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GREGOR FISHER, Eddie Izzard and John Sessions, who will star in the re-make of Ealing Comedy classic Whisky Galore!, which is filming in and around aberdeen. Compton MacKenzie’s tale about how locals ‘rescue’ 30,000 cases of Scotch from a ship that has hit the rocks was released in cinemas in 1949 and gave audiences a double measure of post-war cheer, as locals try to outwit officials determined to get their hands on the booze. ‘It’s the little man against the customs men,’ said Iain Maclean, who acquired the rights to make the film ten years ago. Maclean added that Whisky Galore! is ‘almost Scotland’s national movie’. Fenella Woolgar, Tim Piggott-Smith, Sean biggerstaff, naomi battrick, Kevin Guthrie, Iain robertson and James Cosmo are part of the cast being directed by Gillies McKinnon using a Peter MacDonald screenplay. Producer Maclean said the movie took a long time to get off the ground for a variety of reasons. ‘It takes ten years,’ he observed. ‘like a good malt.’ ABIGAIL LAWRIE (pictured), who was outstanding as student Krystal Weedon in the BBC TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novel The Casual Vacancy. Lawrie will make her professional stage debut in a revival of Sharman Macdonald’s 1988 play When We Were Women, which is set in wartorn Glasgow during 1943-44. The drama was originally staged in the Cottesloe (now called the Dorfman) at the National Theatre, with Rebecca Pidgeon in the role that Ms Lawrie will now play. When We Were Women will run at the Orange Tree in Richmond, in collaboration with Snapdragon Productions, from September 3 through October 3. The play’s cast also features Lorraine Pilkington, Steve Nicolson, Mark Edel-Hunt and Sarah-Jayne Butler.