Highlights

The Sunday Post •

Declan McKenna on Edinburgh show and Sabrina Carpenter tour

After playing Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival last weekend, Declan McKenna will be heading back north of the border next month as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. We caught up with him about the upcoming show at the Edinburgh Playhouse and preparing to tour with pop’s newest megastar, Sabrina Carpenter. From a festival goer’s perspective, it’s an opportunity to catch new music, maybe something you haven’t heard before and you just bump into something. It’s so important for new bands, I gu...
The Sunday Post •

Sudden Death: Rosco McClelland explores heart condition in Fringe show

Dying is a subject often avoided or talked about in hushed tones, but not for comedian Rosco McClelland. The stand-up, one of the brightest stars in the current wave of new Scottish comedy talent, feels acquainted with death as an old friend, and it’s even one of the only things that gets him really laughing. He has Long QT syndrome, a rare and life-threatening heart condition that gives an increased risk of an irregular heartbeat which can result in fainting, seizures, or, worst case scenario,...
The Sunday Post •

Nina Conti on donning monkey suit for debut feature film Sunlight

If it wasn’t hard enough to juggle starring in and directing her debut feature film, Nina Conti gave herself an extra challenge – do it all in a giant monkey suit in the blistering heat of the New Mexico desert. Best known for her ventriloquism work, she combines her usual hectic Fringe schedule this year with premiering dark comedy Sunlight at the Edinburgh Film Festival. In it she goes further than just lending her arm and voice to Monkey and goes for full immersion, playing Jane, a woman who...
The Sunday Post •

INTERVIEW: Katherine Ryan on the Fringe, fame and family

Having established herself as a familiar face on our screens, married her teenage sweetheart and played to sold-out audiences around the world, Katherine Ryan is aiming to tick off yet another life goal – becoming besties with Shania Twain. In the latest big TV job to come her way, the comedian will soon be jetting back to her homeland to take a seat alongside the country-pop superstar on the new judging panel of Canada’s Got Talent. If you go by her lyrics, Shania is famously hard to impress, b...
The Sunday Post •

Maureen Lipman on Edinburgh memories, Corrie, and staying busy

When she sits down for a Q&A in Edinburgh later this month, Dame Maureen Lipman will no doubt cast her mind back down the decades to her first visits to the city and its famous festival. Before she became a household name, the actor, writer and comedian appeared alongside Tamara Ustinov in Kerry Lee Crabbe’s play The Burn at the Fringe in 1965, hailed as a masterpiece by the renowned drama critic Sir Harold Hobson. Maureen, who says she still has that review in a ‘dusty scrapbook’ somewhere, wou...
The Sunday Post •

Richard Armitage on how roots of real life inspired second novel, The Cut

As one of the most popular audiobook voice actors, Richard Armitage has narrated some of the biggest page-turners, cliff-hangers and whodunnits. Now the star of The Hobbit, Spooks and Red Eye is having a thrill ride of his own in a surprise new career chapter as a novelist. Following the success of his first book Geneva, which has a TV adaptation in the works, Richard released his follow-up, The Cut, as an Audible exclusive earlier this week. A lifelong lover of the escapism of fiction, the Robi...
The Sunday Post •

Jo Nesbø on Scotland and Norway's cultural ties and solace in crime novels

Whether it be works inspired by shared rugged landscapes and unpredictable climates, or our respective genres of Nordic and Tartan Noir crime thrillers, Scotland and Norway have long shared strong cultural ties. Fittingly for a man who has sold millions of books worldwide, best-selling author Jo Nesbø, puts it perfectly, describing us as ‘national soulmates’. As the Norwegian crime writer heads across the North Sea to meet fans of his page-turner thrillers, he knows he’s almost coming to a home...
The Sunday Post •

Poet Liz Lochhead on revisiting her life's work for new collection

In her hands, Liz Lochhead is holding her newest book, and most of her life’s work. “There it is,” she says. “A great big stonking thing.” It is indeed quite a hefty tome. For the first time, all of Scotland’s second modern Makar’s published poetry has been put together in one release. Titled A Handsel, it also includes her first new poems since 2016. Although she daren’t look too closely in case she’s missed a typo, there’s a clear sense of pride in bringing her legacy together. The poet and
The Sunday Post •

Lucy Beaumont on reality and fiction colliding in marriage to Jon Richardson

Having attempted to fit herself into her own suitcase during a break in filming Taskmaster, the assessment of Lucy Beaumont as “consistently unpredictable” seems fairly fitting. The stand-up, writer and actor, who is one of the contestants on the current series of the Channel 4 panel game show, largely agrees with the words used by the show’s co-host, Alex Horne, in a recent interview. “You don’t really know sometimes that you’re odd until you see it in writing,” she laughs as P.S. catches up
The Sunday Post •

Love still burns bright for couple brought together by Glasgow fire strike

Rattling along the M8 at 30mph in a Green Goddess fire engine, a young RAF airman from Yorkshire had no idea his life was soon going to change forever. Steven Bentham-Bates was just 18 years old when he was drafted in to cover strike action by Glasgow’s firefighters 50 years ago this week. After a quick crash-course on how to extinguish blazes at Edinburgh’s Redford Barracks, he was assigned to a crew when they reached Maryhill. Little did Steven know that saying yes to a soldier, who asked h
The Sunday Post •

Lewis Capaldi on special bond with fans, new album and Big Weekend

As Lewis Capaldi clambers over a barricade to greet Janet Kirk, the moment encapsulates the special connection the singer has formed with his fans. For 80-year-old Janet, it was her first-ever gig and she made the journey just to see the singer-songwriter in action. He may shrug off national treasure status, but Capaldi’s honesty about his mental health in recent years – coupled with his immense talent, laid-back style and sense of humour – has formed a bond many artists could only dream of.
The Sunday Post •

Crying in the bathroom and a hug from Cate Blanchett: Lesley Paterson on her emotional rollercoaster Oscars

A big hug from Cate Blanchett was one of the highs in a rollercoaster night of emotion at the Oscars, according to triathlete-turned-screenwriter Lesley Paterson. Her film All Quiet On The Western Front was nominated for nine Oscars and won four – including Best International Feature Film – but missed out on Best Adapted Screenplay to Women Talking. “I’ve never experienced anything like it, really believing in your heart that you’re going to win something and then you don’t, but then your film
The Sunday Post •

Blackadder star and history presenter Tony Robinson on cunning new podcast

As Blackadder’s Baldrick, Tony Robinson captured hearts as the classic comedy presented a surreal, subverted version of British history. His character always had a “cunning plan” but when it comes to a 50-year career, the actor, author and presenter has simply been following his natural curiosity about the past. From documentaries ranging from Egyptian tomb hunting to the world wars, royalty and the climate, to two decades on Time Team, he is a font of historical knowledge – despite dropping o
The Sunday Post •

Implications of hurtling advances in tech to be discussed at Scottish AI Summit

We have, of course, heard it before and become used to news of technological advances threatening to upend our lives, take our jobs and transform our lives. Artificial intelligence (AI) is, according to experts and new converts, different. It is, they say, the real deal – capable of triggering change like the internet did but at a faster pace. We have only started scratching the surface of its capabilities, which seem to advance with every day that passes. From painting like Michelangelo and
The Sunday Post •

Katherine Parkinson on Significant Other, loneliness, and Taskmaster

Taking on her latest role, Katherine Parkinson found herself feeling a bit sorry for herself. Or, at least, her past self. In Significant Other, ITV’s new comedy drama, her character finds herself adrift, alone and with a heart that is sick in more ways than one. While a hectic schedule encompassing TV, theatre, interviews and the school run has her, perhaps, longing for a little solitude once in a while, playing Anna allowed her to cast her mind back to her university days where the company s
The Sunday Post •

Dreading the hordes? Experts assess post-pandemic theatre behaviour as staff report increased levels of abuse

To sing along or not to sing along has been the theatre etiquette question igniting debate since a showing of The Bodyguard in Manchester was stopped and police called to deal with an audience member insistent on giving their own rendition of I Will Always Love You. It was the latest in a string of incidents including a brawl during The Jersey Boys at Edinburgh Playhouse in January that has put theatregoers’ behaviour under the microscope. Impassioned debates over how audiences act in the thea
The Sunday Post •

Jings! Oor Wullie's American superfans cap off dream holiday with visit to Sunday Post HQ

A family of Oor Wullie superfans from Reno, Nevada, are heading home to the United States with a suitcase full of cartoons after a visit to the birthplace of Scotland’s favourite mischievous wee laddie. John Kitchen passed his love of the comic strip, alongside The Broons and classic characters from the Beano and Dandy, down the generations to his grandchildren Gracie, 14, Jackson, 12, and nine-year-old Caden. The youngsters love reading the adventures and antics so much that they even lapse i
The Sunday Post •

Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn: Meet the latest Scots to grapple with fame as WWE stars

There are now so many Scots wrestling for WWE that they’ve got their own WhatsApp group chat – with the Braveheart-inspired name “Freedom”. For the latest pair of warriors to get called up to the sports entertainment giant’s top shows, it’s a culmination of years of hard work that’s taken them from community centres across Scotland to the big arenas of the world. The tag team of Kayleigh Rae, who performs under the name Alba Fyre, and Courtney Stewart, who is known as Isla Dawn, were stunned t
The Courier •

Radio 1's Big Weekend: Jess Glynne can't wait to reintroduce herself when festival comes to Dundee

Thanks to seven number one hits, frequent radio airplay and her song Hold My Hand’s ubiquitous presence in summer holiday adverts, it feels like Jess Glynne has never been away. But when she appears at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee, the London-born singer will be taking her first steps on stage for several years having taken time out to re-focus. Reintroducing herself at a festival in front of thousands of people is a nerve-wracking prospect, but riding high on the success of new single Sill
Press and Journal •

Katie Gregson-MacLeod on rubbing shoulders with Sting and Highland homecomings

As she rubbed shoulders with Sting at last week’s Ivor Novello awards, Inverness singer-songwriter Katie Gregson-MacLeod knew she was definitely on the right track. Complex, the viral hit which last summer that changed her life, was vying for Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the prestigious awards bash, hot on the heels of signing a record deal, moving to London, and making music her full time career.
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The Sunday Post •

Countdown is on to ScottishPower Women’s Football Awards

The countdown is on to the 2025 ScottishPower Women’s Football Awards. The annual celebration of the women’s and girls’ game in Scotland will shine a spotlight on success and recognise achievement both on and off the pitch. Shortlisted by fans and awarded by a select judging panel, the prestigious awards will culminate in a showpiece event in front of a star-studded audience at Scotland’s national stadium, Hampden Park, on Saturday, November 29. The Sunday Post is the event’s media partner and w...
The Sunday Post •

Tech collab helps count iconic but vulnerable Puffin population

Counting sheep may be a tried and tested method in helping to doze off, but tallying up Scotland’s puffin population has been causing conservationists some sleepless nights. Efforts by ecologists to help preserve the iconic symbol of our coastal wildlife, increasingly at risk of extinction, have proved tricky thanks to how difficult it is to get an accurate gauge of just how many puffins there actually are. Now though, a coalition of tech experts and Scotland’s nature bodies hope they’ve found a...
The Sunday Post •

New exhibition celebrates daredevil photographer Alfred Buckham

“It is not easy to tumble out of an aeroplane, unless you really want to,” said Alfred Buckham in 1927. And he was talking from experience. The daredevil pilot and photographer was involved in no fewer than nine air crashes. “On considerably more than a thousand flights I have used a safety belt only once, and then it was thrust upon me,” he added. It sums up the death-defying lengths the trailblazing aerial photographer went to in open cockpits, letting his imagination soar and creating stunnin...
The Sunday Post •

Calls for a Scottish memorial to victims and heroes of Lisbon Maru

It wasn’t until recently that Gerry Borge knew the extent to which he owes each day to extraordinary compassion in the face of evil more than 80 years ago. In October 1942, his father was among those plucked from the East China Sea by kind-hearted Chinese fishermen as 828 British prisoners of war perished in the sinking of the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru. Without their bravery, John would not have made it home, met the sister of one of his comrades, fallen in love and started a family. It’s only i...
The Sunday Post •

The fitness programme giving people with MS a better chance to live a fuller life

When a young Dom Thorpe signed up for a course on exercises tailored for disabled people, he struggled to get his head around the idea. Back home, his mum was living with multiple sclerosis (MS) and he just couldn’t see how she could do the workouts he was used to in the gym. But the course opened his eyes and set a plan in motion to try to help others with the condition maintain their independence and live day to day with a better understanding of their own health and their ability to improve i...
The Sunday Post •

Thunderbirds hits cinemas as part of 60th anniversary celebrations

Just like audiences could always rely on International Rescue to swoop in on cue and save the day, Thunderbirds itself has proven just as dependable at making comebacks time after time. The adventures of the brave puppet heroes have passed down the generations, whether it’s being captivated by the action on screen or re-enacting it with the Tracy Island toy set – or homemade paper mache version. As the franchise celebrates its 60th anniversary, Thunderbirds are go once again as two iconic episod...
The Sunday Post •

Angela Barnes on synesthesia, ADHD and new tour show Angst

When Angela Barnes fired off an email to a university professor with a question about her brain, she didn’t expect to become the subject of an upcoming research paper. The comedian has synesthesia, a fascinating neurological phenomenon where the senses cross over, like seeing music in colour or tasting flavours when reading words. While her particular blend has piqued the interest of the University of Sussex, Angela’s experiences are also woven into her latest stand-up show. More personal than p...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh MoonWalk: Charity founder on upcoming final fundraiser

An entry in the 1998 diary of Walk The Walk founder Nina Barough reads: “This walking thing is getting huge. I’ve now got 11 people.” Now, with over half a million people taking to the streets over the years for the breast cancer charity’s pioneering MoonWalk marathon events, the word she uses is phenomenal. The charity is about to close a chapter of its incredible story with the 19th and final MoonWalk Scotland in Edinburgh next weekend. While the last walker crossing the finish line on Saturda...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Marjolein Robertson

After sold-out runs with her acclaimed shows Marj and O, Shetland comedian Marjolein Robertson is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with the final chapter in her deeply personal trilogy, Lein. Where Marj explored the mind and O the body, Lein turns to the soul: what we carry, what we shed, and who we become when the stage lights dim. Here, she answers our Fringe Q&A. A dream. Dreams in the way that when you wake up from sleep and someone asks you what you dreamt about the night before, and then you t...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Tamsyn Kelly

After a sell-out run with her 2023 show, Tamsyn Kelly is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with a show all about swapping her native Cornwall for Glasgow. She made the move after just four months of dating her partner, and the show promises an honest, messy, and hilarious exploration of love, loneliness, and independence. Here, she answers our Fringe Q&A. Ups and downs, anyone who says they’re having the ‘perfect’ fringe is lying. It’s always up and down, that’s the nature of a comedy marathon. One t...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Matt Winning

Scottish climate comedian and academic Dr Matt Winning is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with his latest show. In Solastalgia, he takes audiences through three intertwined stories. Firstly, in 1769, James Watt inventing the steam engine, kickstarting the fossil fuel era and laying the foundations for the climate crisis. Then we jump to the pandemic, where Matt, originally from Paisley, finds himself stuck in a hospital car park, unable to attend the birth of his son and grappling with a fractured...
The Sunday Post •

Soul singer James Emmanuel on finding home in Edinburgh

The sound of James Emmanuel’s voice used to ring round Edinburgh bars as he cleared glasses and mopped the floors. Last weekend, though, it was London’s Royal Albert Hall that basked in his soulful melodies. The hard work has paid off for the singer, originally from Nigeria, who has had an incredible rise since first arriving in his adopted home city. Singing while he worked at the former Tron pub, he caught the attention of colleagues and music lovers and before long he was the star of the bar’...
The Sunday Post •

John McLaughlin on new jukebox musical Rollers Forever

During John McLaughlin’s speech after winning a Tartan Clef at the Scottish Music Awards, the chart-topping producer and songwriter was asked if there was anything else he’d like to achieve in his career. What he said made headline news the next day as he revealed that it was his dream to bring the Bay City Rollers back together. It led to former lead vocalist Les McKeown getting in touch, and the band eventually announced they were reforming in 2015. Lifelong fan John managed and played with th...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Jake Bhardwaj

Comedy quizmaster Jake Bhardwaj is behind one of the Edinburgh Fringe‘s most immersive and chaotic shows, Not Another Quiz Night. With surprise “celebrity” guests in disguise, riotous bonus rounds, and a live DJ keeping the party going, the show turns trivia into total anarchy – part comedy show, part immersive party, and 100% the night out you didn’t know you needed. Here Jake, who has also worked as a writer and producer on The Last Leg and Late Night Lycett, answers our Fringe Q&A. A complete...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Sid Ozalid

Sid Ozalid, an Aberdeen grandfather who suffered a life-threatening brain injury,  continues his remarkable return to the stage at this year’s Fringe. The 66-year-old, real name Douglas Cairns, initially came to prominence in 1978 as the ‘One-Legged Tap-Dancing Poet’ but had to re-learn how to walk and talk after he suffered a freak head injury while coming out of his car in 2019. Ahead of taking to the Edinburgh stage, he’s sold out appearances at this year’s Glasgow Comedy Festival, Brighton F...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe: Joe Tracini on borderline personality disorder

Joe Tracini tells us all about his Edinburgh Fringe show, Ten Things I Hate About Me, living with borderline personality disorder, and unpackaging himself from just being Joe Pasquale’s son. I’ve wanted to do it for 20 years, but my career went a different way. I then decided to do it five years ago, started writing it, did a work in progress, and then the world shut down. As soon as things went back to normal, I realised there was an issue. I kept trying to do it but I just wasn’t well enough a...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Max Fosh

Youtuber and comedian Max Fosh is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe later this month with his Loophole live show. Best known for his cheeky stunts – including playfully confusing travellers arriving at Gatwick Airport with a ‘Welcome to Luton’ sign – he’s garnered over 5 million followers across his social media, with his videos amassing over 1.5 billion views. While at the festival, he’s also joining the likes of Rosie Jones and Sally Phillips for Comic Relief Live! on 18th August at the Assembly...
The Sunday Post •

Edinburgh Fringe Q&A - Glenn Moore

One of the most prolific joke writers in the country, Glenn Moore packs plenty of punchlines into each show. He’s back at the Fringe this year with Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some Moore?, following up recent appearances on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Here, he answers our Fringe Q&A. I’ve booked in to talk to my therapist three times a week while I’m up there, so yeah really great thanks! I usually write a couple of thousand jokes first, whittle it...
The Sunday Post •

Long wait over as Brigadoon gets London revival

The mysterious and dream-like village of Brigadoon only appears once every 100 years, and fans of the classic musical have had their own long wait for the tale to return to the stage. It hasn’t been quite a century, but the first major London revival of the musical in 35 years opens next weekend, bringing a slice of Scotland south with a cast and crew packed with tartan talent. Directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, the task of adapting Brigadoon for the...
The Sunday Post •

Paul Merton and Suki Webster on the joy of Fringe improv

“I used to climb up Arthur’s Seat, now I look at people climbing up,” Paul Merton laughs as he reflects on the 40th anniversary of doing improv at the Edinburgh Fringe. Alongside him on this Zoom call, though, his wife and fellow comic Suki Webster gently reminds him that they have, in fact, scaled it fairly recently. “We did do it one year,” she says. “Quite late at night, I think. There was reportedly going to be shooting stars. We got a car part way up and then were planning to walk the rest....
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