Former Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy told STV at the Cowal Highland Gathering on Saturday about his “huge honour” at being chieftain this year, reminisced about his childhood in Dunoon and explained all about his “Highland bling” - before pulling a knife out on our interviewer.
The well loved actor explained of being welcomed as Chieftain for 2010: “This is a huge honour. I was born in Dunoon, I left here when I was 18. Every year, the Cowal Highland Games was an exciting time in Dunoon.
“When I was a little boy I used to climb over the wall and sneak in here without having to pay, to watch all the events. Now I’ve come back, and my penance is I’ve got to be Chieftain.”
Sylvester added: “As a little boy, Dunoon is a small little insular place. When the games arrived it brought in the whole world, and that was really exciting. God, wow!
“There’d be people from Africa, pipe bands from Africa, from Egypt, from everywhere. It’s exotic and wonderful, and it’s a great celebration of Scottish culture.”
Having said that he's soon to be starring in huge new movie The Hobbit, Sylvester told us about his wonderful kilt and outfit, and his “Highland bling”.
As he explained: “Highland bling comes from the fact that in the old days they didn’t trust the banks. How wise those people were, don’t you think?
“So they wore their wealth on them, all these bits and pieces, all bejewelled and daggered, and the bigger and better and the richer you were. And the banker wouldn’t run off with it, otherwise you could get them with this...”
The actor then took out and unsheathed his sgian dubh, a knife worn as part of a traditional kilt outfit. As he waved it around, he joked: "It's amazing that you're able to walk around with one of these, haha!"
In the second part of our interview Sylvester talks about all things Doctor Who. But what was he looking forward to on the day? Sylvester explained: “I’m looking forward to giving the prizes to the caber tossers, because I can say ‘here we are, you’re the number one tosser.’”
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