It’s been 43 years since the release of the Scottish cult classic, but Rab Buchanan is still “Andy from Gregory’s Girl”.
“People recognise me all the time, and it just breaks the ice,” says Glasgow-born Rab, 62, who played protagonist Gregory’s hapless pal in the beloved 1981 comedy by Local Hero director Bill Forsyth .
“They’ve always got a story to tell me, something that happened to them that was like a part of Gregory’s Girl. The film’s still a huge part of my life and who I am.”
Rab’s (largely unchanged) face has been recognised by everyone from his own musical heroes, English jazz-fun band Level 42, to Hollywood A-listers like Robert Carlyle.
And he’s so well-ingrained into the memories of a generation, that sometimes people think they know him personally.
“Folk often think they know me from school,” he chuckles. “I remember one guy in Cumbernauld a few years ago, absolutely blootered, comes up to me and goes: ‘Aye you alright? I’ve no seen you in a while!’
“I had never met him before!”
But Rab, who has worked as a tech and sound engineer at the Tolbooth Theatre in Stirling for the last 20 years, never intended to be famous.
Meeting Bill Forsyth changed Rab’s life
When he met the now-renowned Bill Forsyth, Rab was just a 17-year-old kid from the Gorbals who was discovering his love for acting at Glasgow Youth Theatre.
And Bill was a “shy” mystery man who turned up at the back on night.
“I used to go to Glasgow Youth Theatre every Friday night,” Rab recalls. “That alone was a big opportunity. It was a real escape to get out of the slums in the Gorbals.
“One night, this guy just appeared and hung about at the back while we were all rehearsing. Then he started coming every Friday night to see us, but he never said anything.
“It got to the stage where John Baraldi, the director of the youth theatre, said to Bill: ‘You’re going to have to talk to these kids, tell them who you are and why you’re here.’
“And Bill, being the shy person that he was, took another few weeks to introduce himself properly!
“Then he told us he wanted to make a film. We just laughed and carried on. But he kept coming back, and said he had this idea – Gregory’s Girl.”
Actors’ sketches ended up in final film
The young actors then began putting together sketches and improvisations based on Bill’s idea, Rab says. Some even ended up in the final film, says Rab, including the scene where Gregory is stood up at the big clock.
But unfortunately, due to a lack of available funding from the British Film Institute, the project stalled.
“I think Bill was painstakingly worried about telling us there was no money to make this film,” Rab recalls. “And when he told us, we were a bit sad.
“But then he says: ‘Listen, we’ll make a film anyway’. That’s how That Sinking Feeling [Forsyth’s first feature film] came about.”
Rab played Ronnie in That Sinking Feeling, which was a runaway success, and remains his favourite of the films Forsyth cast him in.
“At that point, the BFI tried to jump on the bandwagon, because they saw the success of the film,” says Rab wryly.
“But Bill wasn’t interested. He had a couple of independent producers lined up and they got the money together to make Gregory’s Girl.”
‘I remember what was happening off-camera’
Forsyth’s second film was also a hit, and captured the heart of a generation. Overnight its cast, which included John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan, went from kids who liked acting to cultural icons.
For Rab, the films capture a happy time of carefree youth.
“I think we were all quite like the characters we were playing at the time,” muses Rab, who is looking forward to reuniting with his fellow cast members for a special screening of the restored version of the film at this year’s Outwith Festival in Dunfermline.
“It’s been a couple of years since I saw Dee and them, so it’ll be nice. It’s weird, watching the films, because I always notice something different – a line, or something in the background which surprises me.
“I often remember what was happening off camera too. There’s wee bits, particularly in That Sinking Feeling, where you can hear people laughing in the background.
“There was no money and they had limited film stock, so we had one take. And you can hear what was happening.”
‘Kick up the backside’ for Scottish films
Rab says that even before the first film’s release, “most of us knew that there was something quite special going on” but admits “we didn’t realize just how special it was”.
“Both That Sinking Feeling and Gregory’s Girl gave the Scottish film industry a real kick up the backside,” he observes.
“The only dramas that were coming out of Scotland were really dark and violent, and Gregory’s Girl was the opposite – a harmless film, just made for a bit of fun. And it still went on to mean a lot to people.”
Rab recalls one memorable conversation with Armando Iannucci, where the In The Loop writer told him: “I remember sitting in the cinema on Ashton Lane, watching That Sinking Feeling and thinking: Oh, so you can write funny plays about Glasgow? That’s what I want to do!”
Rab was torn between film and theatre
After Gregory’s Girl, Rab looked set for cinema stardom.
But after his whirlwind dalliance with the silver screen, he realised that theatre was his one true love.
He had been straddling acting and backstage life, acting in Forsyth’s films while studying stage management at drama college – even skiving his course to secretly do reshoots for That Sinking Feeling.
“Someone came along from the Daily Mail to do a wee story and take a photo while we were filming,” he recalls.
“I’d called in sick. And when I went back to college, there was the newspaper article stuck to the notice board. Caught!”
After the success of the films, he says he “went to some auditions and did some pretty good stuff”. But ultimately he discovered “my love was for the theatre”.
Family took priority but Andy lives on
“Also, my son was born around then, and then my daughter came after,” says Rab, who is calling from his family home in Tillicoultry, where he lives with his wife Claire, their greyhound and two Siamese cats.
“I had a family, so I opted to pack in the acting side and concentrate on the technical stuff.”
Nowadays, Rab is more often found tinkering with sound equipment at work, or on the keys of his piano – he’s taking lessons – than taking centre stage.
But long after hitting the road to hitchhike to Caracas, Andy’s adventurous spirit lives on in him.
“It’s been just over a year since my wife Claire and I eloped to Barra,” he reveals.
“It was the best, nobody knew except the registrar there. And it’s been a brilliant year.”
Rab Buchanan will appear alongside Dee Hepburn and Caroline Guthrie at a triple-bill screening of That Sinking Feeling, Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero at the Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, on September 7 as part of Outwith Festival 2024.Â
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