HAMISH'S HIGHLAND FLING WITH A TOPLESS STREAKER
THE SUN (SCOTLAND)
26 OCTOBER 2001

(But it’s only his sexy MGB, girls)

Hopeless romantic Hamish Clark has finally found true love -with a racy 23-year-old topless model called Bex.

The pint-sized star plays loser in love Duncan in the hit BBC series Monarch Of The Glen.

But now Hamish -who also fronts the multi-million pound Vodafone TV adverts - has revealed he has been enjoying a wild Highland fling.

The 35-year-old curly-haired actor said: “I’m in love with a 1978 classic MGB sports car -I simply adore her. She’s a soft top with a cherry red roof and cream body.

“I’ve spent a lot of time and money doing her up, fitting wire wheels, the lot and she looks great  Part of the registration number is BEX, so everyone on the Monarch set just calls her Little Bex. But she really is a wee cracker and we’ve spent all my spare time off touring the Highlands."

“It’s been great fun, because I just travel around with a tent and pitch it wherever takes my fancy.”

Broughty Ferry-born Hamish insists he is content with the sporty little number after failing to find Mrs Right, just like his kilt-wearing TV character Duncan.

ABUSES

The third series, which starts on Sunday, finds poor Duncan unlucky in love once more when he falls for sexy new girl Stella -played by English actress Alexandra Gilbreath -who uses and abuses his kind nature.

Hamish said: “Duncan seems to be loved by everyone from grannies to schoolgirls.

“People come up to me all the time and speak to me.

“Even when I’m down in London folk say ‘hello’ and recently I ended up in Applecross in Wester Ross at a tiny inn and when I walked inside everyone shouted ‘hello Duncan’. It was great.

“I reckon they like him so much because he’s not a bighead or full of himself.

He’s vulnerable, open, honest and wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s Just William in a kilt.

“He’s seems to be a competent fellow until he meets the opposite sex. Then he just falls apart and ends up like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

“As for myself, well I’m still single too -but right now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve been on Monarch for three years now and this is just the way I like things at the moment. I start work at 6am and when I have some time off and it’s sunny it’s time for Little Bex to get her top off and we go touring.

“In the winter I go back to London where I catch up on real life and get back in shape by working out at the gym, or going off to do another Vodafone advert.

“So really I don’t have too much time. Sure I have lots of friends and lots of friends who happen to be girls. I also go out on dates, although I don’t like the word date, because it sounds so old-fashioned -but of course I’ll go for a meal with a girl.

“The thing is if you’re going to have a relationship you need to get to know someone, and that means being able to spend more than three weeks in their company before shooting off somewhere else.

“I haven’t been in that position for the last six years.

“However, if it happens it’ll happen by its own accord. The truth is I’ve no real thought about it at the moment. I’m only 35 and love what I’m doing.”

Former Edinburgh lollipop man Hamish burst on to our screens in 1997 in the ITV series My Wonderful Life as dishy doc Roger Graham, before landing the prime-time role in Monarch Of The Glen -although at 5ft 6in he admits he was never going to be cast as leading man.

Hamish laughed: “I don’t really come across as a titch on the telly. I think that’s because in the Vodafone ads I’m by myself and in Monarch I’m alongside girls like Emma Wray and Dawn Steele who are quite short. So I get away with it.”

Away from Monarch Of The Glen, Hamish remains the face of the high-profile Vodafone TV commercials.

He said: “I love those ads and have been to Spain and Africa to make them.

“For the one where I’m running over sand dunes, I slept in the Kalahari desert for three nights under the stars.

“It was brilliant, I spent all day running up and down sand dunes, doing somersaults the whole bit -then I spent the nights trying to wash the sand out my outfit for the next day’s shoot.

“But it was worth it as it allowed me to restore Little Bex to her former beauty.”

Hamish added: “Life at the moment is just me and Little Bex -and hopefully we’ll be back next year for another Highland fling, too.”

The new series of Monarch Of The Glen starts Sunday on BBC1 at 8pm.

A FINAL OUTING FOR HIT SHOW?

The end could be nigh for the Highland drama -despite soaring ratings.

Leading Scots star Alastair Mackenzie, who plays Glen Bogle Laird Archie MacDonald, is keen to pursue other acting parts away from show which regularly attracts eight million viewers.

And his screen dad Hector -played by Richard Briers -has confirmed he won’t be returning for a fourth series.

However, Hamish would jump at the chance to return to the film set in Laggan, Perthshire -a place he now calls home.

He said: “I’ve been here so long now I’ve gone native. Most weekends I have been asked to do stuff like opening Highland Games. I also work with the local school and the drama groups.

“It takes me away from the make-believe world of TV and I have some great friends in the villages. So I hope it’s not the end.” But I take every day as it comes with acting. I’m always looking for the next right thing, but for me this is the right thing, leaping about the Highlands in my kilt. I don’t know if we’ll be returning next year, but I hope so.”

And Hamish has been taking advice from pal Angus MacFadyen, who shot to fame as Robert the Bruce in Braveheart.

He said: “Gus moved to Hollywood after Braveheart. That was a huge movie, but he always told me you can’t let the good times go to your head.

“I would love to do movies after having a tiny taste of it in Bring Me The Head of Mavis Davis and Martha Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence.

“The thing is I will never forget that six years ago I was working in a wine shop. I may drive a flash car now, but I remember when I could hardly afford the rent.”