The Scotsman

Frankie Boyle loses his head in haunted house horror

● Comic agreed to play himself despite being told about beheading

- By BRIAN FERGUSON Arts Correspond­ent

Frankieboy­le’sfanswereg­iven the fright of their lives after he made a surprise appearance playing himself in a haunted house drama in which he gets his head chopped off.

The controvers­ial stand-up lost his head after agreeing to appear in fellow comic Greg Hemphill’s new horror Long Night at Blackstone.

Boyle puts on a deadpan performanc­e as a mystery guest on phoney paranormal activity TV show Ghost Haunt Live in BBC Scotland’s new “black comedy.”

The cast and crew in the horror comedy get more than they bargained for when they visit a run-down mansion to make the show’s last episode.

The supernatur­al spine-tingler takes a turn for the worst for presenters Faye Bowers and Pat Tomorrow, played by Lorraine Mcintosh and John Gordon Sinclair, when they see Boyle’s severed head land in front of them.

At first it appears as if Boyle is providing light relief in the drama after arriving on set andmeeting­producerdo­minique, who quizzes him on why has agreed to appear in Ghost Haunt Live.

“It’s just a thought I had,” Boyle responds. “I thought I had enough money to pay my tax this year, but I didn’t.” Asked if he believes in the supernatur­al, he quips: “Not really. I thought it would be fun to come on and debunk it all on air.” Asked to avoid

0 Frankie Boyle appears in horror comedy Long Night at Blackstone swearing or discussing politics, Boyle said: “No worries, I’ll try not to say anything too offensive on your show about murder victims contacting us from hell.”

It is no laughing matter for Boyle, Bowers and Tomorrow when the tables are turned on the trickery deployed on the show by the laird of Blackstone Manor (John Michie).

Confronted by a cloaked figure in a corridor, Boyle tries to joke his way out of a tight corner, saying: “Alright mate, four years at drama school for this, eh? I bet these ***** have got you on a zero-hours contract.”

Boyle was approached with the offer of a role in Long Night at Blackstone after the comic depicted a recovering alcohol in the short film Gasping, which was Hemphill’s directoria­l debut.

Hemphill said: “It’s a bit tricky when you’re asking someone to play themselves as they often want to know if they arethejoke­orwillbema­defun of. Frankie doesn’t care about any of that stuff.

“We just said to him ‘we’re going to do this and cut your head off on TV’. He just started cackling and said ‘that sounds like really good fun. Where I do sign?’ His cynical take on the world was perfect.”

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