Trump impersonator plots Fringe comedy on campaign against Scots hotel takeover bid

A Donald Trump impersonator is to stage a Fringe comedy-drama about efforts to thwart a takeover by the US President of a “once-glamorous Scottish hotel.”
Ronni Ancona and Lewis Macleod are creating Just Checking In for this year's Fringe.Ronni Ancona and Lewis Macleod are creating Just Checking In for this year's Fringe.
Ronni Ancona and Lewis Macleod are creating Just Checking In for this year's Fringe.

Lewis Macleod, who was nominated for a Scottish Comedy Award for his mimicry of the tycoon, will join forces with the leading impressionist Ronni Ancona to stage Just Checking In, which will be staged at the National Museum of Scotland in August.

Ayrshire-born Ancona and Glaswegian Macleod have previously teamed up on TV and with a live cabaret show to poke fun at the American President and his wife Melania.

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The two Scots, best known for shows like Dead Ringers, Newzoids and The Big Impression, have created the show, which will part of Gilded Balloon’s Fringe line-up, with Kim Fuller, the English comedy writer whose credits include Not The Nine O’Clock News, The Lenny Henry Show, Spitting Image and Red Dwarf.

Lewis Macleod and Ronni Ancona have appeared on TV and in their own cabaret show lampooning the US President and his wife.Lewis Macleod and Ronni Ancona have appeared on TV and in their own cabaret show lampooning the US President and his wife.
Lewis Macleod and Ronni Ancona have appeared on TV and in their own cabaret show lampooning the US President and his wife.

Glasgow-born Macleod, who has regularly mimicked Trump on BBC Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright’s show, has also provided the voice of Postman Pat in the popular children’s series and played Iain Tennant in the TV series The Crown.

Ancona, who appeared alongside Billy Nighy, Emily Blunt and Miranda Richardson in the BBC drama Gideon's Daughter, has also starred in Last Tango in Halifax, Still Game and Skins.

Billed as a “deliciously dark and surreal tale,” it will explore what happens when the hotel’s “eccentric staff and celebrity guests” try to join forces to scupper Trump’s plans and grapple with a “menacing mystery” which has taken grip of the hotel.

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The show has been announced 15 years after Trump snapped up the Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Ayrshire.

The tycoon was also involved in a long-running battle to create a brand new golf resort at Balmedie, in Aberdeenshire, which opened in 2012.