Rab C Nesbitt star Gregor Fisher sat next to his half-brother while working in Edinburgh... but neither knew the other existed

GREGOR FISHER may be best know as the star of Rab C Nesbitt, but the 65-year-old actor who will shortly be seen narrating How The Grinch Stole Christmas at the Festival Theatre also has an impressive list of radio credits

Gregor Fisher

However, one story he recalls from that time proves more dramatic than any of the scripts he was acting out in front of the microphone.

Radio has brought Gregor to the Capital over the years and in the 70s he could be found recording in the old BBC Scotland HQ on Queen Street, where a quirk of fate threw him together with the half-brother he never knew he had, although, at the time, neither realised it.

He explains, “At the top of the BBC in Queen Street, there was a canteen run by a wee Edinburgh woman in a white pinny who made very good soup. At the time I had a half brother, but I didn’t know of his existence. He was a journalist at the BBC here.

“Many years later, I met this man when he was in his 80s. A delightful, lovely man who is no longer with us called John Kerr. It transpired that while I was doing a radio series called Kilbreck, Scotland’s answer to The Archers, I’d be sitting at one table having my soup and he would be sitting at the next, and we never knew.

“Funny, eh?”

Thoughtfully, he adds, “Edinburgh has been quite significant for me one way or another. Right now, it’s the Dr Seuss’ musical How The Grinch Stole Christmas that brings him back.

He plays The Narrator. “I come on at the top of the show, do some narration, talk to the kids and introduce the story,” he explains, “I get to be part of the fun, set the scene and come in for a nod at the end of what is a classic Broadway show and a fun story.”

Read the full interview in this weekend's Evening News

How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, 26 November to 1 December, £28-£48, www.capitaltheatres.com