Beauty and the Beast

I presented the best film award at the Gaelic FilmG Awards in Glasgow tonight. It was a lavish and polished event attended by hundreds in the old fruit market in Merchant City.

The winner was a short film called Briste, which featured a very talented actress, Erica Macpherson, whom I cast in Machair 23 years ago - she also won best actress!

But, for me, one of the most striking features of the event was co-presenter, Fiona Mackenzie - young, beautiful, relaxed, very personable... and the daughter of the lady I cast in one of Machair's principal roles. I "discovered" Maggie (mum) purely by chance when I went to discuss location catering with her and she asked me if there were any parts going. The rest, as they say, is history. I remember her daughter, Fiona, as a very pale-skinned little girl who sometimes showed up on set with her mum (whose character name, coincidentally, was also Fiona). Now she is a star in her own right. This selfie taken with her after the show made me feel very old!