you must see people that go
well I don’t know why they’ve succeeded and maybe they should have succeeded do you see it as a it’s so arbitrary
well there’s it’s show business is such a weird thing you mean for when I started at the age of 12 13 and then
really started when I left school were working six nights a week I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t making it
because I was ripping the clubs apart everywhere I went they put me on top of the bill I was getting the most money of
all the club artists this was all around Edinburgh and Glasgow and Fife and as I
say the work in those days was you could work every night of the week for months and months and months and uh I just
couldn’t understand it and my dad was saying why are you not hitting it and they tell television people why are you
not using this body nope nope wouldn’t use it we wouldn’t use me and then Scottish television comes along and
Clark Tate who was the head of Scottish television gave me a special which was out of the blue a one-hour special and
David Bell saw that and he put me into a series and all of a sudden it was like I was a flavor of the month and uh I got
everything that was going so then everybody else who was around about me working were probably going how come he’s getting this and I’m not getting so
it was a full circle and as I say I got a good 20 years out of it and it set me
up I my dad was always one for making sure I saved my money and uh as much as I I did
live high he was piling away for me so when he died he had pensions set up
everywhere and now you’re all these all these uh certificates and papers and
eventually when I got to the right age I handed them over to a a financial advisor and he said to me wow he said
your dad was your dad was a very sharp astute man and he had set me up for life
so um I’m very very lucky to have to have had this wonderful dad what did
what did he do Alan before he was your manager what do you do to make a living well he would have worked every hour
that God’s saying just to give us a good life and he did we we were going to Spain on holidays when nobody even gone
further than Blackpool he was in bed as a great life but he would work three jobs he was working in the GPO which was
British Telecom that was his solid money and he had shops and then he had a fish shot then
he had a closed shot and then eventually he found second-hand cars to be the thing that he could make most money at
so he was a car dealer ah and uh he managed to be able to run me GPO and the
cars all the same time he gave me a great work ethic was he a funny man
very very funny very dry if we ever went on holiday within uh a day everyone was
sitting around listening to his stories and his jokes he loved jokes and it was him that started writing material for me
because I was just a singer in the beginning a singer guitarist or to get fought because we called it in those
days and uh he would uh he would write stuff and say try this relay it’s just a real joke I remember and do that and I
got a laugh and I go oh I like this and then he said to me I think you could do Impressions sweet he started pushing me
towards Impressions and that was where everything changed when I started doing impressions that was when TV opened up
because it was very big at the time and um he was instrumental in getting me my
first record deal get me my biggest television show which was Sunday night at the London Palladium which was 26
million people watched it that changed my career overnight as well so he he just it was a a Wheeler Dealer and he
knew how to get indoors and that was how he got me into everything that I did
Scott’s care has a dedicated employment service to her work
churches can help with skills ranging from writing a CV to building confidence
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too your comedy I was watching some of of
you on YouTube the other day and your comedy’s always been gentle and and silly and quite innocent and I realized
about halfway through this it was must have been about an eight or nine minute clip I sit there with this massive grin
on my face and I you know I think this was 96 or 97 and it was still Timeless
because it was just funny and I just wonder whether comedy these days has got
quite dark sometimes hasn’t it well it’s comedy is really really difficult now
you know and for the first time ever in my life I was kind of censored on the
ship recently where the the lovely girl that I work with who books the ships come on and sit down look I don’t have
to see this but there’s been a complaint and it was I was making fun of old
people well I said I’m not I said I’m an old person myself I said so I’m only
making fun of myself really and all I was doing was the way they walk and the way they they do two things on the ship
but I said look I know we’re living in a different world now I said I will take these bits out it amounts to about three
minutes in a 50 or 60 Minute act I said so it’s not a big problem and I have to
see I put them back in again because after I thought this is stupid and I’ve had no complaints but but people can
complain now and that’s what Twitter’s about people are allowed to say anything people are allowed to cancel you and and
it’s there’s got to be a backlash soon because we’ve gone to the ridiculous
science stopping people doing comedy and seeing things yeah I do worry about I I
said this to many people I worry about it for for my children I’ve got three kids thirteen nine and four and my 13
year old I think he’s scared of saying anything and I I also say to him you’re going to watch what you put on social media Noah because it could hang around
there for the next 25 years and come back and bite you in the ass at one point definitely that’s the thing I mean
it’s not as if it’s not as if you just see it no and that’s it I mean people delve back into what you said years ago
and if they delved back into me I had been real trouble because I was part of the the scene that was the Bernard
Mining and the the Frank Carsons who were all doing jokes that were now dimmed as racist yeah there’s a lot of
stuff yeah that you’re culturally inappropriate so I was talking to someone recently about films that were made in the 80s and they were saying
well should these films now be canceled because they are now seen as being culturally inappropriate and I was
thinking I don’t think you can go cancel in history that you know when you start burning books it never ends well
well the very first thing that started was when I was doing Joel’s in the first time around we I blacked up that was in
1986 1996 and it was only for about three three minutes in the whole show
and nobody really bothered then uh that was it and then next time around about
to 2005-6 we couldn’t do it and now I don’t
even think I could do Jolson even the story because of people oh no you can’t you can’t talk about this man this man
was was a racist he wasn’t a racist that’s what you did in those days and all I’m doing is is creating history and
showing what happened in those days when he was in Show Business and the biggest Entertainer in the world so uh it has
made a big difference to uh to our comedy life there’s no doubt about it I
think I think Jolson because I saw that back in the 90s as um a long time ago that was the first time
I think I realized you could how does it I think you really sing Alan you could
really sing because I thought before when I saw you and panto and stuff I thought oh there’s a guy who can sing and then I saw you in Jolson and then I
watched a clip of you just the other day again on YouTube doing a Freddie Mercury impersonation oh yeah it was Bloody
superb he just I just thought oh you’ve nailed that it was it was the one where you do um Freddie Mercury and oh and
monster at cabali yes yeah yeah it was um that was one of the
big numbers in fact I get excited every time I hear a big Duets coming out and I excited Elton John Britney Spears I
thought oh yes this is going to be a big duet I’m going to be able to get a new up to date something other than here comes a song which is you wouldn’t know
if it was Elton John or or Britney Spears so that was another one I’ll just wait for that other the next Barcelona
to come out it’s been a long time it is um now you are doing live from her majesties
I know there’s a random question I just wanted to ask you about it when Tommy Cooper passed away that must have been something that’s etched on your memory
well actually it’s it’s wrong if that I think it says it in Wikipedia and I’ve never but I didn’t I did the week after
Tommy Cooper died that’s interesting because Les Dennis and Dustin G here was standing at the side of the stage waiting to come on when Tommy Cooper
slid down the curtain and died which incidentally is the way I want to go I want to be in my frock because Auntie
May I want to go oh buying dead
Academy out and that will be it look let’s talk about life let’s get my
dress on that’s what I want that’s what I want let’s talk about your children you’ve got two children Kate and and David and
they’re both hugely successful in their own right did did you ever encourage them to take a a more stable path
through life to to say don’t go into Show Business uh no I didn’t because uh the funny
thing was as much as my dad was my manager and and and helped me in every way he still always said you have to
have something to fall back on so I stayed in school till 8 17 no whatever it was 17 18. got hires and got all
levels God knows why I’ve never used algebra in my life and I don’t intend to
and I was different with my kids always remember run up to school Gina and I going up to
David’s school and he was uh about 10 or something and the teacher chemistry
teacher said Mr Mrs sure it’s just not quite grasping this chemistry he said so
what I’d like to do is keep him back half an hour after his class he said and
I’ll work with him and I went can I stop you there he said yeah I said you’re wasting your time he said what do you
mean I said he’s never going to use chemistry trust me but Mr Stewart I’m willing to give
myself I said no trust me your wish he will never use getting a CJ and look and I would have said what are you doing but
I knew behind me David would be thinking to himself thank you Dad but I knew he wasn’t going to do that he had show
business in him as Kate did from from the age of five I could see it yeah kids
okay am I right Kate is a singer and and David who he’s done very well as a as a singer songwriter now lives in L.A a
producer and a songwriter he had uh just during a lockdown he had the biggest uh
Global hit number one hit for BTS it’s called Dynamite which went Global
everywhere it was number one 1.5 billion downloads or something like that and uh
he also he’s also had a big hit with Jonas Brothers and he’s now out there working with Shania Twain and uh Mimi
Webb and just every big name at the moment is clambering to work with my son David at the moment so it’s a very
he’s coming back yes we we’ve had a very very uh traditional Christmas every year
we go to the Preston field Host Hotel in Edinburgh and we stay there for about six days during the panther when the
kids come up and we have Christmas morning and we have lunch and we just go out for a walk and it’s a beautiful
Christmas because it’s a stunning Hotel so uh they’re coming up um my daughter Kate she’s got a a new
recording deal she’s been working on that of the lockdown killed that stone dead in the beginning but she’s getting
it back up to speed again and a few singles out and she’s got an EP coming out in the beginning of the
year and she works live now and she’s stunning singer a wonderful singer and a
writer as well she’s a great songwriter so um it’s it’s a it’s a great Buzz to
watch your kids being successful and David has moved much further than I ever expected him to
go I knew he was talented but he’s just gone Way Beyond my my dreams and personally for you because you’re always
busy Alan do you have ambition do you still want to do something I know you you’ve said that you were never
really an actor and then you popped up in a soap opera yes that’s that’s the latest thing that’s the weirdest thing I
was I was sitting on the ship about two months ago and you very rarely get phones with phone calls I I see because
you you look at the satellite and all of a sudden my phone rings and it’s the producer of River City and he said hi
Alma yeah he said we’d love you to do a cameo part in River City
I was uh really interested in the challenge because I’ve acted but not on
television so I really spoke to them and they said well here’s the script and I
said can I change it they said change it as much as you want we want you to make it humorous so I I rewrote this script
and sent it back and they went we’ll love it we’ll love it so they went with my script oh probably that’s bloody
cheat to say to somebody a television show has been gone for 20 years can I write my own script and they said yes
so um I went up and did it the first day I was a bit like I felt rabbit in the headlights I’ve been told since no that
I wasn’t uh the second day it kind of clicked in and I realized how to go about it and what to do so time will
tell it was out on the it was out uh beginning of December I think and uh you will see it in fact you may
have seen it already or maybe you’ll get it on catch up or something so um you’ll be able to see yourself nah nah he’s not
at night I bet you’re brilliant yeah do you know what the final thing I’d like to ask you
Alan I think if you could peek over the shoulder of 17 year old Alan Stewart now
is is there anything that you would say to them do this differently or change this or go in this direction any advice
you’d give you give your younger self I I think I would say that those years
that I talk about being a bit hazy that I I got a little bit as well as hazy it got a little bit lazy and I didn’t
change my ACT much and I tended to be living on my my success and uh I I think
if I looked back on it I would say uh I I would love to have the work ethic that I had when I met Jane once I met Jane I
I stopped partying I settled down and I thought right and I started again and
that was when the real uh the real sort of uh way of working came back to me
like I had been in the younger days so I I don’t regret all the partying and
having fun and having a great time and traveling and not just thinking about living the top life I don’t regret it
because it was a wonderful part of my life but I think I would like to have said work harder in those 10 years which
may sound ridiculous because I never stopped working and I was I I was I was not working as hard as I should have
been that’s that’s the one mistake I mean but then again I always look at it and say well if I had been working
harder and and do doing a different doing more television I might not have met Jane I wouldn’t have had my children
and I wouldn’t have with a sliding doors moment I might have missed my chance of meeting Jane and Jane has been the most
incredible wife um we’ve not we don’t argue 35 years married we don’t argue we go on great I
love our sense of humor she’s the only person that that really makes me laugh and uh I’m very very lucky so 17 year
old maybe work a little bit harder than those 10 years Alan it’s been brilliant talking to you
thanks for being on the Scottsdale podcast today my pleasure I love talking about myself so there’s never a problem
have a great Christmas thank you and you too see you later bye
Scott’s care is a charity helping disadvantaged Scots within 35 miles of Charron cross with financial practical
and emotional support for 400 years it’s been a shoulder to lean on for Scots
away from home [Music]
