Stuart McGugan

Last updated

Stuart McGugan
Born (1944-03-02) 2 March 1944 (age 81)
Occupation(s)Actor, TV presenter

Stuart McGugan (born 2 March 1944) is a Scottish actor and television presenter. He is best known for the role of Gunner 'Atlas' Mackintosh in It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

Contents

Early life

McGugan was born in Stirling and raised in Letham and Westmuir. [1] He attended Forfar Academy, and after being kicked out got his first job was as a reporter for Kirriemuir Herald. [1] [2] McGugan had a life long love for drama, having performed stage shows when in boy scouts, and tried to apply to enter Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama when he was sixteen, but was denied due to lack of money and because of his gap in education from being kicked out of school. [2] He re-applied a few years later and was accepted, graduating in 1965. [1] [2] McGugan joined Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre of Scotland. [1]

Career

In the 1970s, McGugan worked in a Repertory theatre in Leeds when he got a phone call from his agent that Jimmy Perry and David Croft wanted to see him; he was doing eight shows a week so went to see them at a rehearsal room in London owned by the BBC. [3] He was interviewed by an executive, while Perry and Croft were finishing rehearsing for an episode of Dad's Army, and went back up to Leeds for a show. [3] He heard nothing else until around Christmas 1973 when he was asked to come down to film for a pilot episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum; fortunately McGugan just so happened to have booked ten days off work and so went down to London to film it. [3] McGugan landed the role of Gunner 'Atlas' Mackintosh in It Ain't Half Hot Mum for fifty-six episodes from 1974 to 1981.

McGugan was a presenter on BBC's Play School from 1975; he regularly presented the programme for more than 10 years. [4] He played Bomba MacAteer in the 1987 series Tutti Frutti . [5] [6] McGugan appeared as Gordon Stewart in two series of the London Weekend Television (LWT) series Wish Me Luck between 1988 and 1989, in The Chief as Chief Superintendent Sean McCloud from 1993 to 1994, then in the mid-1990s was the pub owner Barney Meldrum in BBC Scotland's Hamish MacBeth . [7] He had a recurring role as a factory worker in the Perry/Croft sitcom You Rang, M'Lord? . [8] In Family Affairs in 1997 he played the character Derek Simpson.

He was in a Middle Ground Theatre Company tour of a stage adaptation of the 1960 film Tunes of Glory ; McGugan played Colonel Jock Sinclair, originally played by Alec Guinness in the film. The production visited Jersey, Wolverhampton and Perth, Scotland in early 2007. [9]

Personal life

McGugan's son, Mitch McGugan, is a classically trained violinst and heavy metal drummer who plays in the band Karybdis. [2]

Partial filmography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Stuart McGugan from The Gazetteer for Scotland". www.scottish-places.info. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Veronique (24 July 2022). "An Interview with Actor and Writer Stuart McGugan". Living on Fascination. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 "54 - Stuart McGugan "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" Interview (April 2021)". Podomatic. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  4. 'Here's A House: The Story of Playschool', Volume 1 (Paul R Jackson, 2009)
  5. "BFI Screenonline: Tutti Frutti (1987)". screenonline.org.uk.
  6. "BFI Screenonline: It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974-81) Credits". screenonline.org.uk.
  7. "Stuart Mcgugan". BFI. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019.
  8. Robertson, Peter (26 April 2020). "TV legend was nearly fired from PlaySchool for trying to drop-kick Humpty". mirror.
  9. "Middle Ground Theatre Company". Archived from the original on 20 February 2007.