Arbroath has received a glowing endorsement from Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall and wife Shane, and their time in the Angus town will feature in a BBC documentary next month.
Timothy, who became famous in hit comedy Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, sailed into the Arbroath marina on his 50-foot barge The Princess Matilda last weekend and the visit was filmed for the series Timothy Spall Somewhere At Sea.
He taught himself how to sail using children’s books, then progressed to charts.
Shane has been keeping a blog and admitted she was disappointed on Sunday when her husband said ‘Auf wiedersehen, Arbroath’ as she “would have enjoyed a few more days” there.
The couple walked up to Arbroath Abbey, window-shopped at the High Street, visited the Abbeygate car boot sale and sampled the town’s most famous delicacy the Arbroath smokie.
Shane said, “Tim and I were shaken by our rough passage from Stonehaven to Arbroath. Sometimes we feel like throwing in the towel and getting Princess Matilda craned out of the water and put on a low-loader, but we’re not quitters.”
But after enjoying a warm welcome, the couple were reluctant to leave so soon.
She added, “It was a shame really because we would have enjoyed a few more days in Arbroath, but the weather was set fair … Of course we bought a ‘humble haddock’ from the home of the world-famous smokie before we departed.
“Smoking haddock is still a cottage industry in Arbroath we saw the smoke coming from a back garden as we entered the harbour.
“According to my leaflet from Stuart’s Fresh Fish, ‘Your nose will tell you where as you walk through the fit o’ the toon.'”
Timothy stars in the Harry Potter series and played Churchill in The King’s Speech, for which he won a Screen Actors’ Guild Award.
After leaving Arbroath, the barge headed for Anstruther.
Timothy Spall Somewhere At Sea begins on May 5 on BBC Four.