It’s been a privilege to be out and about in rural Scotland

Presenter on (probably) having C-19, why his TV job

Landward’s Dougie Vipond

Presenter and musician Dougie Vipond was riding the crest of a wave before lockdown.

At the start of March, the Deacon Blue drummer was celebrating his band’s biggest success since 1994, after their new album, City Of Love, landed at No 4 in the charts.

Yet within weeks, he was in bed, sick and missing his children. He said: “Lockdown has been tricky. I had something that put me in my bed for two weeks, and made me feel terrible for a week after that. I didn’t have all the symptoms of the coronavirus, but it knocked me out for three weeks.

“A doctor said I’d likely had it, but with no testing it’s hard to know. And even then it was pretty mild. It was knackering, debilitating, but I didn’t have a cough, and no temperature. Whatever it was, I wasn’t well.

“I’m desperately missing two of my three boys, who are away. My youngest, Hamish, is 16 and living with us. It’s hard for him, too – it’s his birthday soon and he’s missing his brothers. But we’re all getting on with it.”

Dougie and the rest of the Landward presenting team have been given broadcast clearance to keep reporting from around Scotland’s rural communities during the pandemic. Hesaid:“wehavetobe very careful where we go and who we speak to.

“But it has been a privilege to document how rural life in Scotland is coping. I’m always taken aback by the fortitude and positivity of people who live and work in the countryside, as they have it hard at the best of times.”

As well as marking the release of Deacon Blue’s ninth album, Dougie’s other band Swiss Family Orbison re-released their eponymously-titled debut album on vinyl last week, 23 years after its release.

He said: “It’s lovely to see a record we recorded such a long time ago released again.

“This has been a great

Dougie Vipond

The doctor said I’d had Covid but who knows? year musically for me and the songs on the Deacon Blue record really seem to have resonated.

“I got a message at the start of lockdown from a woman who works in the NHS. She’d gone for a run and listened to City Of Love then sent me this lovely message about being moved to tears by some of the songs, and the importance of music in times like these.

“That was really lovely to hear, because these aren’t songs people have known for long, they’re brand new.”

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Landward, Thursday, BBC Scotland, 8pm. Deacon Blue’s City Of Love and Swiss Family Orbison’s self-titled vinyl re-release are both out now