McCoist and MacAulay are gonna party like it's 1998
Scotland's long-awaited return to the World Cup is the perfect excuse for old pals to revive their beloved double act at the Armadillo
By Graeme Macpherson
In any list of iconic Eiffel Tower moments captured on film, the Tartan Army serenading Jimmy Hill as a god surely has to be up there with Roger Moore’s James Bond scrambling up the stairs in A View to a Kill in pursuit of villain May Day who then parachutes to safety.
If anything, inviting Hill, the quintessential English football pundit of Dave Narey “toe-poke” lore, into a studio filled with well-oiled Scots just two days out from the 1998 World Cup opener against Brazil was probably the more dangerous stunt of the two.
Hill’s booking, to appear alongside Scots actors Richard Wilson and Ewan McGregor and TV’s Ulrika Jonsson, however, would prove to be a masterstroke as he took his place on the sofa on the first floor of the tower alongside hosts Ally McCoist and Fred MacAulay for this special edition of their eponymous chat show.
“Before we started filming, the Tartan Army had been singing that old shanty song about Jimmy that was popular at the time,” recalls MacAulay. “But Jimmy was the main man for football on TV at that time and a great guest for us to get. I mentioned that to the audience. And so, when Jimmy came in for his slot, they changed the words to, ‘We love Jimmy Hill, he’s a god, he’s a god’ while bowing down to him. That was brilliant.”
McCoist, not selected for the World Cup squad, was coming towards the end of his playing days and testing the waters of his subsequently fruitful punditry career when he was brought together with comedian MacAulay by BBC producer Esme Frain, who spotted their potential as a presenting double act.
The first series was filmed in diverse locations all around Scotland — Kylie Minogue joined Leslie Grantham and Craig Brown at the Vikingar Centre in Largs, while John Parrot was a guest at Melrose Rugby Club — but filming the World Cup special in Paris took things, literally, to a new level.
“Scotland had qualified for the World Cup and we were sitting in the office when assistant producer John MacLaverty said, ‘Why don’t we take the show to Paris?’” says Frain. “I did a recce and told them that I had found the perfect venue — the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. The technical director’s jaw dropped because they had never cabled anywhere quite as high as that before. And I’m not sure if anyone had ever filmed a TV show there before so it was very much new territory.
“But we filmed it two nights before the opening game and then edited it the next day before broadcasting it the night before the Brazil game. And it got huge viewing figures — a 64% share of the audience.”
McGregor was a huge star at that time off the back of Trainspotting’s runaway success but didn’t take much persuading to get involved. “We got Ewan on the promise of a couple of tickets to the opening game,” adds Frain. “I remember booking Ewan and his family on the Eurostar and they all came over.”
The other guests were just as game. Jonsson batted back MacAulay’s gag that she was an honorary Scot as she could down a pint in 15 seconds — “12” she corrected — while One Foot in the Grave’s Wilson dubbed the hosts’ acting in a series of pre-recorded sketches around Paris “A load of shite.” McCoist, his hair bleached peroxide blonde, and MacAulay looked the part in matching Scotland home tops and kilts.
Once filming was finished, the Parisian after-party, unsurprisingly, was a raucous and drawn-out affair. “The ball got burst, as they say,” adds MacAulay. “It went on late into the night on the Monday and then Ally and I sat down with a couple of pals for a glass of lunch the next day. Richard Wilson said he would come and join us for one. He was still there at about half past four in the morning.
“Then there was the big party at the Buddha Bar. Rory Bremner was there, Alistair McGowan and a few others. At one point Ally, me and the three McGregors — Ewan, his brother and his dad — were all up on stage singing Flower of Scotland. I think Ewan’s been sober pretty much from around that time although the same can’t be said for Ally or me.”
The dynamic duo will be reunited this Friday, not in Boston ahead of Scotland’s long-awaited World Cup return, but closer to home in Glasgow for McCoist and MacAulay Live, the first time they’ll have been on stage together for 27 years.
The two-and-a-half-hour show won’t be broadcast on television so only those at the Armadillo will see the pair interviewing Gregory’s Girl icons John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan, former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan, current rugby head coach Gregor Townsend, actor Dougray Scott and Still Game’s Greg Hemphill, while musical entertainment comes from Nathan Evans.
“Friday is the launch of the World Cup as far as we’re concerned,” confirms MacAulay. “A few folk like Ewan McGregor and Chris Hoy genuinely couldn’t make it due to other commitments but everyone else we asked was immediately up for it. So, we’re dead chuffed about that.
“We’ve been reminding people that it’s not going to be on TV, it’s not getting recorded, so you’ve got to be there in the flesh if you want to see it. And I reckon it’s going to be brilliant. It’s a real mixture of guests but all of them will be up for a laugh and that’s the main thing.”
Tickets are available HERE for McCoist and MacAulay Live — World Cup Special, SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, this Friday from 6.30pm.
For the highest quality of Scottish football writing, order the latest Nutmeg Magazine — our World Cup edition — by clicking on the cover below.
