Douglas Sannachan

Last updated

Douglas Sannachan
Douglas Sannachan.jpg
Born (1962-03-16) 16 March 1962 (age 61)
Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation(s) Actor, Filmmaker

Douglas Sannachan (born 1962 in Glasgow) is a Scottish actor and film maker most widely known for playing Billy the window cleaner in Gregory's Girl . [1] His famous line was "If I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through a window". He grew up in the Calton area of Glasgow and was a pupil at John Street Secondary School, Glasgow. When he was 16 years old he was the subject of a chapter of a book called The Year of the Child [2] by Bel Mooney.

Contents

Sannachan was a member of the Glasgow Youth Theatre and is a friend of John Gordon Sinclair and Robert Buchanan. He appeared in other films directed by Bill Forsyth such as That Sinking Feeling [3] [4] in which he played Simmy, and as well as playing Willy, was also the voice of the ice cream van, in Comfort and Joy . He also played Gerry in Submarine Escape, Edward in the Cold War drama Winter Flight and Tam in Living Apart Together .

On television, Douglas was in the children's programme Waiting for Elvis which was part of Dramarama (TV series) written by Alex Norton. The episode featured Fergie (played by Sannachan), a young singer, trying to impress Elvis Presley during his short stop at Prestwick Airport in 1960 on his only confirmed visit to the UK. He played Billy a paramedic, in Life Support (BBC1), Jim in Strathblair (BBC1), Sneck in End of the Line (BBC1) and a murderer Jimmy, in Taggart - Murder in Season [5] on STV when Mark McManus played the title role.

He played a pantomime dame in the Simply Red video for the track Jericho from the album Picture Book . He has continued to act on stage and screen and played the owner of a sauna in Rebus - Resurrection Men. He has also appeared on stage in productions such as The Jesuit in Edinburgh, The Lyons of Lisbon Glasgow, A Family Affair Edinburgh, Rents [6] London and The Lemmings are Coming, London.

He has made over thirty appearances at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, including Peter Pan , Cinderella , The Wizard of Never Woz [7] Please Stay, The Bigot [8] and Paras Over the Baras. [9]

He has also recorded his voice for radio The Bell and the Tree (Radio Clyde), Choke the Gaffer (Radio Scotland) and Short Plays for Radio (Radio 4).

In February 2018 he completed an independent comedy, horror feature film called "Starcache" Link. The film is based on the worldwide hobby of Geocaching, but rather than people finding caches hidden in the woods, they are more likely to be killed in unusual and gruesome ways. This has led Sannachan to coin the phrase "Slasher Cacher" to describe the genre. The film has its worldwide premiere at the Glasgow Southside Film Festival on 3 June, followed by a screening at the Centre for Contemporary Arts on 11 June 2018. The film was hosted on Amazon Prime in 2019 and since 2022 has been available on YouTube. His second project "Acheron" Link is a disturbing short film on the horrors of abuse and addiction. It aims to highlight that adverse experiences in childhood can result in a cycle of addiction. The film, completed in January 2019, explores the power of the demons of addiction within a father and son relationship. It won the Glasgow Southside Filmmakers’ Award in 2019.

Currently, he is working on a new project "Rhinoman", a 20-minute short that merges comic book art with real-life action Link.

Personal life

He is currently married with two children and is living in the Southside of Glasgow.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clare Grogan</span> Scottish actress and singer

Claire Patricia Grogan, known professionally as Clare Grogan or sometimes as C. P. Grogan, is a Scottish actress and singer. She is best known as the lead singer of the 1980s new wave music group Altered Images, as well as for supporting roles in the 1981 film Gregory's Girl and the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf as the first incarnation of Kristine Kochanski.

Lee Hall is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film Billy Elliot (2000) and the book and lyrics for its adaptation as a stage musical of the same name. In addition, he wrote the play The Pitmen Painters (2007), and the screenplays for the films War Horse and Rocketman (2019).

Alexander Morton is a Scottish actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Vine</span> English comedian

Timothy Mark Vine is an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter best known for his one-liners and his role on the sitcom Not Going Out (2006–2014). He has released a number of stand-up comedy specials and has written several joke books.

<i>Gregorys Girl</i> 1981 Scottish film

Gregory's Girl is a 1980 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan. The film is set in and around a state secondary school in the Abronhill district of Cumbernauld.

This article deals with the Media in Glasgow. The city of Glasgow, Scotland is home to large sections of the Scottish national media. It hosts the following:

Mark McManus was a Scottish actor known for his roles in the British television series Sam,Bulman, The Brothers, Strangers, and Dramarama and the feature film 2000 Weeks. He was best known for playing the tough Glaswegian Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart in the long-running STV television series Taggart from 1983 until his death in 1994.

<i>Sea of Souls</i> Television series

Sea of Souls is a BBC paranormal drama series, recounting the fictional activities of a group of investigators into psychic and other paranormal events. Produced in-house by BBC Scotland and for the final season by Carnival Films, initially in association with Sony Pictures Television International, the series debuted on BBC One in the UK in February 2004. A second series was shown from January 2005, with a third following in 2006 and then a fourth in April 2007.

Reece Dinsdale is an English actor and director of stage, film and television. He is a Huddersfield Town fan. In 2017 he became a patron of the Square Chapel, an arts centre in Halifax. He is also an honorary patron of The Old Courts multi-arts centre in Wigan

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Henshall</span> Scottish actor

Douglas “Dougie” James Henshall is a Scottish television, film and stage actor. He is best known for his roles as Professor Nick Cutter in the science fiction series Primeval (2007–2011) and Detective Inspector Jimmy Pérez in the crime drama Shetland (2013–2022).

Paul Birchard is an American actor who lives in Finland. He has appeared in film, television, stage and radio productions, most notably as Bud in Sweet Bird of Youth with the Royal National Theatre, Ross in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and Chuck in the premiere of Frank Grimes's first performed play, The Fishing Trip. Birchard is also known for his one-man stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald stories, a documentary film about Tennessee Williams and Konrad Hopkins which he produced and directed, and a song promoting the Glasgow Diamonds American football team.

Tony Roper is a Scottish actor, comedian, playwright and writer.

Blythe Duff is a Scottish actress best known for her role as Jackie Reid in the ITV television series drama, Taggart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin McCredie</span> Scottish actor

Colin McCredie is a Scottish actor, best known for his role as DC Stuart Fraser in the STV drama Taggart, Nick Morrison in the BBC Scotland Soap Opera River City and in the films Shallow Grave, Night is Day and The Missing Postman.

James MacPherson is a Scottish actor, best known for his role as Detective Chief Inspector Michael Jardine in the STV drama, Taggart.

Glenn Chandler is a Scottish playwright, novelist, producer and theatre director. He has written plays for theatre and radio, original screenplays for television and films, television series, and also novels. His best known work is the Scottish television detective series Taggart, which was commissioned by Scottish Television for the ITV Network from 2 July 1985 until 7 November 2010, and which continues to be broadcast around the world. Since the completion of Taggart in 2010, Glenn Chandler has focused on writing for the theatre, with a consistent run of productions in both London and Edinburgh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Ferguson</span> Scottish writer and actress (born 1965)

Lynn Ferguson Tweddle is a Scottish writer, comedian, actress, and story coach. She is the younger sister of comedian Craig Ferguson and is known for voicing the character of Mac in the animated film, Chicken Run. From 2009–2011, she was a writer on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and has served as a writer for the radio stations BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland. She has frequently performed at the international Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

<i>That Sinking Feeling</i> 1979 Scottish film

That Sinking Feeling is a 1979 Scottish comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth, his first film as a director. The film is set in his home city of Glasgow in Scotland. The young actors in film were members of the Glasgow Youth Theatre. The film also features Richard Demarco, the Edinburgh gallery owner, playing himself. The four main actors went on to feature in Forsyth's following film Gregory's Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ashton (actor)</span> British actor and writer

David Scott Ashton is a Scottish actor and writer. Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, 1964–67, he has acted in a wide variety of film, television, theatre and radio roles. He has also developed a parallel career as a writer of fiction, film and television screenplays and plays for theatre and radio. His radio play The Old Ladies at the Zoo, which starred Peggy Mount and Liz Smith, won the Radio Times Drama Award in 1985.

Joplin Sibtain, sometimes credited professionally as Chook Sibtain, is a British actor known for the Netflix series Safe, his seasons at the National Theatre and as Tarak Ital on the Doctor Who special, "The Waters of Mars". He voiced Olin in Horizon Zero Dawn. He won best actor at the New York Movie awards for the title role in Memory Man, and starred as Brasso in the Star Wars television series Andor.

References

  1. ↑ Oxley, K. (1998) Film sparked success for Scots stars, Daily Record, Glasgow, 2/6/98.
  2. ↑ Mooney, B. (1979) The Year of the Child, Hutchinson and Co, London
  3. ↑ Simo (1979) That Sinking Feeling, Variety, New York, 19/9/79.
  4. ↑ Elley, D. (1993) Variety Movie Guide, Hamlyn, London.
  5. ↑ McManus, M. and Chandler, G. (1989) Taggart's Glasgow, p40 and p149, Lennard Publishing, Oxford.
  6. ↑ Coveney, M. (1984) Rents/Lyric, Hammersmith, Financial Times, London, 8/2/84.
  7. ↑ Simpson, J. (2008) Dorothy role a dream come true for actress, Evening Times, Glasgow, 25/10/08.
  8. ↑ Hickey, B. (1996) Curtain up on a firm favourite, Evening Times, Glasgow, 11/9//96.
  9. ↑ Segal, L. (1997) Just hanging about, Evening Times, Glasgow, 14/2/97.

Douglas Sannachan on:

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.