Glenuig

Donald Cameron and Matthew McVarish

What a fantastic few days I've had. I tell you, if you fancy having a laugh on holiday, I recommend you take one of the country's top comedy writers with you. I'm still sore with laughing.

So my best mate Matt and I took our collective best mate Donny camping (this "best mate" stuff gets complicated, doesn't it? There are all sorts of categories - oldest mate, best girl mate, best school mate etc)

So we set off in my Jurassic Park jeep up to the darkest highlands - well, Glenuig, near Mallaig. It is TOTAL Harry Potter country - the films are all shot around there, and we had the soundtrack with us.

We also had The Wicker Man soundtrack with us which is creepy as fuck. Especially when you're in a tent on your own (my snoring disqualifies me from sleeping in the caravan, which doesn't bother me, as I've always loved camping.) The countryside around here is breathtaking. The camp site is only about 11 miles away form the Glenfinnan Viaduct, famous for carrying the Hogwarts Express to its fictional destination.

The first day was spent on Ben Nevis - we decided to take a chairlift to the top - none of this hill climbing shite. It was a smashing laugh, especially as Matt's vertigo kicked in. Luckily, we had Donny to entertain us, as you can see in the above video!

When we got to the caravan, we had a disastrous attempt at a barbecue - disastrous, mainly because of a hidden menace we had forgotten about - the midge. Millions of the wee bastards. And no amount of Avon Skin So Soft would deter them, no, these were piranha midges. We ended up not being able to spend any time outside.

Friday was spent at Mallaig - and what a weird place. We tried three restaurants, having bad experiences in every one of them. One of them did that hideously Scottish thing of "only serving food between 11 and 11.30 and even then it was just a toastie." The other place we tried wanted 8.95 for a baked potato, so we eventually plumped for what was described as "fresh Mallaig haddock, freshly caught this morning." I've had better from the Blue Lagoon, and I didn't pay a tenner for the privilege.

I adore Scotland, but we're shite at service. It seems the farther north you go, the more difficult it is to get a toastie without spending 24.80 or marrying the landlord's daughter.

So, back home now - and onto the next big thing. Rehearsals start soon for Sweet Home Balmaha, our baby we've been working on for the past year. We're pretty confident about it - we've tried to write it like an American sitcom, with a high laugh-per-minute quotient. I think that's been the benefit of three of us writing it together.

And as it's our own show, as opposed to just being the cast, we've got a power of work to be getting on with - songs need finished, scripts need tidied up, we've got meetings with designers etc...totally exciting. And it's also amazing to be working with Maggie Kinloch, who's directing. Maggie gave me my first professional job as an actor in 1993 in St Andrews, when she cast me as Baloo in The Jungle Book. Fifteen years later, we're working together again, and I can't wait - she's a genius, and a possible calming influence on us.