It's time cult hero Michael had a knighthood

Published on Friday 24 October 2008 15:34

CECIL BUCKLAND won his first big break in the film The Blue Lamp. Never heard of him? Today, the 82-year-old is better known as the STV institution loved by generations, Glen Michael. But as his new autobiography reveals, there's more to this sprightly octogenarian than his famous Cartoon Cavalcade.

Indeed, even now, he's about to return to acting alongside Nicolas Cage in the movie version of the Marvel comic book series, Kick Ass.

Sitting in the front room of his publisher's Newington townhouse, Michael appears to have changed little since 1992 when his flagship show disappeared from the airwaves after a phenomenal 26-year run during which it entertained millions of young Scots.

One was Mark Millar, who not only wrote the foreword to Life's A Cavalcade, but is also writer and co-producer of Kick Ass, a film that brings the Devon-born presenter full circle.

"I made two films in Elstree back in the late 40s when I was a kid," he recalls fondly. "I was told I was going to be the next Ian Carmichael but then I was told there was a problem - I was a bit too like Dirk Bogarde who was on his way up at the time."

So can Millar make it second time lucky? Michael explains how his latest role came about.

"I went to a dinner party and Mark was there, he introduced himself as one of my Cavalcade kids and asked if I was still working. I said, 'Oh yeah, I'll continue working until I drop down, I'll never retire. I'll always do something'.

"He never said anymore, but months later phoned me up and said, 'I want you to do a cameo part in my new film with Nicolas Cage'. I said, 'That's very kind of you but can you pass on the message to Nicolas Cage that he doesn't have to frightened of me, I'll make him feel at ease," he laughs.

Later Millar invited his childhood hero to the premiere of his first film, Wanted. "In years to come people will realise what a genius this boy from Coatbridge is," praises Michael. "I didn't realise it at the time, but I was the guest of honour at the premiere as Millar very nicely said that if it hadn't been for me he wouldn't be in the profession that he is in."

Appropriately, the Edinburgh launch of Life's A Cavalcade takes place at the Cameo Cinema next Wednesday, a good omen, perhaps, for the forthcoming movie in which he has been offered a choice of parts.

"I can either be a hamburger salesman or a gangster. I think I'll go for the gangster. I'll play him with a limp and build him up. I'll do the best I can and I maybe surprise a few people, because hopefully, even at 82 there might be another part going," he smiles.

The limp is Michael's only concession to his age, years of clowning around and performing all his own stunts on Cartoon Cavalcade taking its toll on the cartilage in his knee.

And let's be honest here, it's for Cavalcade that Glen Michael will forever be remembered. Even his taxi driver on the way to this interview was a Cavalcade kid, and wanted to know why Glen Michael had never received a knighthood. Sir Glen - "Sounds good," chuckles the man himself.

Maybe all the Cavalcaders who watched the record-breaking show between 1966 and 1992 should start a campaign.

"I genuinely can't understand why Cavalcade is still remembered. It finished in 1992 and yet it is still remembered. In fact, it's popularity seems to be gathering pace," says the presenter.

"The extraordinary thing, and the most delightful thing for me personally, is the fact that people very rarely mention the cartoons. They may mention the Road Runner in passing, but it seems that what made it special was the correspondence. We were all part of one big family.

"Do you know, we used to get 2000 letters a week at the show's height? That was unheard of for a Central Scotland programme."

The success, he believes was down to fact that Cavalcade was "a family show rather than a show for children", a success that continued for another 16 years after the series' demise when Michael and his trusty talking oil lamp Paladin began touring primary schools.

"STV said to me when the show finished, 'take the whole set and go out and do what you have been doing'. So I took it out as a Roadshow around the schools. We did the last one in December." That final Roadshow was the end of another chapter in the life of Michael and Beryl, his wife of 62 years who is also his stage-manager.

"We came to Scotland in 1952, November 15. A dreadful foggy day, and I thought, 'What have we come to?' Now we're more Scottish than some Scots. My wife comes from Lancashire but we're not English anymore. My son and daughter were born in Scotland."

The nomadic nature of a life on the boards meant that his daughter attended 19 different schools, as did Michael himself, although his itinerant childhood was the result of his parents going into service.

"My mother was a lovely person. My father was a lovely guy but he was so immature. He just went from place to place and never thought about tomorrow," says Michael, thoughtfully. "Later, when I came to Scotland, I did 13 years with Jack Milroy travelling the country and as I wanted my family with me I got a caravan and my daughter came with us.

"I didn't realise that she had gone to 19 schools until she told me recently, so in a way I did the same as my father."

Those travels frequently brought the family and their caravan to Edinburgh. In the 50s and 60s the name Glen Michael could be found on the bill at Leith's Gaiety Theatre, The Palladium at Fountain-bridge and, of course, The King's. In the 70s he was no stranger to the Capital either – many an episode of Cavalcade being filmed at The Gateway, on Leith Walk. "The Gaiety in Leith was always packed to the gunnels. It was a lovely theatre, it had a real variety atmosphere. And I remember at the old Palladium there was this guy used to come in on a Saturday night, halfway through the show he'd start shouting, 'Willie Bauld. Willie Bauld. Willie Bauld'.

"Willie Bauld, the famous Hearts player, was his hero. He'd go to the football in the afternoon, get canned up and come to the theatre in the evening. Everybody used to roar with laughter."

In 1959 and throughout the 60s, Michael regularly appeared in the King's Theatre's famous Five Past Eight variety shows and, later in the venue's Half Past Seven Shows.

In his book he recalls: "We had to find a site for the (cara]van in Edinburgh and found a lovely family at South Gyle near Corstorphine on the outskirts of Edinburgh who made us welcome on their pig farm. Mr and Mrs Gray were avid theatre-goers."

It was during that first run of the Five Past Eight Show that Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy introduced audiences to their greatest comic creations, Francie and Josie.

Later Michael would find himself part of the most famous Scottish comedy double-act of all time when Milroy went off sick.

"Jack was off and Rikki suggested that rather than scrap the sketch I play the role as Josie's cousin, and we just did it. Rikki was very inventive like that," the storyteller says, promising much more of the same at the Cameo next Wednesday.

&#149 Glen Michael in Conversation, Cameo Cinema, Home Street, Wednesday, 7pm, 5, 0131-226 2666

&#149 Life's A Cavalcade by Glen Michael is published in hardback by Birlinn, price 16.99