Shoebox Zoo
David McKay is McTaggart
Sitting in his trailer on the Shoebox Zoo set in Leith,
clad in medieval garb of brown plaid and warm woolly tights, David McKay
smiles wryly and says: "This role is great for me."
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Used to being cast as "a wee Glasgow ned"
the role of jack-of-all-trades servant McTaggart to both Michael Scot
and Professor Toledo is a complete departure for the Glasgow-born actor,
writer and director.
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According to David, his part in Shoebox Zoo gives him
a scope to play against type.
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"McTaggart is serving two masters, Michael Scot
and Professor Toledo, for a crime he didn't commit.
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"Back in the mists of time, he took the book somewhere
for safe-keeping so that it wouldn't corrupt Michael or his pupils.
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"Michael Scot believes that McTaggart was involved
in the theft and jailed him for 11 years in his dungeon.
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"Until the book is found, he has to walk the earth
and be a servant to both Toledo and Michael Scot."
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But David explains that the character McTaggart is not
a simple, one-dimensional figure, but turns up throughout the series
in many different guises.
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He laughs: "McTaggart is a great role to play because
he is so many different characters, a chauffeur, a janitor, a library
cleaner and even a harlequin.
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"He appears in different roles in order to protect
Marnie from harm, especially from the tyranny of Toledo."
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Probably best remembered for his role as put-upon drug
addict Liam in the Ken Loach film My Name is Joe, in which he co-starred
with his friend and fellow Shoebox Zoo actor, Peter Mullan, it's the
first time the actor has been in a children's drama.
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However, David co-directed six episodes of award-winning
Granada sitcom My Parents Are Aliens with Shoebox Zoo director Justin
Molotnikov.
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"That was great crack," he says. "But
at the tail end of 2002, I realised that I had been directing almost
constantly for five years and I made it my New Year Resolution for 2003
to get back into acting."
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Since making that resolution, the born-again actor has
never been busier.
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He appeared in the critically acclaimed theatre production
Shining Souls at Glasgow's Tron theatre last summer before working on
Ken Loach's latest film, Ae Fond Kiss.
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Happy to be working again with his old mate, Peter Mullan,
David is looking forward to seeing how Peter's children and his own
nieces and nephews react.
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"I think the story is great. It has warlocks and
wizards, castles, cobblestones and trickery, very much an olde worlde
Scotland and I think kids and families are going to go wild for it.
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"And to top it all, it has a brilliant lead to
identify with in wee Vivien. What more could you ask?"
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