Brian Cox is sitting before me in the upstairs cafe at Dundee Rep Theatre, waving an apologetic hand after raising his voice a little too passionately.
He’s just emerged from rehearsals for Make It Happen, the highly anticipated new play by acclaimed writer James Graham, in which he stars as the spectral spirit of Adam Smith, the influential 18th-century Scottish economist.
But it’s not the rehearsal heat that has him flushed, nor even the unusually warm weather.
It’s talking about Dundee. His home city. His people. And a place where he feels the “city fathers” could do so much more to revive the city centre and re-invigorate community.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t expect to get so heated,” he says, visibly calming himself. “But it’s this city. I care about it so much.
“All the good things I’ve learned, I’ve learned from the people of Dundee – the kindness, the understanding and the great humour.
“I just wish the city fathers would acknowledge a wee bit about what community is – get people back living in the city centre and get that f***ing High Street sorted out!”
Dundee Rep was ‘salvation’ for Brian Cox
At 79, Brian Cox remains one of Scotland’s most respected actors. He’s won two Olivier Awards, an Emmy, and a Golden Globe, with a career stretching from Braveheart and Nuremberg to global recognition as Logan Roy in HBO’s Succession.
Yet here, in this quiet corner of Dundee Rep, where he was recently appointed patron, Hollywood feels a world away.
Brian first stepped into the original Dundee Rep at 15, when it was based in Forester’s Hall on Nicoll Street. He was looking for a job. What he found was his calling.
“The Rep was my salvation,” he recalls of his time there from 1961 to 1963.
“I’d been at St Michael’s Junior Secondary School. It was a school that was designed for me to become a brickie. But that was not my route. I wanted to be in the theatre.”
His first role was playing a waiter in A.A. Milne’s The Dover Road, and he was instantly hooked.
His emotional ties to the Rep run deep. On June 1 1963 – his 17th birthday – the old theatre burned down.
“I was heartbroken,” he says. “It was my home. I used to sleep under the stage because I didn’t want to go back to my own house. When it burned down, I couldn’t believe it.”
Brian soon left for drama school in London, and the rest is history. But the pull of the Rep never left. He returned in 1994 to perform The Master Builder and has hosted audience events since. He’ll be back again at the Caird Hall this October.
What’s it like being back at Dundee Rep?
This summer marks his most significant homecoming yet – returning to the Rep stage in a major new co-production by Dundee Rep, the National Theatre of Scotland, and the Edinburgh International Festival. He admits it’s quite “nerve-wracking.”
Make It Happen is a satirical look at the 2008 financial crash, with Brian playing Adam Smith as a ghostly conscience observing the greed that led to the Royal Bank of Scotland going to the brink under Fred “The Shred” Goodwin.
Written by Dear England and Sherwood creator James Graham and directed by Fife-raised Dundee Rep artistic director Andrew Panton, the play is sharp, funny and deeply resonant.
For Brian, the themes of runaway capitalism and moral failure hit home. He believes Smith was misrepresented by former PM Margaret Thatcher, and ultimately Goodwin.
“Smith believed in moral philosophy,” he says. “He didn’t think markets should operate without conscience. But that bit got forgotten.
“He’s become a kind of symbol for a system he wouldn’t recognise today.”
Themes speak to Brian’s Dundee roots
Brian grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family in Dundee, the youngest of five children. His ancestors migrated to Scotland during the Irish Potato Famine – or “genocide” as he prefers to call it.
His father died of cancer when he was eight; his mother suffered several breakdowns.
Raised largely by his sisters, those early experiences forged his resilience – and politics.
“It’s a terrible thing to say, but I was liberated by those events,” he reflects.
They shaped his worldview and explain why he is “still a socialist.”
But Brian says he “fell out” with the Labour Party over the 2003 Iraq war and Tony Blair’s “hubris.” He still supports Scottish independence – though he now views a “federal” model as more viable.
Though he splits his time between New York and London, he speaks with raw honesty when the topic turns to politics, class, and poverty.
When he observes ongoing events in Gaza, he wholeheartedly condemns the October 7 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. Israeli leaders have vehemently rejected accusations of genocide in response. But Brian gets angry that humans “never f***ing learn”.
“The idea that people have said this is not a genocide – of course it’s a f***ing genocide!” he says. “They are slaughtering people wholeheartedly instead of trying to include them. They are excluding them.”
Concerns Dundee housing schemes have become ‘nests for banditry’
Closer to home, the Bob Servant star laments Dundee’s social erosion. “When they moved people out of the city centre into the housing schemes in the ’50s, they removed the soul of the community,” he says.
“The provost said to me the other day, ‘We’re trying to get people back into the town.’
“Well, you shouldn’t have f***ing put them out of the town in the first place into those f***ing housing schemes. They’ve just become nests for banditry.
“I’m at an age now when I look at my city, and the city I loved is not that city anymore.
“There used to be a real care for community – not this smart-a**ed splitting it up.
“But it wasn’t just Dundee. Glasgow did the same. Social engineering. We’ve now got fifth-generation heroin addicts.”
What does former rector think of Dundee University financial crisis?
Brian says Dundee’s socio-economic issues really started to “hit home” when he was Dundee University rector from 2010 – 2016.
But he’s equally blunt about the university’s financial crisis. “Don’t even get me started on the university – that’s another f***ing story!” he adds.
“I knew how that was going. I could tell. Anybody who comes in there with vain gloriousness – they’re f***ing on a hiding to nothing.”
Yet, for all his fire and frustration, there’s also hope. Brian recognises Dundee has changed for the better in many ways – though don’t mention the new office building in front of V&A Dundee!
He warns against complacency: “You need community, and a place where that community can go. We can’t lose that. But you also need a pathway for people.”
The Dundee Partnership told The Courier its partners remain committed to improving quality of life through long-term efforts tackling poverty, advancing city centre regeneration, and making steady progress on key social and economic priorities.
What’s next for Brian Cox?
Other projects await, and he’ll soon return to New York. But for now, his focus is Make It Happen, which moves from Dundee to Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre as part of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival.
He suddenly laughs, remembering a line from Scottish comedy legend Stanley Baxter: “‘It’s an awfy big job.’”
As our conversation winds down, Brian apologies again for “getting so heated”.
There’s a moment of sad reflection when he mentions that his sister, who lived in the city, died two years ago. Her passing means he has less reason to visit.
But while he’s here, it’s the people, the humour, and the familiarity that remind him why he’s proud to be Dundonian – even if he “mourns” his loss of anonymity when he walks the streets.
“I usually wear my hat,” he laughs. “The other day I didn’t, walked through town thinking, ‘Great, no one’s recognised me.’ Then I hear, ‘Hey Brehn!’ (in broad Dundonian). I turn round and there’s this old couple: ‘Welcome back!’”
He smiles. “It’s lovely. But that’s my generation now. You just think – ah, f**k me…”
Make It Happen runs at Dundee Rep from July 18 – 26 and at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, from July 30 – August 9.
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