An (Early) Evening with Gregor Fisher ★★★★

Gregor Fisher proves marvellous company in this affectionate retrospective; a warm, eccentric and frequently very funny hour in which the Scottish actor looks back over a life spent creating some of his most memorable characters. In conversation with Nigel West, Fisher is gloriously unguarded, bursting with warmth, quick with a self-deprecating aside and apparently incapable of telling a story without giving it his full theatrical commitment. More than once, he is on his feet, acting out a moment to ensure the anecdote gets the commitment it deserves.

The conversation moves briskly through a remarkable career, from theatre and early television to Naked Video, Rab C. Nesbitt, Love Actually and beyond. West wisely leaves Fisher plenty of room to wander, while clips from across the years punctuate proceedings beautifully and remind us just how accomplished a comic performer he has always been. A revisit to his Hamlet cigar advertisement is a particular delight, and likely to prompt more than a few audience members to wonder how they had forgotten just how hilarious it was.

Fisher is at his best when puncturing the mythology around his own career. Famous colleagues are recalled with affection, success is treated with healthy scepticism, and even the cultural weight of being Rab C. Nesbitt is discussed without pomposity. There is something especially appealing about the way he frames his journey as a series of accidents, opportunities and decisions simply to have a go. His closing advice to younger performers (“be fearless, take the chance, try the thing”) feels entirely earned after an hour spent hearing how often that instinct shaped his own path.

The only frustration is that sixty minutes is nowhere near enough. Many chapters are reduced, necessarily due to time constraints, to a handful of anecdotes when each could comfortably sustain a much longer conversation. Still, what we do get is absolutely worth our time: funny, candid and full of charm. Fisher may have spent decades disappearing into other people, but here it is the man himself who proves the star attraction.