Trainspotting at 25: Irvine Welsh says Danny Boyle ‘needs to get moving’ if he wants to complete trilogy

Released on February 23, 1996, the Danny Boyle-directed movie put British cinema back on the map, and made household names of its cast members – including Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Kelly Macdonald

During an interview with The Big Issue to mark the film’s 25 anniversary, Welsh was asked if he's surprised by the film's continued appeal.

The Muirhouse-raised writer, who shot to fame when Trainspotting was first published in 1993, said: "No. There is no culture now and the pertinent things from the past, when we had a living culture, are ossified and regenerated."

In the past, the 62-year-old has said that he had plans to complete the “Holy Trinity” and make a third film following 2017's sequel T2 Trainspotting – but he insists Boyle would need to “get moving pretty quickly” if he wants to complete the trilogy, as the cast are getting older.

He said: “You think The Godfather III, Terminator III – there's the temptation to do the Holy Trinity, it might evoke Danny's inner Catholic.

“It took us long enough to work up the bottle to do number two. They'll all be in the rest home by the time we had the bottle to do number three!

“We'd have to get moving on it pretty quickly. But it's something that would be massively interesting to me.”

Edinburgh author Irvine Welsh.

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