Lost video clip shows Scots star Kevin McKidd as ghost guide Premium Article !
Published Date: 16 March 2010 By VICTORIA RAIMES

EVEN Hollywood stars have to start somewhere.

Newly-uncovered footage shows Scottish star Kevin McKidd treading the streets of the Capital as a ghost tour guide.

The celebrity, who shot to fame in Trainspotting before going on to star in TV shows such as Rome, Kingdom of Heaven and Grey's Anatomy, was working for Edinburgh's Witchery Tours as a student in 1994.

In the three-minute clip, he can be seen giving an animated performance to a small crowd.

The footage was unearthed by owner Robin Mitchell, who hired Kevin for a year while he studied at Queen Margaret University.

Mr Mitchell, from Gorebridge, said: "I always knew we had the footage, but until last week we had no way of transferring it from the old camera tapes on to a digital platform. As soon as I found out we could do it I edited down to the best bits.

"It's clear that he was always talented and he was one of my favourite guides, but we had no idea he would do so well. We saw him at the Edinburgh Film Festival a couple of years ago and we had a good old blether. He said the five or six nights every week that he spent as a guide helped him build the stamina he needed for performing."

After six months working shifts at Witchery Tours, Kevin made his debut performance at the King's Theatre, as the lead role in popular play Silver Darlings, which toured Scotland. Mr Mitchell and other colleagues were invited to watch the show. Two years later he played Tommy in Trainspotting.
Hollywood star Kevin McKidd
Since establishing a successful acting career, the 36-year-old has also starred in Father Ted and The Acid House. He currently plays Owen Hunt in the US drama Grey's Anatomy.

Cameron Pirie, who worked as a guide alongside Kevin, said the actor was great fun.

He said: "He's done really well and I think he's gone about it the right way too. Kevin has gradually built himself up, and he has established himself as a solid name. He has tread carefully and created a strong profile. He might not be quite as big as Ewan McGregor yet, but he's getting there."

Mr Mitchell, who opened the tour business in 1984, also joked that he was hopeful Kevin would return to perform one last time as the character he played, Adam Lyal, prepared to celebrate his 200th anniversary. He said: "Adam was a highwayman that stole his way around Edinburgh and was hanged in 1811. He's still thought to haunt the Grassmarket. As his 200th death-day is coming up it would be great if he'd step back into character one more time. You never know."

See the spooky video here at www.youtube.com/watch?v>kBVvUudB6TM
(posted previously here on this blog)

THEY ALL HAD TO START SOMEWHERE
Singer Shirley Manson worked at the Post House Hotel in Corstorphine, as a sales assistant at Miss Selfridge and slogged away with indie band Goodbye Mr MacKenzie before making it big with Garbage.

Singer-songwriter KT Tunstall spent her 20s on the dole, busking on Princes Street. She played for tiny crowds at Bannermans on the Cowgate before her debut album Eye to the Telescope was released.

One of Bathgate-born Doctor Who star David Tennant's earliest television roles was as a transsexual barmaid on sitcom Rab C Nesbitt. He also unsuccessfully auditioned for a part on detective drama Taggart 16 times.

Before Sean Connery got his licence to kill as James Bond, he famously worked as a milkman in Fountainbridge. He is also reported to have worked as a lorry driver, an art college life model and a coffin polisher.

Many thanks to Victoria Rimes and Robin Michell
source

Scottish actor Kevin McKidd many moons ago worked with Edinburgh's Witchery Tours. This is unique footage of Kevin playing the part of ghostly tour guide Adam Lyal (deceased) on a wet winter's night in 1994. It was shot on a steam-powered video camera by film enthusiast Derek Stores. The 'jumper-ooter' that evening was the legendary Witchery Tours stalwart Brian Mitchell.


Once again many thanks to Robin Michell of Witchery Tours
(video is the property of Robin Mitchell who has given us his permission to use this video to our website ~ thank you Robin for organizing this clip for KMKonline )

Full size images (5) up on our forum
once again thanks to Robin Michell of http://www.witcherytours.com/
All photos are the property of Robin Michell

You heard Kevin talk about being a "Jumpin ooter" on the Bonnie Hunt Show well here are a few pictures from when Kevin worked for the "Witchery Tours in Edinburgh". 

Way back in 1983/4 Kevin McKidd joined a company called Cadies and Witchery tour based In Edinburgh, which currently runs an evening ghostly walking tour of Edinburgh's streets.  His first role was as one of the Jumpin ooter's (which is a costumed character that pops up on the tour) but quickly got promoted to leading the tours in the role of Adam Lyle (Deceased). 

Adam Lyle was a highwayman who stole GBP126 from a merchant on the road to Striling.  He was soon caught, and hung on the 27th March 1811 in the Grassmarket Edinburgh. Of course since his untimely demise Adam Lyle has walked the streets of Edinburg hosting the Murder and Mystery tour for the Cadies and Witchery tour company.

Kevin proclaimed that his regular nightly tours had prepard him well for a long stage run...(quoted while acting in The Silver Darlings)
thanks to Robin Mitchell for the information and allowing us to use his photos (Cadies and Witchery Tours) (All photos belong to Robin Mitchell)

Perhaps we will have another Horror to add to Kevin's Filmograph keeping in with the halloween theme here is the information for : Catwalk

Kevin is set to play the part of the detective in this movie which is currently in pre production .... however Kevin informs us that it might not happen due to scheduling issues now that he has joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy.

In The Cut-Throat World Of Fashion, Beauty Is The Beast …

Someone is killing the beautiful people.
Four supermodels have been slaughtered and mutilated in the last few weeks.
Meanwhile, in the wild world of Manhattan’s fashion jungle, a new face is getting everyone’s attention...
BASIA, a young beauty with a mysterious past, has caught the eye of both the establishment and the underground. JAKE, a hip young mix-DJ whose star is on the rise, is falling in love with her. DANNY, the hottest fashion photographer in New York, wants her too – for complicated reasons. DESIREE, boho-punk documentarian, feels Basia is a vital element of her new verite movie. And HAMISH, an all-but-burnt-out homicide Cop, has some questions for her...
While the killings continue, while the city lives in fear, Basia is drawn into the whirlwind of neo-stardom and begins to lose sight of who she really is.
All along, in teasing, taunting flashes, Basia’s repressed memories have been surfacing – tortured, confused memories of orphanhood and abuse.. A pattern of abuse that has both buried her memories and awoken an ancient genetic pattern, dormant for generations. Basia’s bloodline is very old...
Now, trapped in his apartment studio, Basia discovers to her horror that Danny is the serial killer. And she is to be his next victim...
Yet, when Desiree breaks into the studio moments later, it is Danny who is dead. Ripped to pieces as if by some rampaging beast. And Basia is nowhere to be seen...
And finally the secret self within Basia is free – a human/animal hybrid of feline grace, awesome power, terrifying beauty, and a primal urge to kill. Rampaging through New York, killing innocents and evading the police, she ends up in the sewers, surrounded and protected by the giant cats that have escaped the circus to join their new Empress.

Somewhere within the Beast, Beauty is screaming...
Only Jake can help her now. Only love can pull the trigger...

source  IMDB

take care Leanne

Comment or discuss on our forum

Robin Mitchell who runs the ghostly walking tour company "The Cadie & Wichery Tours" in Edinburgh  provided us with information on his planned "One and Other" project. So what does this have to do with Kevin, well....

Back in 1993/94 Kevin McKidd, while at Queen Margaret Drama College in Edinburgh, worked for Edinburgh's infamous Witchery Walking Tours. He started as a 'jumpin ooter' (costumed characters that appear on the tours) but was quickly promoted to leading the trips as Adam Lyal (deceased).

Who exactly is Adam Lyal ...(snip from www.witcherytours.com)
Adam Lyal (1785 - 1811)
A highwayman, Adam Lyal reached the peak of his career by stealing over £126 from a merchant on the road to Stirling. Unfortunately for him he was soon caught, after buying an extremely expensive pair of shoes. He was hanged on the 27th of March 1811AD, in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh.

On Friday 21st August, between 9am & 10am, Kevin's name will be announced from the top of the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, along with the 42 others who have played the part of Adam Lyal (deceased) over the years.


More details at:
http://www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/RobinMitchell

Watch live at:
http://www.oneandother.co.uk

Thanks Robin for the information ~  Leanne
(photo courtesy of Robin Mitchell ~ Kevin in training for the witchery tours (below) more photos up on the forum)