Film crew descends on Lochaber
Perfect Strangers, the title of a new independent Scottish film being shot in Lochaber this month, turned out to be quite an apt name for mum and daughter Katie and Megan Daynes.
The duo ended up making a marathon 250-mile, four-hour round trip from Glencoe to pick up wellknown Scottish actress and former Altered Images lead singer Clare Grogan after the star missed her flight from London to Glasgow.
Directed by Scottish Baftanominated film-maker Ryan Hendrick and made by his own company, Magic Monkey Films, Perfect Strangers is a tale of two strangers who find themselves stranded in the Highlands on Christmas Eve.
Based on Hendrick’s own short film of the same name, which was nominated for a Scottish Bafta, the film tells how the couple put aside their own personal problems and team up to try to get home for Christmas.
Behind the camera is renowned director of photography John Rhodes (Only Fools and Horses/One Foot In The Grave).
On Saturday, the film crew were in Fort William’s High Street to shoot scenes with the two young actors who play the title characters – Natalie Clark, of Still Game fame, and Kenny Boyle, who starred in Hero Worship.
Earlier scenes were shot in and around Glencoe and movie-goers will see the famous Clachaig Inn at Glencoe which features as itself.
This is where a star-studded supporting cast of well-known faces including Sylvester McCoy (The Hobbit), Sanjeev Kohli (Stan and Ollie), Ms Grogan (Gregory’s Girl), Caitlin Blackwood (Doctor Who), Frazer Hines (Outlander and Emmerdale), Karen Bartke (Scot Squad) and Nicolette McKeown (Convergence) filmed their scenes.
The Clachaig Inn was taken over by Katie’s husband, Guy Daynes, and his brother Ed back in 1984, and many of the film’s scenes in Glencoe were shot inside the popular premises’ Boots Bar.
Katie, whose daughter, Megan, 18, and son Jack, 20, are both involved in the film industry, told the Lochaber Times how the emergency taxi trip to pick up Ms Grogan came about.
‘Clare was meant to be on a flight from London to Glasgow where all the rest of the cast were being collected to bring them up to Glencoe. However, she missed her flight and had to fly into Edinburgh Airport last week instead.
‘Her flight landed in Edinburgh at 9.15pm and she wasn’t sure how to then get from there to Glencoe in time for her first scenes early the following morning – so we volunteered to go and collect her.’
Katie and Megan then set off and Katie says on the long return journey the star of such films as Gregory’s Girl and Comfort and Joy was a joy to chat to.
‘All the way to Glencoe we all just chatted about family stuff and just normal things about life generally. She was very down to earth, really lovely. By the time we got home it was just like we were speaking to a member of our own family, that’s how nice and easy-going Clare was. Not strangers at all.
‘To be honest all of the cast and crew were really nice.’
Katie and her family took several members of the cast on sightseeing trips in the Glencoe area, including Still Game actor Sanjeev Kohli, who ended up hand-feeding deer.
And Clare tweeted her appreciation of the Clachaig Inn’s hospitality, saying: ‘Dry January! Don’t think so ... Love this location.’
And even the Lochaber Times makes an appearance, with some of Saturday’s scenes being shot on the High Street.
‘Clare was very down to earth, really lovely.’