Jack has absolutely made it – now he’s back with Bowie - Fiona Duff

Jack Docherty's show Bowie and Me uses an appearance by the music legend on Jack's chat show as a jumping off point

Well, it’s funny when you look back on life as to who has “made it” and who hasn’t. There’s the boy who was brilliant at maths and everyone thought that he would be some sort of great accountant or Chancellor of the Exchequer, but he’s a bookkeeper for a couple of wee businesses.

Then there’s the girl who excelled at art and we all thought that she would make a fortune selling her paintings, but after art college she chucked away her brushes and dedicated her life to bringing up a family.

At university there were always those that you knew would either be at the top of their game or behind prison bars – it seems a very close line. I suppose it is all about the ability to take risks without going off the rails.

Indeed, there are many who did do very well in their chosen careers, and no doubt some serving time at His Majesty’s pleasure. It is sometimes weird when watching the news and there is an old familiar face pontificating about something or another, and you remember them smoking joints surreptitiously behind a bus stop shelter. It is hard to take what they are saying completely seriously even if they are deemed to be an expert on the subject.

And then there are some that also appear on television not being themselves. Acting I believe it is called – some of these you could spot a mile off at the university drama society productions.

I remember going to see a Shakespeare spoof which starred quite a few of my friends. At one point a guy, playing a chef who I didn’t know terribly well because he always just seemed to be sitting quietly in the bar, suddenly burst into song and performed it in a hysterically funny fashion. Frankly I was gobsmacked.

Fast forward a few years to my life in London and I ended up working with him when he was in a television series called Absolutely.

And had changed his name from John Docherty to Jack Docherty. Well he is going to be at the Traverse for the next three nights in a show I saw at last year’s Fringe called Bowie and Me. And I am definitely going back to see him again.