50 YEARS AGO Budding Crieff actor Denis in theatre role

Sir Alec Douglas-Home KT MP said at Crieff Hydro that many people were beginning to realise the defects of socialism.

He was speaking at a wine and cheese party organised by the Crieff and Muthill Conservative Associations and attended by about 300 people.

Sir Alec hoped the people of the party had lost sleep the previous evening to see the result of the Pollock By-election. He said: “This is the beginning of the disillusionment of the electors with socialist spending.”

An aspiring young Crieff actor had recently finished a three-week run in a Brecht play at the Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow.

The lad’s name was Denis Lawson. He was in his first year of an acting course at the Glasgow Drama College. In ‘The Visions of Simone Machard’ he played the second engineer in mail and second sentry.

The former pupil of Morrison’s Academy thoroughly enjoyed this experience of professional theatre, changing costumes at frequent intervals, and went on from there to act in a play at the Close Theatre Club, Glasgow.

A 78 year-old guest at Crieff Hydro sparked a full-scale search after he failed to return from a Saturday afternoon walk. The stranger to the area had lost his way in wild weather conditions but after some hours was found near Monzie Castle. He was taken to Crieff Cottage Hospital but was found to be none the worse for his experience.