A west Fife councillor has become a laird much against his will.
Lib Dem west Fife and coastal villages member Gerry McMullan hoped to play a rabble-rousing man of the people in Theatre Workshop Scotland’s film The Happy Lands, which tells of Fife mining families set against the backdrop of the 1926 miners’ strike.
But he had to settle for being a laird and ordering Fifers off his land.
Mr McMullan has been involved since the early stages of the project coming to Fife, helping Theatre Workshop Scotland.
He said: “Being involved in the very first initial discussions a few years ago, I was delighted to support a project that highlights Fife’s industrial heritage.
“Scotland will at last have a film which portrays our rich mining history filled with humour, tragedy and hope for the future of people’s lives and dignity.”
The councillor was asked if he would also take on a role. At first it was suggested he would take the part of a communist strike leader and make a rousing speech but this was soon changed to being asked to be the laird.
Mr McMullan said: “I was so looking forward to being a communist and making an emotional and rousing speech for a strike. I’m sure my fellow Fife councillors Willie Clarke and Alex Maxwell would have been proud of me!”
He added: “Instead I was asked to be the laird and make it very clear this was my land a difficult part, but I loved the experience.”
Mr McMullan said: “The script is very clever and the performances by our own local people are just so natural. I’m not sure professional actors would have captured the accents and behaviour of how real people felt back in the early ’20s.
“In one scene, several miners make speeches to their families which were so moving and, although this was acting, it brought home to me how our communities were expected to live and work so that a few rich landowners at that time could make huge profits and put very little back into the communities.”
He said Fife’s history and culture, along with its natural beauty and urban areas, make it an ideal spot for film companies.