Dundee’s strong claim to Star Wars movie fame

DASHING rebel pilot Wedge Antilles and the evil Emperor Palpatine were intergalactic enemies in the Star Wars movies.

Crieff actor Denis Lawson famously played the X-Wing pilot while Carnoustie-raised actor Ian McDiarmid played the most despicable man in the entire galaxy.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, however... or to be more precise, Dundee, they were best buddies after striking up a friendship while up-and-coming actors. Lawson and McDiarmid appeared at the Little Theatre before sharing a flat in Glasgow as they attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Lawson said: “Dundee has responsibility for kickstarting my acting career. I got involved in the Dundee Dramatic Society (DDS) and at the same time had a job selling carpets in the Cowgate – not that I did a very good job of it! I met Ian when I was 17. We did five or six productions together (with the DDS).

“That was where we started. We both auditioned for Glasgow drama school the same day.

“We both got accepted, we went through drama school together and shared a flat – when I meet him now it’s kind of surreal, the journey we’ve been on.”

McDiarmid joined DDS while studying for a degree in social sciences at St Andrews University.

He first appeared as Darth Vader’s master in Return of the Jedi in 1983, overseeing the last stages of the second Death Star’s construction. He returned for the Star Wars prequels and sequels. In 2019 a campaign was launched to bring the Dark Side to Carnoustie and erect a Star Wars statue in the town to honour the town’s famous son.

Meanwhile, Lawson is, of course, the uncle of Crieff actor Ewan McGregor, who played a youthful Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

“I was six when I saw the first Star Wars, and I was blown away by seeing the film the first time when I was that age; it’s a great age to see it at,” McGregor said.

There are numerous connections between Courier Country and Star Wars including the time Carrie Fisher danced on a deserted railway platform.

The Princess Leia actress, who died in December 2016, aged 60, danced the jig after stopping on a luxury train journey through the Scottish Highlands in 2015.

Fisher, accompanied by her French bulldog Gary, had been unimpressed by a visit to Glamis Castle because of the dim lighting within the building. But that did not stop her splashing out £500 on a cashmere dog coat from the castle’s gift shop before both Carrie and Gary took part in some Scottish country dancing.

At midnight, an accordion orchestra led the 28 passengers on the £1,500-a-day trip on to the deserted platform at Dundee where they danced The Dashing White Sergeant.

There are other links between Courier Country and Star Wars.

In 1999 news broke that Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz was planning to shoot scenes from his new film in the unlikely setting of the Kirkton housing estate.

A company called Westworld International claimed Kurtz was making a feature based on the autobiography of ex-drug addict Stephen Smith. It turned out to be a hoax rather than a fresh chapter in the Star Wars story!

Newport film-maker Gary Gowans commemorated ‘May the Fourth’ in 2017 by recasting Dundee’s under-construction V&A Museum as the Death Star. The graphic design lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College created a short clip that saw the

The film was a sensation.