FEATURE LIST
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Theatre. which is a very traumatic play about a couple who were unable to conceive. About as far away as you could get from farce.‘ His curriculum vitae makes bewildering reading with roles in all three Star Wars films and in television series from The Flipside ()fI)0mini(‘ Hide to Dead Head and That Uncertain Feeling. Ina rare return to his own accent. he played the inn-keeper in Bill Forsyth‘s Local Hero.
Calculated he maybe. but Lawson doubts very much that he has earned a reputation as a bad boy on set. ‘As far as I‘m concerned I‘m not difficult enough. I often wish I was a lot more difficult. . . ldo an awful lot ofwork before I start and I know exactly what I want to do with the part. I find it very difficult to work with bad feeling around. I can‘t shout at people one day and act the next. It would take me a day to get over that. So I have to approach it a different way. . . From what I gatherabout the way someone like Dustin Hoffman works. Ijust don‘t think I could do that. I wish I could — sometimes. I wish I was capable of telling people to fuck offand getting on with it. There are an awful lot of people who try to tell actors how to do their jobs. and at the end of the day we're better qualified than anyonef
Having seized an opportunity to sit in on the editing of The Justice Game. Lawson is becoming
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increasingly interested in the production side of filming. Indeed he is seriously interested in directing a film. At present he is unsure what will happen next — ‘I don‘t like to be tied up too far ahead. I always feel I’ll be missing something‘ — but his actorly reserves are strong. His most recent role was in a BBC 90-minute drama with Bob Peck called Bye Bye Baby. due out this autumn. "I‘hat was very therapeutic. I played really quite a violent character in that. Very working-class Scots. Very charming one minute and very violent the next. It was nice to play someone who reacted exactly the way they wanted to. If he wants to laugh. he laughs. If he wants to hit someone. he hits someone. I had a great time doing that.‘ Villains. he enthuses. are much the easiest parts to play. ‘It‘s obvious which way to go with them — grow a moustache. wear dark glasses and go round knifing everyone in sight. You can have a lot of fun doing that.‘
It doesn‘t quite seem appropriate in Camden‘s Cafe’ Delancey and Lawson doesn‘t look like the type to do it. But the grass is always greener. and it is good to know that some of the nicest guys harbour ambitions to be shittier.
The Justice Game starts Fri 7 Apr on BBC] .
Clockwise lrom above: Mark McManus as. Taggart, Strattord Johns and John Hannah In Brond.
Robbie Coltraine In Tutti Frutti and Leslie Grantham in Winners and Losers.
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GLASGOW
lnthe old days-according to unpopular tolklore -you couldn'twalk the streets at
Glasgow without getting chibbed by some hoodlum with a razor. Nowadays it's notthe thugs you haveto step oh the pavementtor, butthe television stars.
Take Scottish Television's Taggarttor example. Rough. rugged. ruthless. Kind oi guy who doesn‘t mess aboutwith eating or sleeping. He's usuallyiound in one oltwo places and they’ve both got bars in them. Taggart's patch is Partlck. and he operates trom the station at Dumbarton Road and Purdon Street. When he's not out preventing crimes. he'll be in there giving the perpetrator a thorough grilling. But at course a good polis has to keep his contacts. and where better to keep an eartothe grapevine than in the pub? Like any drinking man. Taggart's got a iew regular haunts, but his usual resort attera hard day’s sleuthing is the New Camp Bar up in Garscube Road.
Young Robert's had his hassles with the boys in blue, but they’ve never given him quite such a turn asthat big bugger Brood. who (in the llrst iew minutes oi Channel 4's series otthat name) shoved a kid oil Gibson Street bridge right underhis nose. llhe's headingtor town lrom his
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Cecil Street digs these days. he'll nip round via Bank Street and along Great Western Road. Another place he tries to avoid is that builder's yard belonging to Margaret Briody's dad in Napiershall Street-too many paintul memories. Robert doesn't think much oi Glasgow Union's re-designed caleteria: he's always preterred the unpretentious charms ot the University Cale in Byres Road anyway. But he spends most at his time in the library atthe moment. ills Finals are coming up.
Eddie Burt-irom Scottish Television’s Winners And Losers— is another boy who prelers a low prolile right now. When he visits Glasgow. he likes to arrive. | get his business done. and I otiski. No tuss. He likes discretion. and is not adverse to a spot otluxury. That's why he stays in that plush neo-Vlctorian hotel One Devonshire Gardens. Easy access irom the M8 via Great Western Road and service with a starched white apron. But he hasto cross town to the East End (a iavourite stop-oil is The Buttery restaurant in Argyle Street) to visitAlex Morrison’s gym in Sydney Street. That's where the boxers get theirtralning. He thought until recently there was no danger oi any noses l poking about up there above the garage. butthe other
day a bunch oi paparaai tracked him down to the abattoir round the corner. Still. he can always conduct his business on the move: he's got a earphone in his Rolls Royce.
"you‘re a tan otThe Majestics irom the BBC's Tutti Frutti. the first place to try is Eddie Clockerty's boutique. Manhattan Casuals in Cambridge Street. When he's nottrying to sell all a )ob-lotoi mismatched mauve mules to his hapless customers. he’s usually incommunicado with the boys (and girl) upstairs. Since that nasty business at The Pavilion they‘ve been auditioning iora new guitarist (Eddie says it’s what Vincentwould've wanted) at Petsounds Studios in Garrioch Road. It you don't value your lite too highly you could try toiind your way to Suzi Kettles’ ilat in Hillhead. Veryiew people know exactly where it is, on account oibig Danny McGlone threatening anyone with death who tries to toilow her home. As lor End and Bomba, well. they're stay-at-home iamily guys these days. (Andrew Burnet)
I Tutti Frutti can be seen in its entirety at a special showing at Edinburgh's Filmhouse on Sunday 9th April at 2pm. A newthree part series at Taggart is currently iilmlng and is due to be shown in the Autumn.
The List 24 March—6 April 1989 7