Talk of The Town: No laughing matter in grudge match

CRITICS have a tough life at the Festival. Every performer wants to be their best friend, until the reviews start coming in, at which point they start to watch their backs.

So the "Critics vs Comics" football match this Sunday could have something of the "Cons vs Guards" games played in prison, albeit with a more cultured first touch.

The event, appropriately enough sponsored by Amnesty International, kicks off at 2pm in the Meadows, although only if the goalposts kindly donated by Hibs can get there. The organisers are currently appealing for a van driver to help them out on Thursday afternoon.

Play has record-breaking attempt down to a tea

ELSEWHERE at the Fringe everything is much more civilised, with plans for a record-breaking tea drink unveiled.

Immersive drama Tearoom's writer and director Tanya Alexander says: "We want to find the biggest tea drinker in Scotland and set a record in celebration of tea.

The only record for tea-drinking in the Guinness Book of Records was set by RAF serviceman Corporal Stewart Hefti, who drank a brew whilst flying 14 loop-the-loops in August this year.

Would-be record breakers are asked to get in touch with the cast via the Tearoom Facebook page, facebook.com/Tearoomtheatre, by posting the number of cups of tea they drink in a day.

One hill of an attraction

SOME elect to leap out of aeroplanes, others wish to swim with dolphins. But of all the places to visit before you pop your clogs, Arthur's Seat comes out top of the pile.

The Capital hill is among the top entries in a "bucket list'' of must-see UK destinations, conducted by Premier Inn.

The new list does not include any familiar tourist sites, so the likes of Land's End and Blackpool Tower don't make an appearance.

This time it's famespotting

IT was the indie flick that launched the careers of some of Scotland's most successful actors, elevating Ewan McGregor, Kelly Macdonald, Robert Carlyle, Kevin McKidd and Jonny Lee Miller to screen fame.

But this time it seems the producers of Irvine Welsh's Filth are bringing in a few old hands to play the cast's motley crew of cops and crooks.

Filming of the much-anticipated sequel to Trainspotting, which will start early next year in Edinburgh, will feature Hollywood stars James McAvoy, Billy Boyd and Alan Cumming.