Hollywood, Holyrood and wholly exhausted

STAR SPOTTED IN SUTHERLAND

Fifty shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan is due on Mull for filming next month.

Dornan, who is also known for Belfast, as well as TV shows The Tourist and The Fall, will be filming on the island at the start of the month.

Last Saturday, the CalMac Oban to Mull ferry was filled with 12 lorries said to be from the production company making The Undertow.

Dornan was seen filming on a boat in Kylesku, Sutherland, the same day.

The actor has been cast as both twins Lee and Adam in the Netflix crime drama.

NEW ADDITION

An osprey which became an online star during the first lockdown and his mate have welcomed their first chick of the season.

It hatched at Louis and Dorcha’s nest at Loch Arkaig Pine Forest in the Highlands on Wednesday morning.

Male Louis and partner Dorcha, arrived back at Loch Arkaig pine forest in Lochaber on March 28 and 30 respectively and the first egg of the season was laid on Sunday

April 14.

Woodland Trust Scotland has been operating a live nest camera at the forest since 2017 and it became a hit during the first lockdown, clocking up 400,000 views worldwide in 2020 when Louis nested with a previous mate.

FIRST HURDLE FOR BILL

A Bill introducing emergency legislation to exonerate subpostmasters wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal has passed its first stage in Holyrood on Tuesday. MSPs unanimously backed general principles of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill. Subpostmasters across the United Kingdom, were convicted of crimes including theft, false accounting and embezzlement because of the faulty IT system used by the Post Office. If passed, the Bill will result in those wrongly convicted being exonerated and given access to the UK Government’s financial redress scheme.

RAIN PUTS A DAMPER ON RISHI’S SPEECH

The prime minister made the much-anticpated announcement of the date of the next general election. Standing outside No. 10 Rishi Sunak said the country would go to the polls on July 4. However, his address was eclipsed by a couple of things. First of all the image of him standing getting drenched as the rain poured down. Secondly, the sound of the 1997 New Labour election anthem Things Can Only Get Better was blaring from outside the Downing Street gates, almost drowning out his words. On an LBC radio interview yesterday Mr Sunak laughed as he said: “I’m not going to deny that it was a bit wet” and that he was not a “fair weather” politician.

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Aberdeen mother and personal trainer Lee Donald has told of feeling “on top of the world” after reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

Lee, who is afraid of heights, became the seventh woman from Scotland and second from the Granite City to scale the 8,848.86m Himalayan peak.

She made it home to her family a week ago after the experience of being both physically and mentally “on top of the world”. The 42-year-old told Original 106 it was the “hardest thing” she had ever done. Lee raised money for cancer charity Friends of Anchor, plus awareness of mental illness. So far she has raised more than £6,000 for the Friends of Anchor.

THE RIGHT NOTES

Thousands of P4 pupils from Aberdeen took to the stage as part of the Big Sing.

About 3,000 children performed at Duthie Park as one large choir on Wednesday. They sang six songs, including the Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen.

They had spent several months rehearsing for the show.

LARGEST LINER OFF SHETLAND SHORE

Lerwick Harbour welcomed its largest ever cruise ship – breaking a record held for almost six years.

The Maltese-flagged MSC Virtuosa was built four years ago at a cost of £685 million.

Making its maiden visit to the islands earlier this week, the cruise ship was quite a sight with its 18 decks, including accommodation for up to 6,334 passengers and 1,704 crew.

The visit was part of a seven-day Norwegian fjords voyage.

The 1,089ft vessel arrived in Shetland from Southampton and Nordfjordeid in Norway is next on the itinerary.