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Scots urged to keep 'taps on' this summer as Tennent's team up with comedy legends

Scots urged to keep 'taps on' this summer as Tennent's team up with comedy legends

Daily Record02-05-2025

Still Game legend Sanjeev Kohli is part of a group of top Scots comedians encouraging Scots to keep their Taps On this summer as part of Tennent's Lager's new campaign.
Scots have been urged to keep their 'taps on' this summer in a new skin cancer campaign from a host of Scots comedians and Tennent's lager.
The push by the Scots beer giants comes amid rising skin cancer rates and is encouraging Scots not to take their Taps Aff through a new collection of special t-shirts where all profits go to Melanoma UK, a charity working to combat skin cancer.

Comedy legends including Still Game's Sanjeev Kohli, Ashley Storrie, Larry Dean, Bash the Entertainer and more are lending support to the limited-edition collection.

Sanjeev Kohli, best known as Craiglang shopkeeper Naveed, said: 'We're all guilty of getting a bit overexcited the minute the sun shows up - I've seen folk sunbathing on traffic islands.
"When it appears, we fight that urge to race to the nearest patch of sand to feel the sweet warmth on our bare skin. But while we're busy basking in its glow, we often forget that it's still pelting us with UV rays.
"I wanted my t-shirt design to be a cheeky nod to those fleeting moments of sunshine as we race to make the most of it and a reminder that if the sun is melting your ice-cream… think what it can do to your skin!'
The Tennent's Taps On campaign is designed to encourage people not to ignore the sun's dangers, and to embrace the brighter side of the season without being daft about their own health. The items are designed to sum-up Scots unique relationship with the sun.
The collection includes:

Larry Dean: We've Got Your Back - A Scottish seagull swoops in to leave a deposit on a sunseeker's back…a big dollop of suncream.
Susie McCabe: Summer Survival Kit - We find a way to celebrate summer and get good use of our BBQ, even in the rain.
Sanjeev Kohli: MelTer - Demonstrating the daily challenge of trying to finish an ice lolly before it's melted.
Ray Bradshaw: Think like a Ginger - Any sensible pale-skinned person knows being under the sunbathing towel is preferable to sunburn.
Diona Doherty: SPF is Sexy - Nothing says 'hot' like staying sun safe this summer.
Kim Blythe: Suntrapped - Showcasing the joy of chasing the shy summer sunshine in a beer garden.
Ashley Storrie: The Battle: You're Either Oot Or You're In - Demonstrating the frustrating unpredictability of our sun.
Bash The Creator: Four seasons in one day. Or less - No problem, we'll still be out enjoying the summer come rain or shine (or wind and hail)
Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK with around 17,500 new cases every year and it's on the rise with incidence rates increasing by almost a third (31 percent) over the past decade.
Detection rates in Scotland are lagging behind those in England, and Tennent's are encouraging people to remember that the sun can still cause damage, even if it's behind clouds. With almost nine in ten cases in the UK being caused by exposure to too much ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.

Joanne Motion, Senior Brand Manager for Tennent's said: 'Braving a Scottish summer is practically a national sport, and no one does it better than us.
"But while we're all for making the most of every rare bit of sunshine, we're also keen to make sure folk are doing it safely.
"That's what Taps On is all about - having a laugh, raising some money for a brilliant cause, and keeping your burn-prone bits covered while you're at it. It's sun-smart without being sun-boring.'

Colin Glover from Melanoma UK added: ' Skin cancer doesn't care if it's 15 degrees or 25 degrees, UV rays can still do a lot of damage.
"We know how much people love the sunshine, but we want to encourage people to enjoy it safely by avoiding sunburn, keep a 'tap on' to help protect backs and shoulders from sun damage and ensuring you're wearing SPF.'
The Taps On t-shirt range goes on sale Friday, May 2 at 10am via the Tennent's website.
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Still Game star first made people laugh with his impersonations at school in Lanarkshire
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  • Daily Record

Still Game star first made people laugh with his impersonations at school in Lanarkshire

Gavin Mitchell is best known for his role as Boabby the Barman. Still Game star Gavin Mitchell has revealed how being plunked in front of the telly as a child helped plant a seed for his acting career . Originally from the 'lovely fishing village of Springburn' in the north of Glasgow, the 60-year-old is best known for his role as the acerbic Boabby the Barman in the sitcom's fictional Craiglang. His family moved around a lot when he was growing up and he spent a large part of his childhood in North Lanarkshire. ‌ Gavin's dad was a film projectionist in Coatbridge and the family had a spell living there as well as stints in Airdrie and Glenboig. He attended St Barbara's Primary, and Our Lady and St Joseph's Primary in Glenboig, before moving up to St Patrick's High in Coatbridge. ‌ 'I was all over the place,' he admits. I didn't really have a lot of pals and was sort of plunked in front of the telly. 'I'm not formally trained [in acting] but I think partly through the moving about, it became a defence mechanism - I used to make people laugh a lot at school by doing impersonations.' Gavin's first love was art and it was while working casual at a famous Glasgow theatre that the opportunity arose to take to the stage for the first time. He said: 'It ended up it was a dare, a good mate of mine Iain Muir and I didn't know what we were going to do in life. He was a joiner but didn't finish his apprenticeship. I was doing casual theme painting at the Citizens Theatre and he was doing casual joinery work. ‌ "We had the skinny, peely-wally look, with black hair, and he was asked to be an extra in the next show. He told me he didn't want to do it. I said, 'What? I'd love to do that'. "So, he said if you do it, I'll do it and we shook hands on it. That's how it started and from there on in I learned on the job, I was at the Citizens for four or five years, working with Glenda Jackson and Rupert Everett and people like that.' ‌ Look Who It Isnae – An Audience with Gavin Mitchell, is about to head to a number of theatres around Scotland this month. It will see the 60-year-old actor offer up behind-the-scenes stories and insight from his years of working in theatre, film, TV and radio. Top of the list will be his time as Boabby the Barman in Still Game, having first worked with the cast members in the mid-90s. 'I worked with Ford [Kiernan] and Greg [Hemphill} on a sketch show in 1996 called Pulp Video and that's sort of where the Still Game characters first started,' Gavin revealed. 'Greg and I played old men in a couple of the sketches, then out of boredom while we were waiting about we just started talking like two old men and making each other laugh, Ford thought there was something in it and wrote a couple of sketches. ‌ "Jane McCarry [Isa] was in Pulp Video as well and Sanjeev [Kohli - who played Navid] worked on it as a writer. I was Winston originally. We all kind of met then, almost 30 years ago.' Although the last Still Game television show was recorded around seven years ago Gavin admits he is still often called a p***k by passers-by, a term often-used by Jack and Victor when greeting Boabby in The Clansman. ‌ 'It's always done with a fondness,' he said. 'It's kind of weird as Still Game only took about two weeks out of my year. Despite the fact I'd been acting for about 15 years before that and all the work I've done since, I've done all sorts, but I'll always be known for Boabby.' Gavin has taken on a variety of roles over the years, from film, telly and radio, right through to opera. He's been playing Humphrey Bogart's role in Cassablanca on and off for 15 years, a role he'll revive at this year's Edinburgh Festival and at Oran Mor in Glasgow. ‌ He has no regrets over the roles he's taken on over the years, in fact it's the opposite. 'That road leads to madness," said Gavin. "It's more about the things you didn't do that you think, 'I wish I'd taken that, I shouldn't have bottled that'. Sometimes it's just down to nerves and confidence. 'It's all about confidence and actors take a lot of rejection, there's lots of things can affect you that people forget. We live in a society now that's so based on fame, success and celebrity that people think everyone just waltzes about going 'Hey!'. ‌ Despite his own success Gavin says he would advise anyone thinking of taking up acting as a career to think carefully. He continued: 'It used to be around 80 per cent unemployment in acting, it's now something like 98 per cent. There's only around two per cent working at any time, and there's more and more actors. 'You don't need to have a union card anymore, so anyone can act, but a lot of younger actors are undercutting each other - they're doing it for less money and worse conditions.' *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.

The warehouse powering Edinburgh's new era of screen success
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Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart's highly-anticipated new novel announced
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