Being lied to by David Bowie would be the highlight of many people’s careers.
But for Scot Squad star Jack Docherty, it was the culminating moment of a lifelong obsession.
“I was sitting in my dressing room on the chat show I used to host,” recalls Edinburgh-born actor Jack, who hosted The Jack Docherty Show from 1997-1999.
“I opened the door and David Bowie was just standing there. So I went: ‘Oh hi David, I’m Jack. I’m going to be interviewing you tonight.’
“And he went: ‘I know who you are Jack, I’m a big fan!’ Obviously he was lying, but it was so nice of him to put me at ease.”
A Bowie fan since he was 13 years old, Jack vividly remembers trying (and failing) to “be cool” while the rock icon performed Scary Monsters and Super Creeps live on the show.
“This is something I realised when I was a chat show host,” he muses.
“I’ve met some really, really famous people, huge stars. And you’ll be like: ‘Oh, that’s George Clooney, that’s kind of interesting.’
“But to meet people you’re a fan of when you were 13, like The Beatles, or Bowie, or the Monty Python guys, there’s a 13-year-old inside me going: ‘It’s f****** them!’ And you never lose that 13-year-old inside.”
Bowie obsession fuelled by first love
Now, that inner teenager is coming out to play once again as Jack brings his new live show, David Bowie and Me: Parallel Lives, to St Andrews this spring, where he’s looking forward to playing golf and “being a bit touristy”.
A mix of stand-up and stories covering “family, first love, jealousy and more”, the show uses Jack’s love of Bowie as a jumping off point to discuss the different phases of his life.
“Bowie changed so much – there was his androgynous phase, his bisexual phase, his austere Berlin phase, his mainstream phase. In the show, I keep referring to my phases throughout my life – my bisexual phase and all that!”
Jack won’t be drawn further on details of his bisexual phase – “you’ll need to come to the show to find that out!” – but shares that back in those tender teen years, his Bowie obsession was fuelled by his first love.
“She was called Eleanor,” he says with exaggerated wistfulness. “A big chunk of the show is about my attempt to get to her through my love of David Bowie, because she was also a big Bowie fan.
“I thought if I could get the rare collectible Ziggy Stardust card that you could get in the newsagents, I could win her love. Spoiler alert – it didn’t work.”
So where is Eleanor now?
“I have no idea where that woman ended up,” Jack admits, before joking: “This is obviously the whole reason I’ve been doing the show, to try and find Eleanor!”
He may never have won Eleanor’s heart, but one thing’s for sure though – he won the race to meet their shared hero.
“Obviously everybody thinks the picture of me and Bowie on the tour poster is photoshopped,” Jack laughs. “But it’s a bloody real photograph!”
‘Meet your heroes’ says Jack Docherty
And when it comes to heroes, Jack’s all for flying in the face of conventional wisdom and meeting as many as he can.
“All the heroes I’ve met, I’ve had a great time,” he says. “There are a few famous people I’ve met, like Mike Myers and Jerry Lewis, where it didn’t go quite the right way.
“But in terms of heroes? Bowie, Ringo Starr and George Harrison couldn’t have been nicer, I’ve been very lucky so far.”
Indeed, if he could go back in time, dad-of-three Jack admits he’d urge his younger self to “go for it” more in life, as he says he often worried too much about things “not working out”.
“I try and urge my kids to not worry about failing, because I worried about that a lot,” he says. “I didn’t take opportunities, in work and with women, because I thought it wouldn’t work out.”
Drinking in the classic, not the beers
Nowadays, Jack is most well-known for his role as Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson in popular BBC series Scot Squad.
But he admits he could never live like his character, as “having a proper job would be too much like hard work” and he’s much more like his character Mr George in ’90s sitcom Mr Don and Mr George.
“He’s just completely out there and a little bit mad,” Jack grins.
For now, as he gears up for the road, the actor has been amusing himself with some light reading – such as In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Russian classic Anna Karenina.
“It’s weird, when you get to my age, you start thinking: ‘I better read all the classics or I’m going to run out of time’.”
But he’s taking care to ensure that he stays around as long as possible, even cutting out drinking for the time being.
“I decided to give up drinking this year to lose some weight, but usually I like nothing more than unwinding with a pint,” he says.
“Every now and again, I think ‘it’s time for my liver to reform’ so I’ll cut out the drink for a year or two. The first week is always a bit weird but after that, it’s great.
“It won’t be forever, though!”
Jack Docherty: David Bowie And Me – Parallel Lives is at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews on April 26 and Perth Theatre on June 14. For tickets, check the Gilded Balloon website.
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