Aberdeen Press And Journal website – 1st October, 2011

An article on Gregor Fisher and his character Rab C. Nesbitt from the Aberdeen Press And Journal website featured Richard talking about his upcoming role in the show and of Aberdeen. I’ve included the excert below but you can read the entire article via the link above.

As Gregor revealed, this series has several famous faces popping up, including celebrated film star Richard E. Grant.

He may talk with a wonderful cut-glass accent but when asked: “Fit like the day?” needs no translator.

The handsome actor grew up in Swaziland – he wears two watches, one set at Swaziland time – and spends large chunks of his life in exotic locations.

But there’s one place that remains special to him – Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland.

He last visited three months ago, and is familiar with Doric as his wife Joan Washington, a highly respected vocal coach who has helped stars including Glenn Close, Nicolas Cage and Ewan McGregor nail an accent, is an Aberdonian.

“I really love coming up to Aberdeen and the north-east, particularly the coast area around Collieston where the family have a little holiday cottage,” said Richard.

“We used to come up regularly to visit my mother-in-law who was in her 90s, but sadly she passed away last year.

“We still come and visit family and friends as often as we can because it’s such a beautiful area,” said Richard, who wouldn’t rule out the idea of putting down permanent roots in the north-east one day.

Although having a busy day – Richard was in London meeting his old pal Peter Capaldi for lunch before jetting off to Australia to film his role in the comedy movie Kath & Kim: The Filum – he was delighted to talk about Rab.

“I’ve been a fan of Rab C. Nesbitt for a long, long while, ever since watching Gregor Fisher bring him to life in Naked Video and the Baldy Man,” he said.

“I’ve watched every episode and was thrilled that the show came back after being putting in mothballs, and was even more thrilled to be asked to appear in an episode of the new series.

“I play a government minister for work, Chingford Steel, who knocks on the Nesbitts’ door and gets whacked on the head with a frying pan by Mary Doll.

“They decide to kidnap me and it ends up with a full-scale siege.”

Richard appears in episode one, Broke, which starts on BBC2 at 10pm.

When Chingford Steel activates his official panic alarm to summon the police, Rab and Mary realise they will be arrested as soon as they let him go, so they decide to keep him.

As the siege situation develops, the police inspector in charge mistakenly decides the kidnappers are terrorists and asks for their demands.

This seems too good an opportunity for Rab and Mary to miss, so they “demand” a heated towel rail and a better bus service to the town centre.

Rab C. Nesbitt airs on Wednesday October 05th, 2011 at 10pm.