PETER CAPALDI TRIBUTE TO WIFE

DOCTOR Who and The Thick Of It star Peter Capaldi has paid tribute to his producer and actress wife Elaine Collins as he revealed she took a job to let him pursue his unpredictable acting career when they both struggled financially. 

The 66 year old from Glasgow, who stars in the new series of Black Mirror, is notoriously private about his marriage, but wanted it noted that Lanarkshire born Elaine, also 66, gave him the financial freedom he needed to choose his roles.

Elaine made her acting debut in 1975 in  series Lord Peter Wimsey before movies including Soft Top Hard Shoulder, Mrs Brown and The Wyvern Mystery as well as TV shows City Lights, Selling Hitler and Psychos. 

Since the 2000s, she has worked as associate producer on drama film Strictly Sinatra, as well as being a script editor on detective series A Touch of Frost and creative director on shows like Shetland.

Now living in London, the couple met in 1983 working for Paines Plough Theatre Company, and married in 1991. They have a daughter born in 1992 and two grandsons. 

Peter says without Elaine his acting career in movies like Local Hero and Dangerous Liaisons wouldn’t ever have been possible. 

He explained: “Elaine really changed my life. She's an incredible woman, amazing mother and producer and actress and all of these things. I don't want to go into it in huge detail because I also have a private life but she's the person who changed everything for me because she took me in at a time when I wasn't in great shape, and loved me. Ironically for someone who's had such an embarrassment of riches, great luck and good fortune, I developed quite a kind of lack of confidence, applying limitations to myself that were not necessary, when I was probably about 26, 27.”

“People think the first automatic characteristic of an actor would be that they were full of confidence. I know many actors who are genuinely insecure because the business is so volatile and you can be ditched by it very quickly. And you have no control over it. One of the things that happened to me was that I decided that I wasn't really very clever or very smart or that I should limit my ambition.”

Peter who said he suffered a type of ‘imposter syndrome’ at the time added: “She began to say to me, ‘No you must think more of yourself. You must work harder and take bigger risks and read more.’”

“It's funny, because people come in to our house, and say, ‘Oh, you're so well read, Peter’.And I say, ‘That's not my books, they're Elaine’s.’ And of course, during one of my down periods, which went on for quite a while, we were really struggling financially. But she decided when we had a particularly difficult year, and I wasn't bringing in any money, that she had to do something. And she asked around and got a job through the BBC reading scripts“

“…So she would read scripts and she'd get paid. I don't know how much, 25 quid or something like that. Elaine took it very seriously and also was very fast so began to earn more money.

“And the BBC noticed and said ‘This person is really good at doing this. Shall we invite her to apply for a job as a drama assistant?’ That was really a job that largely someone who had just come from Oxford or Cambridge would normally get.

And she applied, she got the job.”

“Although that wasn't a lot of money, it was a regular wage and it allowed me to say, ‘Okay, well, I don't have to do this job or that job. I can make a choice about which one I think is artier or better or a job that would help me more.’

It gave me the power of veto.”

Elaine has since produced long running detective series including Vera and Shetland.  

Peter told podcast Three People: “What an achievement. And now finally, she does a show that I'm in called Criminal Record, with Apple, which has just been commissioned for a second series. So she just made our life happen.”

“She made me seek and make more of myself and also made so much of herself and brought up our family and made our beautiful home and also produced these shows. I'm just in awe of her. It's the greatest.”

EDINBURGH MUM IS A HIT ON NETFLIX SQUID GAME CHALLENGE FOLLOWING SPLIT

Beverley Lyons 
EDINBURGH IT worker Trudy McCabe wanted to experience life again after splitting with her husband so she entered Netflix blockbuster Squid Game: The Challenge. 
Trudy, 47, who is mum to 16 year old singer Danny McCabe from Scots boyband Just The Brave and his 18 year old brother Ben, joined 455 other contestants to battle it out for a prize of $4.56 million (£3.6 million) on the show. 
Trudy, who is number 427 on the series, said: “I couldn’t tell anyone I was doing it and when I eventually told my family they thought I was crazy. My sons were so proud of me and are still excited in case I’ve won. The winner doesn’t get any prize money until around thirty days after it is shown on TV."
Although she can’t say how far she got in the competition yet, Trudy says she  deliberately stayed out of the limelight as part of her tactic on the gruelling programme. 
Unlike some contestants who have complained about the show’s harsh filming conditions,  Trudy says she loved every minute of the experience.  
She explained: “I recently split with my husband after twenty seven years of marriage and was looking for something to challenge me and allow me to experience life again. 
As soon as I heard they were looking for contestants, I filmed a one minute video that night, and started training myself up for it.”
Trudy, who went swimming with sharks and ran a 5k every day to get herself geared up for the show, said taking part was mentally and physically exhausting. 

But she wanted to prove that a 47 year old woman could be just as fit as the younger ones in the show. 
She said: “I might be getting a bit older but physically I could outdo most people in there. 
Age is just a number and it’s mind over matter. Mentally you need to stimulate yourself because life gets a bit monotonous and you’ve got to live it.”
Fans can now watch the first five episodes with games like Red Light Green Light and cookie cutting being played for real. 
Instead of being killed, contestants are squibbed ie shot with black ink cartridges to signify they are out of the game. 
Trudy said: “I made some really good lifelong friends on the show and it was really sad and emotional when someone got shot. We’ve remained in touch and I plan to see some of them in Canada next year.”
Players were given stacked high bunk beds to sleep in and their diet was so meagre that many lost weight or went to bed hungry.  Trudy’s trousers began to fall down during filming. 
She said: “I tried to be strategic about where I slept. I didn’t chose the bottom or top bunk cause I thought one of the guards might come in during the night and take us out the game. I also picked a block near the toilet because we didn’t have time in the mornings to get showered properly once the music woke us up.”
She added: ”Food was horrendous - porridge everyday and it was not cooked properly, more like slime. I’d force others to eat it because it would give them a bit of energy.  We had small tins with rice and dry chicken in them.  I felt sorry for the big guys because I was starving. I lost a lot of weight and I thought my tracksuit bottoms would fall down at one point.”
For Red Light Green Light, the first game in the show, Trudy admitted it was so cold she couldn’t feel her hands or feet. 
She explained: “It was really cold. It was in January and there was a lot of waiting about.  
When they got squibbed or inked they did verification checks and that took time. 
At one point I was standing still and snot was running out of my nose and I couldn’t wait to wipe it.  
“I couldn’t feel my feet and hands and my shoe came off and I didn’t even know. A really big guy fell on top of me as I was running with just seconds to spare, and I thought I can’t go back to Scotland and tell the boys I didn’t pass the first game.”
“It was everything I thought it would be, the most physical and mental thing I did in my life. I was sleep deprived, didn’t know what day it was and living on rations but afterwards I felt I could get through anything.”
It’s the opportunity of a lifetime to win all that money and I would definitely do it again. I loved every second of it.

THE KARDASHIANS ARE MARK MILLAR’S NEW NETFLIX SUPERHEROES

Beverley Lyons
KICK Ass and Kingsman writer Mark Millar claims he’s working on a new superhero drama based on The Kardashian’s.  
The Coatbridge born comic book king says he will start shooting the project in just one weeks time - and that it will last over a six year period. 
Mark, 49, who was a first at the relaunch of Kebabish in Glasgow said: “We start a thing in a weeks time - a six year shoot in Canada. It’s a superhero show. It’s big family drama with superheroes.”
He explained: “Imagine you were the children of Superman and Wonder Woman but you just want to be Kardashian’s and want to love the life. You don’t want to be superheroes. That is what the show is about. “Imagine the Kardashians with superpowers.”
Mark who is an executive for Netflix after his  publishing company Millarworld was acquired by them for £25 million in 2017 said he was making the most of the free food on offer at the restaurant launch. 
He laughed: “I’ve been eating as much free stuff as possible and have just been filling my pockets. I’m starving. I’ve actually eaten nothing all day so this place will be bankrupt by the end of the week.”
Despite his wealth he said he prefers to spend time in shabby drinking haunts rather than living it up. 
He said: “I spend a lot of time in Glasgow but I drink in dingy pubs, the sort where you wouldn’t go in. I like old man pubs and anything trendy you won’t see me there. This is the coolest event you’ll probably see me at.”
Mark has finished working on the next Kingsman films and has committed to Netflix until 2027. 

Excerpts of this article have since appeared in the Scottish Sun on Sunday - From Scotland with Love Theshowbizlion.com