November 2003
Miracles in Bern and Around the World
'Das Wunder von Bern' (www.wunder-von-bern.de ) directed by Sönke Wortmann and starring Louis Klamroth, Peter Lohmayer, Johanna Gastdorf and my friend Karsten Hehn is out now and friends have been along to see it. I've had a range of comments and critiques from indifferent to brilliant but the main question I'm asked is "Where the hell are you in it?" The answer to the latter is that I'm in one scene dressed in a dandy green policeman's suit complete with jackboots holding back a crowd at the railway station for less than two seconds.
Unfortunately, I'm so far in the background that you are unlikely to see me if you blink - such is the price of stardom. - Now, I never said I was a good actor.
What was it like on the set? Wortmann was brilliant - focused, involved but he also had time to set the actors and extras at ease with a bit of humor and repartee - none of which I understood, speaking so little German that it was difficult to get myself a cup of coffee and almost impossible to establish where I had to go when directed. The German production teams were the soul of politeness however and the coffee was good.
At one point I was congratulating myself on being the only 'auslander' in a major film and then I bumped into an Irish fellow whose normal occupation was renovating cellars - brought me down to earth, literally and we had a good chat about stardom and cellars.
P.S. I'd love to tell you about bumping into famous actors on set but unfortunately being an ignorant 'auslander' I didn't know anybody to bump into.
Other Miracles – It seems that the Keltix are back by popular demand. My old partner, Banjo raconteur, Bernie Shaw and I are off around the world - or more precisely we have been asked to play in Savannah USA for Pat's night and a mini American tour. This is a source of great joy to me personally - last time we played Savannah people were so friendly that I thought I was back in the Highlands. If everything goes to plan we will be playing O'Connell's Pub 108 West Congress, Savannah, on Pat's Night, which gets rave reviews on this site
(www.negia.net/~brew/savannah.html). Last time we played until around four a.m. at which point we had to stop because we wanted to see the Irish pipe band that had just marched around the corner. (There were some glassy eyes but the playing was just dandy.) I'll keep you posted as details come in.