Kirkcaldy High grabbed the spotlight on the Graham Norton Show on Friday night thanks to Sir Ian McKellen.
The surprise guest joined a stellar line up of X-Men stars straight from a visit to the Fife school.
Arriving, to the delight of Logan stars Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart, the actor explained his rather unusual outfit.
Peeling off his coat – Magneto’s – he explained: “I’ve just arrived from Scotland.
“It took longer to get from City Airport to us than it took to get from Edinburgh to City Airport.”
He talked about his trip to Kirkcaldy High, explaining he had been “telling them to be nice to each other”.
“I go around schools telling them to do that.”
There followed a bit of confusion as to a rather famous former pupil of Kirkcaldy High.
“Gordon…” he said.
“Ramsay?” Sir Patrick asked.
Turned out the name drop was former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Turning once more to his attire he added that the school had presented him with a school tie.
“I said I am going on the Graham Norton Show and I’ll wear the tie, so I had to wear it.”
Obviously, that pleased Wolverine, who replied: “Nice.”
Not only that but he had been given rainbow shoelaces which footballers wear to show support “of gay people coming out and being honest about themselves”.
The renowned actor had visited Kirkcaldy High in his capacity as an ambassador for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity Stonewall to mark Lesbian and Gay History Month.
The school has a pro-active approach to equality issues and an active LGBT+ group led by young people as part of the Stonewall Champions programme.
He spoke to senior pupils for more than an hour about his professional careers, personal life and campaign work, leaving them finally with words of wisdom from Gandalf himself to work hard and study or else “you shall not pass”.
His mention of the trip attracted many social media comments, some about his not quite Fife style pronunciation of Kirkcaldy.
Sheree Samson added: “He was amazing. I feel honoured to have been there to watch this talk.
“A very inspirational man.”
Iain Mackinnon said: “As a ex pupil of Kirkcaldy High School it is great to see the old place is still going strong.”
But he added: “The new tie is not a patch on the original navy and gold one.
“I still have mine even after 42 years.”
