Great Scot! 58: Duncan Macrae
Cornerstone No. 182, page 19
Was he an actor or a comedian or a sailor or a friend of Dr. Finlay( see below)? I’ m sure you’ ve seen him on the‘ telly’ – above all, he was a Great Scot! Not to be confused with his namesake, the Scottish Rugby Union player, nor the celebrated supplier of Macrae Kipper Fillets( ™) not even the subject of the previous Great Scot( John Duncan Fergusson), this John Duncan( Macrae) was born in Maryhill, Glasgow on August 20th 1905, the fourth of six bairns, to Sergeant James Macrae of the‘ Glasgie’ police force. He studied at Allan Glen’ s school and had aspirations to be an engineer, pursuing this discipline at Glasgow University, in 1923-1924, where his studies came to nothing. So, what of Dr. Finlay in his wee TV practice in Tannochbrae and later Duncan’ s frolics on the waters around Scotland in the series? In – the original version shot in Callander – and in which one of his fellow thespians, for five episodes, was a certain Donald McKillop( no relation) – Duncan Macrae played the‘ occasional’ part of Albert Cogger; not without notice for Cogger led to bogger – sorry, I mean bigger, things and to the career of this talented Scottish portrayer of characters. It was in TV’ s popular that we see Mr. Macrae in a‘ serious’ role, that of the‘ Miser’ in Molière’ s no insinuation intended – and at the Mermaid Theatre( London), still with Molière, in
. As for – och, a ken ye know where am’ a goin – aboard a Clyde‘ Puffer’ – it’ s a boat( and also a brand of bottled stout brewed on Arran). This comedy series, aboard one of those modest steamships that plied Scotland’ s greatest river, ran from 1959( with Macrae in the title role for that first series) to 1995. In 1961, Duncan Mac. played in another title role – that of
( a‘ gauger’ being an excise man responsible for overseeing strengths and tariffs in the whisky trade). He was also Ebenezer Balfour in the TV series of in 1963 and 1964.
‘ Hogmanay’( New Year’ s Eve) is held dear to the hearts of many a Scot and in the 1950s and 1960s Duncan Macrae took centre stage in those hearts with his polished performance, in song( and in Scots dialect), of