Hogmanay viewing

How do you like spending your evenings during the festive period? Roasting chestnuts by an open fire, perhaps? Sitting with a wee hot toddy round the Christmas tree?

No such luck for me last Sunday night in Glasgow. I spent the evening trying not to shiver as a film crew filmed me literally walking along an Anniesland road and arriving at the door of a house to deliver a few short lines in Gaelic. More often than not I heard 'Cut!' and had to turn back and do it again. At times I felt like Gaeldom’s answer to Ronald Villiers – for anyone who’s watched Chewin’ the Fat!

Within the house, I present a programme called Oidhche Challain le Robert Robertson to be aired on BBC Alba at 10pm this Hogmanay. I am not sure exactly how much I am allowed to tell you about the programme but what I can say is that it draws heavily upon the BBC archives, which turned out to be an absolute treasure trove of totally brilliant footage of Hogmanays gone by. If you’re looking for something to watch on Hogmanay, and fancy a bit of nostalgia, then tune into BBC Alba. It will make my freezing cold Sunday night worth it!

Skerryvore, Trail West, Tide Lines, and various other friends have been enjoying a Christmas night out for the past three years now and it seems to have grown into a big enough event to warrant a mention in the paper! Not least this year because we decided to show our collective support for the Doddie Weir Foundation (the former Scotland rugby player’s charity raising awareness of MND) by each sporting his tartan bow tie. On the same evening, Doddie was collecting the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.