Bidding war for story of hoaxer, 30, who went back to school
A HOAXER who conned his way back into his old school under a new identity 15 years after he left is at the centre of a bidding war between television companies over the rights for his memoir.
Brian MacKinnon was 30 when he fooled staff at Bearsden Academy into thinking he was 17-year-old Canadian pupil Brandon Lee.
He hoped to fulfil his fantasy of becoming a doctor but was later rumbled and forced to abandon his university studies.
In 2016 Mr MacKinnon, 55, of Milngavie, Dunbartonshire, went on to record his life in memoir Rhesus Negative.
Now he is in negotiations with two production companies which hope to turn his work into a UK television series.
The talks were confirmed by his publisher Austin MacAuley, but a spokesman said it was too early to give details or financial figures.
It is believed the series will be about Mr MacKinnon’s life, as set out in his own words.
His story begins in 1993 when he was a 30-year-old failed medical student whose career was on lifesupport after he was kicked off his course at Glasgow University.
In a bid to revive his studies he created a new identity by shaving
‘Stood out like a sore thumb’
his eyebrows and perming his hair. Posing as Lee, he enrolled for a second time at Bearsden Academy to resit his Highers.
A former teacher of Mr MacKinnon later admitted her new pupil ‘stood out like a sore thumb’. But he was allowed to sail through fifth year unchallenged and gained a place at Dundee University’s Medical School. He studied there for a term and dropped out due to a lack of funds. Then in 1995 he was unmasked after a tip-off to the university.
The scandal led to him being branded ‘Britain’s Oldest Schoolboy’ and saw him gain nationwide media attention.
In 1997 we told how he won a publishing deal worth up to six figures for his memoir, but he published it on the internet after being warned comments about journalists and lawyers could lead to legal action.
Two years ago Mr MacKinnon, who lives in a one-bedroom flat in a block of social housing, revealed in a rare interview with the Scottish Daily Mail that he ‘regretted’ his behaviour and said he now felt only ‘despair’.